Snowy newsletter from France

Bonjour

It’s been a bit spring-like where I am in France, warm even for the time of year. The daffodils are starting to bud and Ken the mad cockerel has taken a bit of a dislike to them for some reason. He has been pulling off the poor little bud heads. On the whole, his behaviour has improved lately, and he’s become more affectionate. A while back I could hardly walk in the garden as he would lie in wait for me and jump on my back as I passed by. Now, when I go out the garden first thing in the morning to feed the wild birds and my pet chickens, ducks and geese, Ken and his bff Barbie, she’s the only blonde chicken I’ve ever seen, fly over the fence of the pen, leg it down the path and sit watching from the wall of the terrace while I make up the food bowls. They like to be stroked and Ken stamps his feet in excitement and crows at the top of his voice. Then they follow me back down to the pen to eat with everyone else.

Hold on a minute. Did I say spring? Well mid-week it changed. In Paris, about 100 miles south of where I am, snow fell for the first time in five years turning the city into Narnia. Then at the end of the week it arrived chez moi.

I love it when it snows here, there’s not much traffic even on a busy day and taking the dogs out for a run along country lanes that look like the top of iced buns is a joy. The dogs blink at the snowflakes hitting their eyelashes and bounce about all over the place. I bounced about too when I fell into a ditch when I lost a skidding contest with the other half, age is just a number right?!

On the website this week are loads of inspirational ideas for visits to France and some gorgeous pictorial posts. There’s also a post with some photos of my house in response to lots of emails asking to see what it looks like after you read my book! Click here to see the what we picked as the best of this week’s posts.