An insider’s guide to life in France

A common sight in SW France. Detail from Sunflower field © Stanisa Martinovic/Photoxpress

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!  

 

Beautiful Bastide: Villeneuve-d’Aveyron

Villeneuve – Porte Haute

Today is la fête de la Pentecôte (Pentecost) in France – for those of you who think I don’t know my dates, this was posted late on Monday. And in keeping with the tradition of public holidays it’s cold and grey. In fact, the weather the whole weekend was lousy. In addition, the entire area’s electricity went off at 13h15 on Saturday and EDF didn’t restore it until 20h00. This necessitated a move to Plan B for the dinner party we were holding that evening. It will have been even more annoying for the disco and funfair at our local village – both dependent on electricity to pull in the punters.

Let There Not Be Light: Light Pollution in France

Moon…and stars

One of the things that attracted us to this place back in 1997 was the lack of light pollution. We came house-hunting in April that year and enjoyed skies of cloudless blue in the daytime and inky velvet at night, peppered with countless stars. A comet that was the merest smudge on the London skyline arced across the night sky here, its tail quite distinct.

Les Saints de Glace – Myth or Reality?

Chapelle de Notre Dame des Grâces, near Lacapelle Livron

“Qu’est-ce que vous voulez? C’est les Saints de Glace.” – “What do you expect? It’s the ice saints at the moment.” This is invariably the reaction of French people around here if you complain about the weather around mid-May. The 11^th, 12^th and 13^th May commemorate respectively Saint Mamert, Saint Pancrace and Saint Servais, known collectively as the Saints de Glace.

Orchids and SW France Weather April 2013

Orchids grow abundantly in our region at this time of year. We have good and bad orchid years – no doubt a reflection of the weather we’ve had. This year is a good one. Our walking group took a route last Wednesday starting from Lavaurette, a pretty village on the last outcrop of the Massif Central. The soil around there is particularly favourable for orchids and we saw many different varieties.

Ex-Pat Writers - Contribute to a New Anthology

Reblogged from Vanessa Couchman, freelance writer:

The online ex-pat writers' group, Writers Abroad, of which I'm a member, will be publishing its fourth anthology this year, with the working title of Far Flung and Foreign. We are looking for other ex-pat (or former ex-pat) writers to contribute. Here are the details from our Call for Submissions:

Read more… 164 more words

I've reblogged this from my writing site. I seem to have managed to do it twice. If you're an ex-pat and would like to contribute, we'd love to hear from you.

Ex-Pat Writers - Contribute to a New Anthology

Reblogged from Vanessa Couchman, freelance writer:

The online ex-pat writers' group, Writers Abroad, of which I'm a member, will be publishing its fourth anthology this year, with the working title of Far Flung and Foreign. We are looking for other ex-pat (or former ex-pat) writers to contribute. Here are the details from our Call for Submissions:

Read more… 164 more words

I've reblogged this from my writing site (http://vanessacouchmanwriter.wordpress.com)

Original Exhibition at the Abbaye de Beaulieu

Abbaye de Beaulieu

I have to admit that contemporary art isn’t always my tasse de thé. However, they do put on some good exhibitions at the Abbaye de Beaulieu, a Cistercian gem a few kilometres away. As well as being an historic monument, it’s also a centre of contemporary art. The pure austerity of the abbey church is a perfect foil for the often riotous art.

Peyrusse-le-Roc: A Hidden Corner of the Aveyron

Peyrusse – Roc del Talhuc

Knowing that the fine weather wouldn’t last, I made a long-planned excursion into the Aveyron Département yesterday. I set off under wall-to-wall blue skies. The trees were fuzzy with spring green and the pastures were gold-tinged with buttercups. The farmers were taking advantage of the sunshine to cut the hay. Alas, the weather has reverted to type today.

