An insider’s guide to life in France

Welcome to La Lune – French for the moon. Why La Lune? This is the name of the area that surrounds our 18th-century farmhouse in southwest France, where we have lived since 1997. The name almost certainly has nothing to do with the moon, but it’s intriguing nonetheless.

I’m a British writer and journalist. I post about la vie française a couple of times a week.  This includes episodes from our French life, tips about French manners and customs and details of things going on in our area. I try to tell it as it is and not to romanticise life in France. 

To see my full profile, please click here. 

The French have an expression, ‘Dans la Lune’, which means to be in a dream or have one’s head in the clouds. This is a pretty accurate description of our life here sometimes. However, after so many years, je ne regrette rien, even if some aspects of French life are still unfathomable.

For the latest posts, please keep scrolling down this page or select a subject you’re interested in from the categories list in the right hand sidebar. I love hearing about others’ experiences of France so do leave a comment underneath a post if you feel moved to do so. I always reply.

If you want to find out more about my work as a writer please click here or follow the link in Blogroll in the sidebar – Vanessa’s writing.  

Bonne continuation!  

 

L’Abbaye de Beaulieu – A Hidden Gem

Abbaye de Beaulieu - Main Buildings

Today, our walking group chose a route that took in the Abbaye de Beaulieu, a magnificent Cistercian abbey that sits in splendid isolation alongside the River Seye. We walked along paths in woods carpeted with snowdrops behind the abbey and negotiated slippery wooden and stone footbridges over the rushing brook.

Burning Desires: Enleveurs de Feu in France

The old year didn’t end terribly well for me since I managed to burn three fingers of my right hand while removing a metal oven tray from a very hot oven, using a holed and damp oven glove. I couldn’t drop it on the floor in front of our guests who were awaiting their New Year’s Eve dinner. So I continued to lift it and it hurt – a lot.

Of Knights, Damsels and Dragons

The Dragon's Den?

I’ve always been rather fond of myths and legends. Nowadays, I try to justify this penchant by seeking their historical origins. But I still enjoy a good story. Imagine my satisfaction when I discovered that we have one of our very own associated with this corner of southwest France.

Friday the Thirteenth – Lucky or Unlucky for the French?

Traditional lucky talisman - PhotoXpress

You have no doubt noticed that today is Friday 13^th, a day when we Brits are especially careful not to walk under a ladder or tempt providence in other ways. To us, it definitely brings bad luck. But what do the French think about it?

Let’s Stub it Out!

The offending items

Time for a little rant, I think: the first of 2012. Those of you who follow my blog will know that I have a bee in my bonnet about some people’s inability to dispose of their refuse correctly. My indignation was roused yet again this week by a piece on the TF1 news. Do you know how many tonnes of cigarette stubs are collected on the streets of Paris every year?

Meilleurs Voeux Before the World Ends

Bugarach - the place to be on 21st December 2012 (Photo Commune de Bugarach)

When I wrote my post about 10 things to do in 2012 I somehow forgot to mention that the world is scheduled to end this year – on 21^st December to be precise. According to proponents of this theory, the ancient Mayans predicted it all: their 23,000-year cyclical calendar ends abruptly on that date. I suppose this solves the problem of what to buy people for Christmas.

Monthly Météo: 2011 Weather Roundup for SW France

Beech bush refusing to drop its leaves in the mild weather

First of all Bonne Année, Happy New Year, to all my readers. Apparently, 2011 was the year with the warmest average temperature since records began in France. I don’t know how they work this out and in July you could have been forgiven for regarding this assertion with a certain scepticism. However, read on and you’ll see that our own figures bear out aspects of this claim.

Ten Things to do in 2012 in SW France

Everyone’s thoughts turn to resolutions at this time of year. Last year, I suggested 10 things to do in 2011 in southwest France. All of them were things I had never done but planned to do this year. Well, I managed only seven out of 10 – but I did substitute a few events or places for those I missed. Mostly, I wrote about them on Life on La Lune.

French Christmas Quiz: the Answers

Shepherds on Stilts in the Landes

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas. We are rather glad of a respite this week, having spent the previous few days lurching between social events. Only New Year’s Eve to go now and then it’s back to normal.

French Christmas Quiz

 

Christmas Wreath - PhotoXpress

 

First, I’d like to wish all my readers a very Happy Christmas.

Now, here’s something to keep you Francophiles occupied after the turkey and Christmas pud, or whatever you eat on Christmas Day. Below are 20 questions about France with multiple choice answers. There is more than one right answer in some cases.

Christmas Carols 2011

Carol Service - part of the choir

The countdown to Christmas has started with a vengeance. The traditional service of nine lessons and carols at l’église de Saint-Andéol at Parisot was an event not to miss. An international choir – English, Scottish, French, Dutch and Swedish (the SF) – led the congregation in a packed programme of carols in English and French. The SF is 4^th from the left in the back row with the basses, above.

When the Plague Came to Southwest France

Collégiale de Notre-Dame at Villefranche. A plague hospital once stood next door.

Don’t worry; it happened several hundred years ago. But for people at the time it must have seemed like the end of the world. I thought about this recently while wandering around Villefranche-de-Rouergue  with time to kill between a routine medical appointment and my yoga class. For the first time, I started reading those information panels they put up for tourists.

Market Halls in Southwest France

Halle at Verfeil

Being a part-time unpaid librarian does have a few compensations. One of them is coming across a wonderful magazine – well, I think it is – entitled Midi-Pyrénées Patrimoine. It’s available in our Médiathèque. You’re not supposed to borrow the latest edition but I shamelessly exploited my position and took it home with me. 

