Category Archives: France

Getting acquainted with Normandy and reacquainted with a friend from 30 years ago

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Cabanes at Gouville-sur-Mer

Cabanes at Gouville-sur-Mer

Sunday 11 March 2018 to Saturday 17 March 2018
Sunday popped in to say hallo and we greeted her with a smile, it was wonderful to wake up in Normandy. And just then there was an unexpected knock on the door, it was the landlady and her son who wanted to try something out. Now you may remember from my previous post that we arrived Saturday afternoon to bad wifi – or we-fee as it is pronounced here in France – and the landlady seemed to suggest that I surf from the comfort of the kitchen sink – which was closest to the router in their house next door – until the bad we-fee could be resolved on Tuesday. Continue reading →

We left Brittany for the battlefields of Normandy… and all that jazz

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Mont-Saint-Michel

Mont-Saint-Michel

Saturday, 3 March 2018 to Saturday, 10 March 2017
It was Saturday and Philippe and family had a surprise in store for us. We were treated to jazz at the Chez Constance Restaurant in a little village by the coast called Plougrescant. And all that jazz was accompanied by an excellent dinner of too many things to mention. What stood out though was the cabbage… now who would enthuse about cabbage you may ask. But, that red cabbage was simply delectable, and the owner did not get why we were so enthralled by it. “It’s just red cabbage boiled slowly for six hours, nothing added, nothing subtracted… “ was his response to our recipe request. Be as it may, that stuff was amazing! Continue reading →

We bought a car in France… No seriously…

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Domaine du Dourvan

Domaine du Dourvan

Tuesday, 20 February 2018 to Friday, 2 March 2017
As I concluded in a previous post titled Waking up in beautiful Brittany, in the amazing Côtes-d’Armor, the fact that Philippe was so immensely generous to lend us his car, was to be a fatal mistake… But not in a negative way though!

Having had the use of Philippe’s car during the past plenty weeks there was no way of going back. When we originally came to France last year in March we had grand illusions of buying a car but decided it was premature and settled on getting to know and using the public transport systems on offer. And boy, did we! Continue reading →

South Africa – Finally – The Times They Are A-Changin’, with a touch of Neil Young thrown in for good measure

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Guingamp

Guingamp

Tuesday, 13 February 2018 to Monday, 19 February 2017
Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin’ came to mind as I watched the political drama unfold in South Africa during the next few days as they got rid of Zuma who called himself president for the last 10 or so years. Finally hope returned to a country that promises so much.

The changing times have been a long time coming, but was never guaranteed. Continue reading →

Applying for residency renewal in France… and more admin, and more…

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Brittany, Binic

Brittany, Binic

Wednesday, 7 February 2018 to Monday, 12 February 2017
Now you may be wondering why we find ourselves back in France, and more specifically, why in the midst of winter. And I can understand your concern; I would also have questioned such insanity. But, there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for this. You may recall that we were issued with our French visas – while we were in Bangkok – which were valid from mid March 2017 for one year.

On our arrival in France at the time we went through the Continue reading →

Waking up in beautiful Brittany, in the amazing Côtes-d’Armor

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Côtes-d'Armor

Côtes-d’Armor

Saturday, 3 February 2018 to Tuesday, 6 February 2018
It was Saturday morning and we were woken up by a loud TV bombarding of news directed at us in an “un-understandable” language; it wasn’t English, it wasn’t Afrikaans, which of course should not have been surprising. What was surprising though was that I did not request this TV news broadcast. Was the landlord above an early riser, I wondered as I checked the time… 03:30! Continue reading →

Paris continues to captivate while it oozes charm and chic

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Eiffel Tower

Eiffel Tower

Friday, 18 August 2017 to Thursday, 24 August 2017
Yesterday we arrived in Paris, thoroughly tired after negotiating busses and bus stops with poor signage and metros and metro stops with poor traveller facilities such as escalators to do the heavy lifting. Above expectations, we finally did arrive at our hotel safe and sound. So, of course we slept in this morning and got up just in time to go for breakfast.

Rain was forecast for Paris today and it sure delivered on its promise. As I drew the curtains aside I was met with a gray Paris with gray clouds clouding the sky. Rain was softly falling, sometimes increasing just a tad in intensity, it was great!  Continue reading →

Friends came to visit us in Lyon, and then we moved to Paris

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Musée des Confluences Lyon

Musée des Confluences Lyon

Friday, 11 August 2017 to Thursday, 17 August  2017
As you may recall, Estee and Dries rolled into town yesterday but we decided to give them the day off to recover from their trip from SA as well as the copious amounts of beer and such that was consumed last night. Continue reading →

We got into traboule, then we got into more traboules, but we eventually found a way out

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Théâtre gallo-romain on Fourvière hill

Théâtre gallo-romain on Fourvière hill

Friday, 4 August 2017 to Thursday, 10 August  2017
It was mid afternoon when we took the metro to Croix Rousse for supper, but of course it was way too early for that, we had less important things to do. Lyon is the silk capital of the Europe so a stay here would not be complete without a visit to one of its silk related museums. We chose the one closet to our selected restaurant for the evening which happened to be La Maison des Canuts (House of the Lyonnais silk workers). Continue reading →

We tried to beat the oppressive heat with Paix Dieu, but it only made us Delirium Tremens

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Cour d'Appel de Lyon at night

Cour d’Appel de Lyon at night

Friday, 28 July 2017 to Thursday, 3 August  2017
We looked from our lounge window towards the parking area of our apartment building where a young family was busy packing their van for the holidays, which obviously starts today… and we contemplated how cool it would be to go on holiday… Hmm… Okay. Continue reading →