Geraniums

Geraniums in summer

Wrought iron balconies decked with glowing geraniums are evocative of France for me – and for many others, I suspect. So after such a grey and damp winter, it was nice to introduce a touch of summer by making our annual trip yesterday to buy our geraniums. Never mind the fact that we were back in winter clothes, having been in shorts on Wednesday afternoon.

Parisot Choir’s Spring Season

It’s been a busy couple of weeks. Not only are the garden burgeoning and things taking off again at la chapelle de Teysseroles, which we are helping to restore, but le choeur de Parisot has started its spring season in earnest.

Seven Signs of Spring in SW France

Cherry blossom

Spring has taken a long time to arrive this year. Everything is coming out very late and the weather – up till this weekend – has generally been cooler than normal. However, we saw incontrovertible signs that spring is here this weekend, even if it is a bit spasmodic.

Getting Plastered at Teysseroles

Chapel interior – before

Or getting covered with plaster, anyway. Things are really starting to move at the Chapelle de Teysseroles, where we are helping with the restoration work. A month or so ago we received authorisation from the Bâtiments de France architect to remove the plaster – crépi – from the internal walls prior to the work starting in earnest. On Friday we set to with a vengeance.

Monthly Météo: Weather in SW France March 2013

This year’s violets

To say that the weather in March was variable would be an understatement. We had snow, rain, frost, high winds and sun (occasionally). On 31^st March – Easter Sunday – we got out our garden bench and sat drinking apéritifs in the evening sunshine. Thanks to the rain, the weeds and the lawns are burgeoning. Owing to unexpected truces in the weather over Easter weekend I managed to get out and sort out both. But it was a close run thing.

Les Chemins de Saint-Jacques de Compostelle

Easter Egg

Happy Easter. I know it’s a bit late but I took advantage of rare and unexpected sunshine to work in the garden yesterday. The magnificent ceramic egg above, was nestling in last year’s Virginia creeper cuttings outside Catherine Smedley’s art gallery this weekend. As well as being a talented artist, Catherine is also a keen gardener. I’ve written about her garden here.

The Same Country Divided by Countless Languages

Occitan flag – also the symbol of the Midi-Pyrénées Region

Today we paid an Easter visit to our elderly neighbours, M. et Mme. F. We are very fond of them but our conversations with them are sometimes characterised by total incomprehension on our side. This is not just a cultural thing; it’s also because M. F is virtually unintelligible. The reason is that Occitan is his first language and he speaks French with its cadences.

Trees Topple at Teysseroles

Chapelle de Teysseroles, dwarfed by the trees

I don’t like cutting down trees unless I really have to. I prefer planting them. However, the two enormous pine trees in front of the chapel at Teysseroles, which we are helping to restore, had just got too big. So we designated today as tree-felling day.

Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val: Haunting and Historic Town

Terracotta roofs of Saint-Antonin by the Aveyron

Winter here – especially this winter – is not greatly conducive to getting out and exploring. It’s all too easy to sit in front of the fire and make a promise that we’ll do it next week. But I do wonder why haven’t I written more here about Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val, one of the more atmospheric towns in the region. It’s not far from here but we just don’t get there very often.

The Bishop Comes to Town

Montauban Cathedral

I don’t recall ever having met a bishop before. But such are the exalted circles in which I move these days that I recently had not one but two occasions to meet Mgr Bernard Ginoux, Bishop of Montauban (there’s his cathedral above). He was paying an extended visit to the farther-flung part of his diocese as part of his pastoral duties.

Carte de Séjour – French Identity Card: Round 3

Montauban Palais de Justice

We’ve now reached the end of an administrative process that began in November last year – that of renewing our cartes de séjour, or identity cards for foreigners. Before you start worrying that you must have one, don’t lose any sleep if you are an EU citizen. The French government waived the requirement some years ago. However, if you do want one, as we did, you have to jump through a lot of hoops.

