A trip to the cardiologist…

This week another first for me.

In France, if you want to join a club to do sport, swimming, tennis, football…. any sport you need to have a medical certificate from your doctor. Everyone needs a certificate, children and adults.

Early September I took Iona and Joe to the doctors for their medical certificates so they could join their swimming and cycling clubs.

Iona was fine, but after the doctor examined Joe he wasn’t entirely happy about the sound of his heart and said he thought there was a heart murmur. That was a bit of a shock..Joe thinks nothing about cycling 20 – 25km in a couple of hours and is always rushing about without any problems or breathlessness. We were assured that it was probably nothing but it should be checked out.

So, this afternoon we have been to the cardiologist. Joe was hooked up to all sorts of machines before and after exercise, he had an ultra sound on his heart. Incredible, we could see the heart actually functioning and the blood going in and out. Graphs were printed and peaks and troughs were analysed. He certainly had a very thorough consultation that lasted well over an hour.

At the end of it all the consultant was satisfied that although Joe has a heart murmur it is nothing to worry about.

So another first!… a trip to the cardiologist!

Why do the French put salad with EVERYTHING?

Delicious HOT roast chicken with vinaigrette ?

I love French food, I love the way the food is so simple and is cooked perfectly. It is not ‘messed about with’.

But, I still struggle with the ’salad with everything’ rule.

This meal was absolutely delicious, the chicken was full of flavour and the sauce was absolutely delicious then I get chicken, lovely sauce and vinaigrette in my mouth at the same time. Confused taste buds.

I now have a plan to deal with the rogue salad and vinaigrette that shouldn’t be on the same plate as a roast chicken… I divide my plate in two!… first I eat the ‘main course’, then the salad!… It works.. two meals in one… and no confused taste buds!

French Education

I like most things about the French education system. It is very solid. Respect and good behaviour are very important. Students must stand up when a teacher enters the room, insult another pupil and you risk suspension, insult a teacher and receive immediate suspension and detentions are given if you forget your books or pencil case.

BUT.. the students have to work hard, incredibly hard..too hard. The pressure is constant. There are evaluations in every subject every three weeks, there is at least 1 – 2 hours homework a night and most of the weekends are spent on schoolwork. The school day is long, Iona and Joe catch the school bus at 7.00am and get home at 5.30pm.

The homework and evaluation grades are important. Fall below a certain minimum and you are at risk of having to redo the school year again. In every class, and the classes are small 20 – 25 pupils, at least three people a year redo the same year.

All students have access to the school website which they can log into to access their homework, any timetable changes and the weeks’ canteen menu!. This year there has been a new addition to the website. Now you can track your grades in each subject either in detail or there are some nifty graphs whereby each student can track their average grade in each subject against the class average. Is this a good motivational tool or does it just add to the pressure?

Is too much emphasis placed on students grades?

French etiquette is beautiful but it can be awkward even for the French.

Faire le bise

Today I was asked, ‘Do your children still ‘faire le bise. ‘ when you drop them at the school bus, mais non tu es anglaise, c’est plus simple pour vous!’

When and when not to ‘faire le bise’, to kiss both cheeks when you meet someone.

As far as I can work out the general rules are:-

1) Usually women ‘faire le bise’ to men and women. Men always shake hands with men unless it is between male family members when men do ‘faire le bise’.

2) If you don’t know the person, male or female or if that person holds a position of authority then whether male or female, shake hands. Never kiss the school teacher!

3) ahh, but when do you know that person well enough to ‘faire le bise’.. Good question, and even then French don’t know the answer!… My rule is wait until the French person says, shall we faire le bise?

4)How often do you ‘faire le base’, i.e. if you see the same person several times during the day. Generally the first time you see them in the day and the last time in the evening

5) This kissing starts at collège (secondary school)… It can take my daughter a good 15 minutes at the start and at the end of the day to ‘faire le bise’ with all of her male and female classmates.

French parents kiss their children in public a lot more than we reserved English parents!..
It is quite common for children up to 14 -16 to ‘faire le bise’ with their parents when they leave then in the morning and when they are picked up from school.

Conclusions. I like it, it is a nice way to greet someone. You know with everyone, you either shake their hand or ‘faire le bise’. Sometimes in England I don’t know whether or not to shake the person’s hand when I greet them. Maybe a handshake is too formal?, but then to just say ‘Hello’ seems an insufficient sort of a greeting somehow….. Things can be just as awkward in England!

Went out to buy a baguette but bought a house instead!… It can happen!

Over the summer we have met and remet ( I don’t think that is a word!) lots of lovely people that have stayed in our gites and some of them became unwittingly (!) fully immersed into the French way of life!.. And now really understand how things happen here!

For the first time in the last 4 or 5 years I really noticed that there is a thirst for all things French and one couple even bought a house whilst they were here, despite, having no desire for a French property when they left Portsmouth!

We also have several gites let throughout the autumn/winter as couples search for their ideal French home! It is so exciting and I am envious of their journeys. A journey that we did 20 years ago when we bought our first house. Totally NOT by the book… We were on holiday and went to buy a baguette for lunch and ended up buying a wreck of a house with no water, electricity, drainage or a roof on our credit cards!

