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Articles about life in SWFrance

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Barbie Time!

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Strangely, we have embraced our new hobby of barbequing very enthusiastically! Monsieur Peskytarian hasn’t been that keen in the past. All that has changed …

Food Glorious Food

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Jennifer Dewar explains how she developed a three-point plan to help cope with all the regular apero and Auberge Espagnol gatherings.

Charming Lauzerte

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Our recent day trip to the Tarn-et-Garonne, included a stop in the village of Lauzerte, one of France’s Plus Beaux Villages.

Don’t Leave Those Leaves

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Sue Adams is a keen gardener and gives some useful advice. In this blog she talks about “don’t leave those leaves” and explains what can be done to turn them into a useful garden attribute.

The Quiet Appeal of Moissac

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Mimi Beck Knudsen is getting to know the Tarn-et-Garonne bit by bit.She now has a small list of sites where she has visited and a longer list of places she plans to visit soon. Her most recent trip to this department in south west France included a stop in Moissac, a lovely city in which to spend the day.

Bad Blood and Village Feuds

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Bad Blood and Village Feuds – can villagers even remember what their feuds are about? Jennifer Dewar poses the question and seeks some answers.

A Visit to Périgueux

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The Mimos Festival was our excuse for our most recent trip: a visit to Périgueux. It was hot on the day of our visit, so we only saw a couple of mime-type acts. Instead, we found an ice cream shop and strolled the streets as we became reacquainted with this very pleasant city in the center of the Dordogne department.

Never Give Up

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Sometimes we find ourselves in an inconvenient position we hadn’t planned or. When control of your life has been taken out of your hands it is at best inconvenient and at worse can result in you becoming very depressed at the new position you find yourself in. This is Kate Webber’s inspirational story of Never Give Up

Walking the Dog in SW France

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I first noticed the culture difference when I was walking the dog in the local village …….I was the only one. Some dogs are chained up, some are just left to wander, but it’s very rare to see a French person walking a dog in the countryside. In fact it’s rare to see a French person going for a walk, unless it’s in an organised group following an official footpath.

Summer in SW France

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May, here in SW France, is, of course, the month of les jours des fériérs and les jour des ponts. What should be a single day suddenly becomes three days of festive fun, with shops closing early, or not opening at all, and the local boulangerie running out of bread by 11 am.

D-Day Dordogne France. Mouleydier remembers June 1944

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With the 75th anniversary of D-Day this June, many people will be focused on the heroic events that took place in Normandy. In the weeks that followed the landing of the Allied troops on France’s northern coast, fierce battles with the Nazis were fought. But the battles were not limited to Normandy. The village of Mouleydier in the Dordogne department suffered its own tragedy.

Potager Envy

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When we first arrived in the Gers eight years ago, we were always blown away by how generous are neighbours were. What could we give back? Would an orchard solve our problems?

Blue cheese, coke and breast cancer

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This is a straightforward, honest account of my breast cancer diagnosis, treatment and ongoing care here in France. I hope it helps others to know what happens, to know that they are in safe hands and, most importantly, to trust and believe in the specialists that are treating them.

The Pesky Tarian

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On the boat coming over to France, right in the middle of the sea, I felt my first wave of doubt about our move rolling over me. What if we couldn’t find anything to eat in deepest Gers?

Measuring the quality of your day

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As you crawl into bed, thump your pillow to make the perfect little cave for your head to rest in, pull the covers up tight under your chin, and let go of that big sigh that indicates the day is finished, how do you look back on the waking hours you just experienced? How do you measure the quality of your day?

All hail the prune harvest

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It’s nearly prune harvest time again, and in the Lot-et-Garonne, this is serious business! France averages 40,000 tons of prunes each year, with nearly all coming from the Agen area.

Gardening with goats

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When we first bought our house, as well as having a huge renovation project on our hands, there was also the land – tough weeds and a large part covered in brambles. Someone mentioned goats as being a great solution to our problem – maybe it was a joke….one of the drawbacks of living in a foreign language.

Grottes to love about Brantôme

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Tourism promoters call Brantôme “The Venice of Périgord,” a moniker attributed to French president Raymond Poincaré, who visited the village in 1913. And while I wouldn’t go quite that far, this lovely village, 25km north of Périgueux, is one of the most beautiful villages in the region.

The day I visited a faith healer

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This is France and there are treatments that you won’t necessarily find down at the corner surgery in rural England. When I had shingles, the doctor prescribed a visit to a faith healer!  Before you ask, no, this was not covered by the health system!

The Life of Riley?

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So you’ve achieved your long-held dream, retired or semi-retired and moved to France. So here you are, living the life of Riley. Or are you? And if not, why not?

Working towards a waste-free life

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Converting to a waste-free life doesn’t happen overnight and so should you. I think that if you try to do something life-changing overnight then it probably won’t last so, lots of small changes are needed to ‘shake your world’.

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