How to eat langoustines

In Brittany, where I'm from, we love seafood. I come from a seaside region, so fresh fish and seafood were always available for us to enjoy. At every family reunion, Christmas day, New Year's day or any other big event, we ate a big platter of Langoustines ( or Dublin Bay prawns as the Irish...

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Lost in translation

A French friend of mine asked me to translate a text he had written, from French to English. I didn't mind... until I read it. It's quite long, and it's written in formal French. I'm not great at translating, which is ironic considering I am fluent in both languages. People are often surprised...

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Are you going home for Christmas ?

Every year I'm asked the same question. And every year is the same answer: "No. I'm not going home for Christmas". After 11 years in Ireland I only spent Christmas in France once. Not that I don't want to go to France for Christmas, but I work in an industry where the busiest period of the year...

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The crisps sandwich argument

It all started when I brought a mini banana cake at work, for one of my colleague. She was saying she loved banana sandwiches. I had never heard of that. Flamed banana or banana bread, yes, but not banana sandwich.  Anyway, I don't remember how it happened, but we moved on talking about "crisps...

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What's going on with the weather ?

As an adopted Irish, I feel I have the right to moan talk about the weather. After all, that's what Irish people do all the time: " I can't take the cold anymore", "It's very windy today", "Do you think it's going to rain?", "At least we had 2 days of sun","Here comes the rain again" etc etc....

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It's Christmas time

I think Christmas starts a bit too early in this country. Come on, Tesco has been stocking their Christmas pudding since mid-October and as soon as Halloween ended, all the Christmas decorations popped up everywhere! For me Christmas should start on the 1st of December, at the earliest. I know I'm late, and I haven't even started my Christmas shopping yet... At least I know what I need to buy this...

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So my sister came to visit...

Every time she comes, she always want to do something very "Irish".  Who could blame her ? She doesn't visit very often , so she wants to make the most of it while she's here. But going to Dublin and take pictures of Temple bar or go to Carroll's to buy souvenirs is not really my idea of fun....

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Sometimes pretending not to speak English can backfire...

I've used this trick a few times since I live here. In the early years I still had my French car, and I was supposed to get it registered after six months, but I kept it for four years... So one day, when the Garda (the Irish police) stopped me, I pretended I didn't speak a word of English....

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Sure you're nearly Irish at this stage...

I've been hearing this more and more and I don't know if I am in denial or if all those Irish friends of mine are winding me up ( as they usually do...) I mean, in my mind, I'm French and I always will be. I can't live without my filter coffee machine, I love croissants and baguettes (and...

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Hi, My name is Anne. I am originally from Brittany (North west of France), and I moved to Ireland in 2002. I am married and have 2 sons. I always wanted to write about my experience as a foreigner living in Ireland but when I arrived, blogs didn't exist... A few years later, I could have started something but I concentrated on another project, which was a French blog about my husband's country,...

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