Starting the new year with dreams from France

French village in winter — *My little village on a wintry day at dusk….*

Bonjour,

I hope that you and yours are well and that you had a happy Christmas and a good start to the New Year.

Last year seemed to really whizz past! It was a mixed bag for me to be honest, as I suspect it was for many of us, but I only share the good with you here, a little bit of escapism!

I’m not big on new year’s resolutions – normally, but I do have three big goals for 2026. One is to really improve my French, I did well last year doing online lessons with a really great teacher. I’m finally starting to get to grips with the ghastly grammar and terrible tenses which I’ve largely ignored for years. And this year I’ll be doing an immersion course in Aix-en-Provence with another great teacher to really up my game, and I figure I may as well be somewhere sunny and utterly gorgeous! If you’re looking to improve your French on an immersion course, feel free to join me, I’ll be sharing my favourite places in Aix with the rest of the ‘class’!

And I’m going to master the art of cooking – well tarts and pastries! For many years my neighbours and friends have laboured to teach me the basics of French cuisine. I was reluctant to start with, I never thought I’d manage to make a macaron, or bake a bûche de Noël . But – I have. And I’ve become a bit of a keen cake maker. So, I’ve signed up to do two online baking courses – choux pastry delights and legendary tarts, with the best of the best – master chefs from the École Ducasse, the cookery school founded by the world’s most Michelin Starred chef, Alain Ducasse. The lessons are in English and there’s a great discount if you sign up before 26 January.

And finally, the podcast is coming back, I’ve had heaps of emails telling me how much it’s been missed, and I’ve really missed chatting to everyone too – so watch this space and sign up for the podcast newsletter to never miss an episode.

Whatever your goals are for next year I wish you fun and success with them.

I’ll be back next week with a tale of rural life in a quirky part of France where we’ve had heaps of snow to welcome in the new year, and I look forward to sharing another year of the best of France with you,

Bisous from a small but never dull village in Pas-de-Calais,
Janine
Editor

PS Join me on Instagram where I’ll be starting a new A-Z of France next week, photos, fun and fascinating facts and videos from my travels around France…

Read the whole newsletter here

Don’t miss the weekly newsletter which every week brings you inspiration from France

It’s easy to subscribe if you don’t want to miss my weekly newsletters of musings from France and a round-up of fab features, plus exclusive random newsletter giveaways. Just click here, type in your email address and click subscribe: Subscribe