From Alsace we drove across Switzerland, to the French Alps choosing this route partly for the novelty of traversing a new country in a day and encountering another language.  We stopped for a picnic…

From Champagne we travelled east and descended into the Rhine Valley, where France meets Germany. This part of France changed hands four times between 1874 and 1945, and again in the preceding centuries, so…

Choosing the town where we would live our French dream was a bit like sticking a pin in a map. Where do you start? From the beginning, my husband Simon told me that I…

Last Friday I was sneaking in a little rest after a busy morning unravelling la paperasserie (red tape), when I heard Tom’s feet resounding up the stairs. He burst through the bedroom door and…

As August faded into September, I found myself waking in the early hours. The children would soon be starting school speaking very little French, and the enormity of what we were asking of them…