While I won’t say that I have particularly relished being confined to our home for weeks during the COVID-19 pandemic, it has meant that I have been finally forced to look at all the unfinished jobs around the house and have actually got round to finishing some of them. Years ago, when I worked for … Continue reading The corridor of time
Life ambles along in our little corner of rural France, and although I don't usually pay much attention to what is happening in the outside world I had been aware of the outbreak of a new virus, Coronavirus COVID-19, in Wuhan and heard accounts of more reported cases in Europe. But I don't think anyone … Continue reading The new normal
When we moved over to France we registered as freelance 'micro-entrepreneurs' (self-employed). We both work from home, at the mill, working for clients via the internet. The daily commute consists of falling out of bed and, after a leisurely breakfast, looking out over the river, either from the kitchen (in inclement weather) or (more often) … Continue reading Makeover of bedroom #3
It's a dull December Saturday afternoon and I'm sitting in the kitchen with my sewing machine in front of me. Yards of pale blue Toile de Jouy fabric lie in folds around me and the log burner is crackling away merrily. I haven't had the time or the inclination to sit down with my sewing … Continue reading Just a Saturday afternoon spent sewing
Get involved. Meet people. Find some hobbies and interests. If you move to a new area, wherever that may be, in whatever country, the advice is always the same. If you want to feel at home you have to put some effort into 'doing stuff' and meeting new people. That's how you make friends. Ever … Continue reading Lending a hand
It was only last Tuesday evening. But life has changed dramatically round here since then. Our grandson was spending a week with us over the summer holidays, and according to the unwritten summer holiday rules (for things that HAVE TO BE DONE on holiday), we were playing Uno on the terrace late into the evening … Continue reading Minuit
It's a dull, drizzly-drazzly October Sunday and for once Colin and I (both suffering from heavy colds) have decided to award ourselves a day of rest. So I spent a quiet morning collecting and chopping the last of our tomatoes to make chutney and while I mused about how lovely it was to have a … Continue reading New kitchen – et voilà!
Getting our vehicles re-registered in France had been a bit like wading through mud. First we needed to get the requisite documentation, then the tax clearance and now we were at the stage of actually submitting our application to import and re-register. All of this is quite time-constrained but the deadlines take no account of … Continue reading Making our cars legal in France – Getting ANTSy
I've been getting better recently at coping with the French bureaucratic system. I no longer sit seething (well not as often anyway) at the fact that everything has to be photocopied, printed out, saved in paper folders - even when the process is all done online. I'm getting used to the fact that so many … Continue reading Making our cars legal in France – the Quitus Fiscale
During all the to-ing and fro-ing we have done between England and France over the years that we have had a home here, all I have had to think about is having European insurance and breakdown cover, using the sticky beam-benders on our headlights (to avoid dazzling approaching drivers after dark) and carrying the requisite … Continue reading Making our English cars legal in France
