Bonjour
Hope you had a good week.
This week we had good news in the village – sort of. We have no mobile phone signal and that is making people very tetchy. You can hardly bank or do anything online these days without getting a text message to confirm things and here, in the middle of nowhere France, that can be problematic. Facebook, for instance, now requires me once a month to confirm my whereabouts. They say it is because I have a big American following. That’s all they say, so I’m guessing its something to do with fake news etc. Anyway, they stop me posting on Facebook until I click on the text message they send me. This requires me to drive a couple of miles up the hill and out of the valley. I can then click on their text to confirm nothing has changed, then go home and confirm on the PC that I’ve done it. Sometimes they send another message – just to be sure. Back I go up the hill to click the text so I can get on with chatting to people around the world from my pigsty!
The hill is peppered throughout the day with villagers confirming, yes they did send a bank transfer, amend a standing order, purchase something.
Our Mayor, who is a breath of fresh air and determined to do good, has been petitioning anyone he can think of to either get us a mobile phone signal or improve the internet service. It’s not an easy job. This week he had a letter from a senior councillor who has read his request for a mobile phone signal to be made accessible to the village. “We will review your request in about 6 weeks time… or maybe early next year. We hope to make a decision some time next year, or maybe the year after”… the answer went along these lines. I have to tell you, I’m not holding my breath. I’ll just have to keep nipping up the hill a bit longer I think!
Meantime, I’m loving the chat on Facebook, Twitter and more and more these days on Instagram – I’d love you to join me if you haven’t yet!
There’s loads of great new features and inspiration for next year’s holidays on the website and coming up and, if you’re planning to go to The France Show in London in January – get your free tickets below!
I interviewed two very famous expats last week: Dick and Angel of Escape to the Chateau! If you don’t know them, you’ll be able to read about them in the next issue of The Good Life France Magazine, subscribe for free via the current issue link below. If you do know them, you’ll love the photos and interview I’m sure…
I wish you a very bon weekend wherever you are,
Bisous from France,
Janine
Editor
ps: Thanks so much to everyone who wrote to me about last week’s newsletter and how to deal with the invasion of giant spiders – just in time for Halloween!
Read the whole newsletter here
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