Coping with loss

  My aunt "Tata Titine" in the traditional costume around 1940 My aunt passed away at the week-end. In a way it was expected. She was 92 and for the past few years had been in a retirement home. She was more like a grandmother to me, and I have very fond memories of her. She had a strong...

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Saying goodbye again

Is it harder to say goodbye to someone you know you'll never see again?  A friend of mine, who just went back to France explained to me before he left that, in his opinion, it was less painful to say goodbye to someone he knew he would meet again at some point in the future. And it was harder...

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Book review: Petites confessions, "A humorous memoirette"

I think at this stage you have realised I'm addicted to Vicky Lesage's books. And you'd be right.  For those of you who have landed on this page by mistake and wonder what it's all about, I've already reviewed Vicky's books here and here.  The Petites confessions is a collection...

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French connection

  Where I live... I never actively looked for French friends since I'm in Ireland. In my mind, I was going to a new country, my main goals were to speak English and discover another culture. I didn't really want to speak French and I didn't see the point of hanging around with people from...

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Breton-French vs Hiberno-English

Happy Paddy's day everyone!  Today is about celebrating what makes Ireland and Irish people so special. I previously talked about what Irish people say but don't mean, but what some of them don't realise is that they also say things nobody else in the English speaking world understand. Irish people speak what it's called "Hiberno-English" (or Irish-English). It means that a lot of expressions...

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New design!

I have finally given my blog a new face and I hope you like it. It was bugging me for a quite a while and I was fed up of my old theme so I spent a fair amount of the time at the week-end looking for the perfect template. Too much choice kills the choice and my indecisive nature didn't help at all. I must have gone through hundreds of different templates before eventually finding this one. I...

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Trip planning headache

I come from the greatest region in France. I assure you, Brittany has beautiful landscapes, a very rich history, a strong sense of culture and identity, food to die for (remember the crepes and the langoustines?), great weather (Nah, just kidding on that one!)... The only teeny tiny issue is that...

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