New Places, Small Spaces Friday, 17 November The sun came out a bit on Wednesday, and I decided to carpe diem, to act on a recent article in Le Parisien newspaper about “deux petits paradis aux allures de village” that I had never even heard of: la Butte Bergeyre and la Mouzaïa. Getting to
Inside Out Friday, 3 November It’s gilet jaune season again – not the human type where the discontented French take to the streets – but the canine version when a dog needs yellow-vest visibility in the face of possible stray bullets. The hunting season in France lasts about five months, from the beginning
Shape Shifting Friday, 20 October Our local bookshop closed this week. The Labo Land photo developer next door to it and the Café Mucha next to it will soon follow suit. The block of buildings has been bought by a developer who has revoked their leases. Their disappearance marks a significant advance
A Model Friday, 6 October Earlier this week, I felt an urge to get away, to be reminded that Paris is more than its currently frantic, disfigured centre. Along with pervasive road and building work that I have written about in previous postings, there’s now the Rugby World Cup Village blighting
Finding the Feng Shui (cont'd) Friday, 22 September Mid-August, I got a shocking email. It was from Orange, our telecommunications provider. They are (slowly) installing fibre optic access in our area and needed details on our living arrangements. The message included a satellite photo that must have been taken last summer: Was it really that
Finding the Feng Shui Friday, 8 September The restless, migrating spirit of the swallows that once lived here must still have been with us: no sooner had I pushed send on my last blog in July than we were once again moving furniture, reappointing rooms. They say you should live in a place for
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Friday, 14 July Here in France, it’s a weekend of grand départ. In fact, it’s grander than usual this mid-July because besides the normal flow of people leaving on their summer holiday, Bastille Day makes a three-day weekend. But having just returned from 10 days away in Ireland
Safe Haven II (Maybe) Friday, 30 June No sooner had my friend Trevor, who was staying chez nous in Paris last week with his husband Dana, said: “It’s not crowded,” than I was on my bike and pedalling across the Seine to the recently renovated Hôtel de la Marine on the place de
Why We're Here Friday, 16 June It’s been a while since David has said: “I know we bought this house for that damn dog.” He is of course talking about Deux Champs, the property we purchased four years ago in the Perche, and our rescue dog Tasha (aka la Princesse). I can
Food for Thought Friday, 26 May Let me ask you a question: is it odd that a blogger who lives in France never blogs about food? I think so, especially given how much the writer in question, me, loves food and all things culinary. Okay, there was once an entry about Indian cuisine,
Finishing Touches Friday, 12 May “Is it finished?” ask some (genuinely wondering). “It’s finished, right?” ask others (as in: after all this time, it’s gotta be…). “It’s finished,” state still others (no inflection, since there’s no way it couldn’t be done by now). My answers, depending on
Ode to April Friday, 21 April “April is the cruellest month.” What an overused way to start a piece of writing concerning the fourth month of the year. Worse, it is often misused, thus spoiling all the irony that TS Eliot infused into the first line of his 1922 poem The Waste Land.
The Demos and the Kratos Friday, 7 April “What is a simple definition of democracy? “The word democracy comes from the Greek words ‘demos’, meaning people, and ‘kratos’ meaning power; so democracy can be thought of as ‘power of the people’: a way of governing which depends on the will of the people.” Thus spoke
Of Puddles and Ponds Friday, 24 March My family often accuses me of being a glass half-empty kind of person. Someone who imagines the worst-case scenario at every turn. While I admit that my mind can tend to misadventure, I would argue that in many instances, I am just being a realist, particularly when
Guest Apparence Friday, 10 March Last week I dreamt I went to Berlin again... Actually, unlike the narrator of Rebecca who made a nocturnal visit to her former home Manderley, I did physically return to the city where I once lived. It just felt like a dream. For more recent readers, some
New Friends Friday, 24 February Here's a new word for (most of) you: dendrolatry, the worship of trees. My admiration may not quite attain the level of adoration, but this winter I've been counting my arboreal blessings. When you buy a property in the country, it's not just the bricks (or in
Building Time Friday, 10 February Early on in my Paris years, I learned an expression that made me feel I really knew my way around town: les dix minutes parisiennes. It means that whether you are attending a meeting and certainly a dinner party in Paris, you are not only allowed to
Notice, and thanks Friday, 27 January In January, my Paris dog-walking friend Nathaële and I always remark how the days may be getting longer but to all appearances, not in the morning. Beyond the glare of the city lights on the terraces of the Tuileries Gardens, you can’t see a thing, including
Macro vs Micro Friday, 13 January Tell me if you’ve felt anything similar recently*: every time I give or receive a Happy New Year this January – with many of those received accompanied by a Thank God 2022 is over – I experience a small internal wince. The frisson occurs because it seems to
Things, Glorious Things Friday, 16 December I love things. Big things, little things, things that belong to me and things that do not. Sometimes I am uneasy about this proclivity. It can seem materialistic, trifling, overly personal, boringly bourgeois. But if the current exhibition scene in Paris is any indication, I’m right
With or Without Us Friday, 25 November If you’ve read this blog even spottily, you will know that since we bought our house in the Perche in 2019, we’ve altered just about everything, inside and out. Even our fields have changed both farmers and farming practices, as we shifted from 'conventional' (with
The Saga of a Swamp Friday, 4 November For a long time I've known that the section of the VII arrondissement of Paris where we live was originally a swamp. Yesterday I learned that it was also an area where wood that travelled down the Seine was stocked. Such a place is called un chantier,
Safe Havens Friday, 14 October Every morning I do a stupid thing. After some work and before walking Tasha, I peek at the news in the The Guardian's newsletter that arrives in my email box. Yesterday the cover photo showed four soulful sea lion pups and the headline said: "The Age of
Team Claire Friday, 30 September “What about the garden?” my husband David began asking two years ago, not long after the renovation of the inside of our Perche house got underway. As regular readers know, it has been a refrain ever since. For more recent readers, and since I have trouble keeping
It's a Long Story Friday, 16 September Trick question: what is the oldest monument in Paris? People who don't know the city well might answer Notre Dame (1163-1345), but Our Lady isn't even the oldest church, with Saint-Germain-des-Près preceding it by a few hundred years (founded in 558 by Childebert I, rebuilt at the