Seven Signs of Christmas

Crèche at Loze

I awoke on Thursday to the realisation that it was 1^st December and the countdown to Christmas had started. This year has flown past and I can’t believe that it’s almost a year since I was writing about French Christmas traditions.

Monthly Météo: November 2011 Weather in SW France

Still a few leaves on this vine at Saint-Grat

The drought continues here in southwest France. Ten days ago we went for a walk where we normally have to cross a fast-flowing stream using stepping stones. This time it was completely dry. You could walk along the bed of the stream without getting your feet wet. I have never seen it like that in our 14 years here. 

The Little Train from Caussade to Caylus

Tramway Train at Caylus station

On 11^th July 1913 a momentous event took place that would influence the lives of many people in this area of southwest France for the next 20 years. The tramway line opened between Caussade and Caylus. Today, this might not seem much to shout about. But when you consider that the main method of transport for centuries previously had been horse-drawn carriage or cart, this initiative was almost revolutionary.

Je Suis une Public Servant

Parisot perched on its hill

Well, that’s not strictly accurate. I believe you have to be a French citizen to be a fonctionnaire – civil servant. But you don’t have to be French to become a bénévole – volunteer – and help deliver a service. I’m now part of a team of people who run the library at the village of Parisot.

Lovely Lavoirs

Lavoir at Vailhourles

Last weekend we took advantage of the continuing mild weather to do a walk we hadn’t done before around Vailhourles, in Aveyron. We parked in the centre of the village near the lavoir – washing place or wash-house. These structures are so much a part of the landscape around here that you tend to forget the importance they held in the past. My researching appetite whetted, I found out more about them.

On the road: driving with – or sometimes without – a French licence

When we moved to France in 1997, we had to give in our UK driving licences to the Préfecture and apply for new French permis de conduire. I did feel a twinge of regret at having to hand over my licence but the new ones arrived reasonably quickly and they looked very similar. However, there are some significant differences between the UK and the French systems.

A Story of the French Resistance during World War II

Monument at the Volcan dropping ground

This week, during our walk with our local group we took a route that we had never followed before. At once point we crossed a road and came upon the granite monument above, which marks the spot where a local resistance group had a fatal skirmish with the occupying German forces in 1944. I hadn’t come across this before so when we got home I did some research into the story.

More French Colloquial Phrases

Vache qui pisse?

There are hundreds, possibly thousands, of French colloquial phrases. I wrote about a few of the more common ones a while back. I read in the Figaro Magazine last weekend that a new book had been published about those that are based on animals, entitled Comme Vache Qui Pisse – see below for the explanation of that phrase. This prompted me to do some more research on them.

Monthly Météo October 2011

One that died of thirst?

Today is Toussaint – All Saints’ Day. There’s a saying in French, ‘Un vrai temps de Toussaint’ (typical Toussaint weather). This means that it’s grey, rainy and cold. Today is living up to its reputation and autumn has arrived at last, except that it is not particularly cold. We shouldn’t complain: up until last week it had barely rained for two months.

Chestnut Fair at Laguépie

Chestnut Products

It’s the time of year for gathering in the fruits and nuts before the weather turns at the beginning of November. Our kitchen is full of produce: boxes of walnuts – our own; cases of sweet apples – a friend’s gift; and two gigantic pumpkins, bearing which neighbours Jacques and Simone staggered up the drive last week. The French are very good at celebrating nature’s bounty and there are plenty of fairs and festivals going on now.

Saffron: Quercy’s Red Gold

Crocus lativus Linnaeus

Most people associate saffron with Middle Eastern cooking. But this exotic and highly-prized spice was successfully produced in the Quercy region of southwest France throughout the Middle Ages. After a hiatus following the French Revolution, production resumed in the Lot Valley about 15 years ago. Today, around 80 producers are based in the region, many of them around the town of Cajarc in Lot.

Foreign Flavours: A New Anthology from Writers Abroad

Foreign Flavours front cover

The online writing group I belong to, Writers Abroad, publishes today a new anthology of short stories and non-fiction articles, entitled Foreign Flavours. The theme of the anthology is food, drink and recipes from around the world.

Poubelle-watch

This week's offering

Why are dustbins called poubelles in French? Round by us they are anything but belles. I know I’ve blogged about this recently, but forgive me if I vent my irritation at the lack of civic responsibility that some of our neighbours seem to show.

Villefranche de Rouergue: Past Glories

Villefranche - Thursday market

It’s amazing how much you learn about a place you thought you knew, simply by taking the time to walk around it. We live about 25 kilometres from Villefranche de Rouergue in Aveyron and have shopped there regularly for 14 years. But you rarely look at places in your own backyard through the eyes of a tourist.

Giving Cold Callers the Cold Shoulder

Don’t you just hate cold sales calls? You drop what you’re doing – normally on your foot – and rush to answer the phone only to find that it’s someone trying to sell you something that you have absolutely no intention of buying. This drove us mad in England; it’s no different in France.

Walking the Viaur Valley

 

Autumn colours in the Viaur Valley

After a weekend of cold winds and low temperatures – I was picking walnuts wearing a woolly hat and a jacket on Sunday – the weather turned again on Monday. A cloudless blue sky and temperatures in the mid-20s Celsius tempted us to abandon our computer screens. We took advantage of the continuing Indian summer to do a walk that we haven’t done for more than 10 years.

Tripbase Seven-links Blogging Challenge + a Plug for a Colleague’s Book

Blogging pal Stephanie in Creuse has kindly nominated me – among others – to carry on the torch for the seven-links blogging challenge. This is where you have to nominate seven of your own blog posts that fit particular criteria. Thanks, Stephanie. This has been a good opportunity to review my blog, identify what has been popular – or less so – and get ideas for improving it.