Musée Ingres at Montauban

Musée Ingres

We took advantage of yesterday’s spring-like sunshine, abandoned the computers and awarded ourselves a day off. We spent it at Montauban, where we had to go anyway to collect our new identity cards – more of that anon. I’ve written about Montauban before but, for the first time in 16 years, we set foot in the Musée Ingres. It’s named after one of Montauban’s more famous sons, the artist Jean-August-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867).

Weather in Southwest France: Verdict on Winter 2012-13

Snowdrops at Beaulieu

I could sum up this winter’s weather in one word. But it’s not repeatable in polite company, so I’ll try to do it in a more measured way. The SF (Statistics Freak – my husband) is the brains behind the figures. In addition to his monthly analysis, he produces an annual assessment of the four months November to February.

Invaders from Inner Space

Unpleasant and invasive

What do you think the photo above shows? Discarded asbestos? Tripe during the manufacturing process? Invading aliens from outer space? No, it’s dead algae, as trawled out of the vivier (fishpond) at the local Abbaye de Beaulieu. I took these shots in August last year and was reminded of them when we walked there a couple of weeks ago with our walking group.

Beanz Meanz Cassoulet

Cassoulet: Photo – Guilhem06 Wikimedia Commons

Remember the old Heinz beans advert? Cassoulet is the signature dish of southwest France. It’s been around for a long time and the correct recipe is the subject of controversy. What is it? A stew of white haricot beans and different meats. They vary according to where you eat your cassoulet and include confit de canard (duck) or oie (goose), belly pork, mutton and Toulouse sausage.

Getting a Buzz(ard)

Common buzzard (Marek_Szczepanek) Wikimedia

This weekend, thank goodness, the weather bucked the trend and we experienced luminous sunshine and improbably blue skies from dawn till dusk. We sat outside to eat lunch on both days – a rare event this year – and attacked the garden tasks we have been saving up till now. We were not the only ones to profit from the uncommon warmth.

A Great Way to Celebrate Three Years

My blog is three years old today. It has survived the terrible twos and is now learning joined-up writing. And it has readers as far apart as Nova Scotia and Qatar. It will not have escaped your notice that today is also Valentine’s Day. So why don’t I cash in by announcing the publication in ebook format today of Foreign Encounters, Writers Abroad’s latest anthology?

A Grave Issue

Local cemetery

Sorry; I couldn’t resist the pun. Our local commune’s Bulletin Municipal (annual report) contains a lot of practical information. This year’s included an article about regulations relating to cemeteries. Now, none of us wants to dwell on our mortality but if you live in France you need to know how they do things. And you’ll find a few surprises.

A Relic of French Legal Archaeology is Finally Buried

Vive la France! The French government recently repealed an archaic French law, dating back to 1799. The law in question prohibited women from wearing a certain item of male clothing. Waistcoats? No. Berets? Wrong. Ties? Not even those. The offending garments were…

Monthly Météo: Weather in SW France January 2013

Cows looking as fed up as we are

“Is France weather getting worse?” This was a search term someone used to land on my blog today. Given how dreary the weather has been since New Year, you could be forgiven for asking that. In fact, I almost didn’t do a weather post this month since I’m so disgusted with it. But the SF (Statistics Freak), who is in charge of our weather stats, is standing over me until I do.

Bouquet of Barbed Wire

Cows knee-deep in mud

During our weekly walk with our walking group this Wednesday, we were horrified to come upon a cat entangled in a bundle of barbed wire. Fortunately, several walkers’ dogs barking alerted us, otherwise we might have passed by without noticing, since it was in the corner of a field behind a wall.

Carte de Séjour – French Identity Card: Round 2

Montauban’s Place Nationale plus cafés

I wrote about Round 1 of our efforts to renew our Cartes de Séjour here. When we first moved to France in 1997, these cards were obligatory. They are no longer so for EU citizens but we decided we wanted to renew ours when they expired in early January this year. They are a useful proof of identity and residence in France.