Why is the French Tax office after me ?

The last few days I felt a lot of empathy for expats in France. I had to deal with the French tax office and it made me realise how difficult it must be for foreigners in France who have to adapt to a different fiscal system. Long story short, I own a small house in my home town, that...

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Maman is coming over...

Have you ever experienced that mixed feeling of excitement and anxiety at the same time? Well, that's exactly how I feel at the moment. My mother is coming for a week to look after the two boys while the childminder is on holidays.  This is great right ? After all, I consider myself lucky to have a mother that is still able to travel to do me a big favour like that. She's coming for the mid-term...

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Garda checkpoint

There was an article in the newspaper recently about the fact that there were more than 800 drink-driving arrests made by the Garda (The Irish Police force ) during the Christmas period. They set up multiple checkpoints around the country, and of course I ended up in one of them. At 3:30pm,...

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What do you eat for lunch ?

I've always wondered why Irish people don't really eat lunch. Sure they have Irish breakfast , which can stuff you right up to dinner time; but people just don't have the time to eat that every day. So why are they still not eating a proper lunch ? I eat in my workplace canteen every day, and...

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It's the little things...

The other day I was in the supermarket at the self-service checkout. I scanned all my items and paid. I then took a plastic bag on the counter, and realised I didn't pay for it. I said it to the shop assistant and his reply was: " Ah, sure  it's grand, not a bother". I offered to pay for it but he refused. I know it was only 22 cents, but I thought it was a nice gesture. I had a flat tyre...

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An Irish lesson

Irish homework My son brought back some Irish homework today. It was a sheet of paper with drawings as you can see above. No written instructions in English. The only words on the page were in Irish. There were also 3 small drawings at the top, which I suppose, were the instructions. The 3...

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I'll get a lot of slagging on Monday...

I'm actually surprised I didn't get any comments yesterday, but I guess the story about the French president having a mistress didn't break early enough during the day. I already know everybody in the company will have something to say about it and make smart comments. And I work in a very...

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I'm not really French

I've been lying all along... Sort of. Technically, I am French. I hold a French passport and I speak French. But I am actually Breton. You know, from Brittany, that region in the North West of France, there : Of course, when somebody asks me where I'm from, I say France first, but I quickly...

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Are Irish people less judgemental than the French?

Yesterday I went to the supermarket with my 2 and a half years old son, Ethan. He's an active child, to put it nicely. As we were in the shop, he started to run around, occasionally bumping into other customers, and of course lying on the floor in the main aisle. He wasn't acting up as such, but let's just say I had to remind him a good few times to behave himself and to follow me. We made our...

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The trip to Tramore and the old witch of Kilkenny

First of all, Happy New Year Everybody! May this year be better than the last and bring you everything you want ( for me it's a new car, I hope).  One of the things I told myself when I came here was that I wouldn't leave Ireland  before visiting every corner of the country. That's...

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