A TIME TO PAUSE

As I write this, I am listening to One-Way Pendulum by The Johnny Scott Quartet and watching the start of a thunderstorm. It is one of those August evenings where the gaps in the clouds illuminate the sunflowers, and if I were feeling even more pseud-like than usual,...

THE JOYS OF BANK HOLIDAYS

May has seem no fewer than three Bank Holidays in the UK. In the next blog, we’ll feature the French alternatives but for now, and as I am in a nostalgic mood, here are ten reasons why life at the Chateau is better than a typical British Bank Holiday outing of the...

GRADUATION BLUES

How many readers have considered the joys of nothing? By that, I do not meansitting before the television screen as a combination of Judge Rinder andEmmerdale slowly reduces your intellect to a level somewhere below a trafficbollard. No, my vision is relaxing in the...

CELEBRATING AT THE CHATEAU

Sometimes the work of a humble blog writer is most challenging. Only a fewweeks ago, I begged the family to send me a few images of them enjoying lifeat the Chateau. ‘Let the photographs capture your trip’s many and variedpleasures,’ I begged. ‘Let “Joie de Vivre” be...

MARDI GRAS IN FRANCE

This blog is being written on the second day of Lent 2023, which might explain the author’s notably happy and equable temperament. On Shrove Tuesday, the kitchen was indeed depleted of its stock of eggs and butter, yet if we were celebrating in French fashion, our...