Bonjour
Hope you had a great week.
Here in my little corner of northern France it’s been an interesting and fun week. The sun is continuing to shine and my neighbours tell me that this is the best (they mean sunniest) summer on record for years. I’m starting to get used to having lunch in the courtyard every day and on Wednesday I couldn’t take it any more. I turned my computer off and headed to the Opal Coast which is close to where I live. It’s not a very well-known part of France but it is incredibly beautiful, much loved for its ravishing little fishing villages by artists of the 1800s and early 1900s including JM Turner (those little villages are still there and just as pretty). There’s a special light here on this part of the coast, hence the name, it shines like an opal when the sun’s out. Incredibly, though it is officially now autumn, there were people swimming in the sea and their teeth weren’t chattering! Even better, there were seals frolicking close enough for me to see their whiskers, I love these shy creatures that inhabit the coast line of this part of France and it’s always a joy to spot them (and it’s not unusual to do that).
Meanwhile I have a new feathered friend! Gregory Peck the Second arrived courtesy of my neighbour who was worried about him being bullied by her other birds. She didn’t need to worry that would happen in my garden. I have three pens, one is for the geese who are not that friendly and very territorial. One is for Kendo Nagasaki, my colourful Japanese cockerel, and his harem and some ducks. The other pen has more chickens and ducks but the original Gregory Peck who was in there with them, went to the coop in the sky a while back and Wanda the bossy Cream Legbar chicken has taken control. However, within minutes of the new boy arriving all the girls were cooing at his feet, it was a bit like being at a Julio Iglesias concert in the 1980s (it was work. Honest). He threw out his chest, plumped up his feathers and strutted for all he is worth and he is a beauty. When he let out an almighty cock-a-doodle-doo he had the girls swooning but enraged Kendo Nagasaki. I was woken this morning by the pair of them continuing their crow off – they are loving it.
Hope you enjoy the fab new features on the website this week (below) and thank you to everyone who’s read or downloaded or subscribed to The Good Life France Magazine – it means so much to me. If you haven’t the magazine is free and always will be, you can find it here: The Good Life France Autumn 2016 and if you like it, please share it on.
Finally, if you follow me on Facebook you may remember I went to a flea market a few weeks ago and I found some great treasures, and as I am a sharing sort of person I have a treasure to give away – but it’s only for newsletter subscribers. All you have to do is post on my Facebook page the words: “118 today” – that way I can contact the randomly drawn winner to notify them! The treasure is a beautiful old French newspaper dated 24 September 1892 (yes, it’s 118 years old today!)
With best wishes and bisous from France
Janine
Editor
How to take a perfect tour of Avignon Provence: Local tour guide Emily Durand of Your Private Provence has put together a tour you can do in a morning or afternoon taking in the major sites and secret nooks of this lovely Provencal town…
Driving the Col du Mont Cenis – the astoundingly beautiful French Alps pass lures our reporter!
What to see and do in historic Bordeaux – one of the most beautiful cities in France and there’s a whole lot to discover here.
12 fascinating facts about the Eiffel Tower – next time you see the iron lady you’ll think differently about her when you’ve read these astonishing statistics!
Autumn in France, when the leaves turn every shade of rust, yellow and orange, the light is golden and the nights are cool, here’s why we love it in photos…
Congrats to winners of our summer contest whose books are winging their way from a tiny post office in the middle of nowhere France! Kathy Banff USA won Everything Easy Cookbook by Cecile Delarue (find her fab recipes and videos at French and Parfait); Marion Graham, Australia won Markets of Provence by Marjorie Williams; Hugo Clarke, Belgium won Mystical France by Nick Inman; Carmen Grenier, Canada won Flavors of the French Mediterranean by Gérald Passédat.
