The day before Christmas Eve we finally finished the conversion of a former workshop and storeroom into a one-bedroom self-contained apartment. Our plan is to rent it as a couples retreat, a ‘Love Shack’, and also use it for family and friends when they come and visit. We started the…

This Christmas, our first in Culan, turned out to be a stress-free and enjoyable affair. For the first time in recent memory, I was not particularly worried about money or feeling guilty about not being with my own children, since I separated from their mother 12 years ago. Because of…

As I near the end of this current series chronicling our first year of living in France after moving during the middle of the pandemic, days before the end of the Brexit transition period, I cannot help but compare our situation with the UK. Although I miss certain aspects of…

With my work finished for Christmas and to celebrate Sadie’s birthday, we decided to go to Paris for a couple of days for a cultural trip and to visit Sadie’s brother. As lockdown returns to many countries the sense of deja-vu dominates our thoughts at this time, as a year…

Almost from day one of moving into the new house in France, Sadie had wanted a piano. We had seen a couple in local brocantes, but they were either too expensive, in poor condition, or dark and ugly, and besides it was not an urgent priority while we were busy…

Last year, we were busy running a Mulled Wine stall in Richmond, London, on a weekend, dreaming of getting married and moving to France to start a new life. To say our then-current situation was insane is a bit of an understatement. On 2 December, London and the South East…

Although it has been a pretty depressing time for everyone over the past year or so because of the effects of Covid, I can report that the French are coping quite well — if a new survey is to believed. Eight in 10 French people say they are happy right…

December 1, 2021 and the Christmas lights have been switched on in Culan. I know this because there is a display right outside of my office window over Grande Rue and as soon as it became dark, around 4pm, the bright neon almost blinded me. The Mairie has also put…

Two days after Sadie returned from her tour of the UK, I left for a business trip to Zurich. As a welcome-home gift for my wife I bought fresh flowers and gave her a bilingual version of Waiting For Godot that I bought in Paris, the day after our argument. …