La Vie en Foussais is a record of the trials and tribulations of us, the Barley family, as we make a new life for ourselves here in the Vendée region of western France.
Please take the time to look around and feel free to comment on anything you see here. Its always good to hear from you.
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My latest tweet
Wow, less than three full glasses of wine and I'm slightly giddy. I must be getting old. [view on Twitter >>]
This is set to be a big month – even bigger than normal. Not only is is Christmas, which we will be spending with our family in England (more of that in another post), but we also have Joe’s birthday and the first anniversary of us living here in Foussais-Payre.
So there is lots to organise and lots to do, with not really very much time left to do it in. However, in this week I shall try to write every day in the run-up to our one-year anniversary. So much has changed over the last twelve months and we have achieved such a lot, it’s a good time to look back and reflect over our time here and how different things are.
On another note, you will now find each post has a “Listen now” button. Clicking this will allow you to sit back and listen to a nice american man reading that post to you. It’s not perfect but I thought I’d give it a try as an alternate way for folks to consume my ramblings. If you want to subscribe to the blog as a podcast using this feature, just click the “Odiogo” button in the right-hand column and follow the instruction there.
Any thoughts on this or anything else, as usual, just leave a comment!
Posted on October 3, 2008 by Richard in General news
Today is my birthday, so I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who has sent me messages -- they are very much appreciated. I’m looking forward to enjoying the start of the party tonight when the children return from school and I have finished my work. It’s my first birthday since living in France and I look forward to spending every other one here too!
You may have noticed that the “Visitors” stats shot past 5000 for La Vie en Foussais recently. This is really amazing and I am so glad that people are enjoying the site enough to keep coming back and reading what I have to say. Please don’t be shy about leaving comments -- I really do love to receive them and its great to develop a community around a site like this.
Anyway, thanks to everyone for reading, I think I will leave you with a chuckle. On this day in 2005 Ronnie Barker, British comedy genius, sadly gave his last laugh. So here for a bit of Friday Fun is “Swedish Made Simple”, one of my favourite Two Ronnies sketches.
Today the BBC are featuring a story [here] which reveals that half of all UK adults have forgotten the languages they learned at school. Luckily for me this wasn’t the case as my schoolboy French had to get me through many tricky situations when we first arrived!
What is hopeful for our kids is the following:
more than two thirds (69%) said they were jealous of people who were able to speak another language fluently.
Of those who can speak another language, 61% said it had been of benefit to their career, with a third (34%) saying their language skills have given them opportunities to travel and work abroad.
This bodes well for the future of our 3, who will leave school being fluent in at least 2 languages, possibly even 3.
Happy Birthday Craig
Craig McGinty runs the superb ThisFrenchLife web site [here], which is on my daily read list. It’s a great read, always full of interesting articles and news about all things French.
Well today is Craig’s birthday (age not revealed!) so what better time to head on over to www.thisfrenchlife.com and wish Craig a joyeaux anniversaire!
Front-page news toady includes Nicolas Sarkozy and his extra leg (!), news about banned Chinese milk products in France and a pointer to some free travel guides.
A busy weekend coming up
I will fill you in on the details next week, but this wil be another busy weekend!
On Saturday we are heading next-door to the apple-pressing barn where we will hopefully see the whole process from picking to pressing to bottling. With a bit of luck we will walk away with a nice collection of freshly-squeezed apple juice, which should keep us going for a while.
Then on Sunday we will be testing our French again as we meet up with some families who have links with Lisa’s nephew through school exchanges. So a trip to Montaigu near Nantes, then over to the beach to La Tranche-sur-Mer.
On the road again
(Photo under CC Attribution 2.0 Generic by krejcirkmira)
Due to some changes at work, I’ll be hitting the road to England quite a bit this month. This is a real pain and not something I really wanted to happen, but the situation is rather unavoidable at the moment.
Hopefully it will only be a very temporary measure and I can return to my rural hideaway very soon
In the meantime, if you’re anywhere near La Rochelle, Stansted or Maidenhead, feel free to get in touch and we can have a coffee.
And finally…
Next Friday I will be the ripe old age of 37. I’m looking forward to a majorly-fun-time-friday, and an especially fun weekend with great friends.
Anyway, that’s what’s going on with us. Keep a look out for updates. Or why not subscribe to my email newsletter [by clicking here]? Every time I add something new to La Vie en Foussais you will receive it in your inbox - what could be easier?
This is set to be a big month – even bigger than normal. Not only is is Christmas, which we will be spending with our family in England (more of that in another post), but we also have Joe’s birthday and the first anniversary of us living here in Foussais-Payre.