La Maison Rose - Laying the concrete floor in the lounge two years ago!

La Maison Rose – The lounge now

Since then we have bought 10 more houses… Once the bug bites it won’t go away.!…..so be warned, if you catch yourselves looking in Estate Agents windows look away quickly!..

However if you do intentially or ‘accidentally ‘ buy a French property we are always here if you have any questions about the miles of red tape of the masses of paperwork required!

There is also a house buying page on our website http://www.frenchgites.com/Tourism%20Brittany%20House%20buying.htm

Happy House Hunting!

In France there are as many pets as owners!

Dogs go everywhere in France, shops, restaurants, beaches..nowhere is forbidden

The most popular pet is a fish, but all the same, 19 million dogs and cats. One out of three French people has a dog compared to 18% of Germans and 22% of Brits.

In these difficult times there are some that abandon their dog but most prefer to deprive themselves rather than give their dog cheap dog food!

Another growing problem in France, and I am sure it exists in the UK as well is that dogs are being given human food and this results in more money being spent on the canine friend in medication for their teeth and more seriously, digestive problems.

In France, the pet market represents 3.5 billion euros pa and this figure is increasing.

Not only are dogs costly to their owners, they also cost a lot to the public purse, in La Rochelle alone where there is a population of 80,000, it costs 170,000 euros pa to fight against dog mess. This cost is increasing because prevention initiatives are put into place but dog owners are reluctant to clean up after their dogs. There are penalties in place for dog owners who allow their dogs to foul in public places but this is difficult and costly to enforce.

There seems to be a cultural difference, in the UK, dog owners are more responsible when it comes to cleaning up after their dogs whereas I have never seen a french person clean up after their dog. Similarly there is a cultural difference with regards to men relieving themselves by the roadside. In France, this is completely normal but very much frowned upon, if not illegal in the UK. I am sure there is a link here but I haven’t quite figured out what it is!

Working with your husband… Good or Bad?

La Maison Bleue

Mark and I have been working together for 15 years. Before that we both worked for large corporate companies in the City.

So it was a pretty big change to give up our secure well paid jobs to work for ourselves..and just to make things more interesting, within days of stopping work in the UK we moved to France with a 1 year old to a house that had earth floors and only water and electricity to one room!

Fifteen years on, we have two French companies and we are still talking to each other!..

Working for myself came pretty easily for me, my grand parents worked for themselves, my father has always worked for himself and so has my brother. So when I was growing up life was pretty flexible, work hard when the work is there and enjoy the slack periods.

One of the first things that Mark did when we moved to France was to convert one of the outbuildings into an office for himself! He likes to walk across the drive to his office and escape from arguing children and me ‘reminding’ him the bathroom window is STILL leaking!.. He also works listening to music whereas I can’t.

I much prefer to work in the heart of the house. I have carved out a small space at the top of the stairs where I can hear EVERYTHING that goes on both upstairs and downstairs. When the children were smaller I could work whilst they were napping or asleep and now I can work early in the morning without disturbing anyone.

We disagree about stuff, of course we do, but there is usually some middle ground or after a somewhat heated discussion and then the necessary reflection, one of us may have to admit that the other was right. We have always had our own areas of responsibility, and I think this is very important. Mark has always designed, developed and maintained the gite website whilst I do all the administration and lettings. Mark has renovated all the gites and now maintains them whilst I do the annual decorating.

We do spend most meal times discussing the gites, how they can be improved, should we do more advertising, should they be rephotographed, which rooms should be remodelled or redecorated… and I’m not sure if this is good or bad!

On balance we work well together and I think the main reason for this is that Mark and his Pink Floyd are in a separate building!

French Plumbing!

Posted by Nicole on February 2, 2016 | Edit

French plumbing gets a bad press at the best of times.. add cesspits to the mix and it gets even worse!..

Most British households discharge the waste from their kitchen, WC and bathroom into a mains drainage system and it all goes away and you don’t have to think about what happens to it once it leaves your home.

In many areas of France, especially in the countryside where mains drainage is not available, sewage has to be treated your garden (well under your garden!) in a Fosse Septique (Septic Tank). In 1992 a new law was passed handing responsibility for overseeing and regulating old and new waste water installations to the local communes, i.e. the Marie. The new law stipulates that all household waste liquids have to be processed in the correct manner, by means of a Fosse Toutes Eaux (a septic tank that accepts all waste waters) and filtration system. In the past, many households, especially in rural areas, have allowed water from the kitchen and bathrooms to bypass the tank altogether, allowing the water to drain into the surrounding soil or nearby ditch. Now, thankfully (!) all waste has to be fully treated before it is released into the environment.

It is not just very remote houses that have to rely on septic tanks, many villages do not have mains drainage. Réminiac has only very recently moved over to mains drainage and not all of the houses in the village can benefit from mains drainage. There are twenty or so houses right in the centre, next to the church which cannot connect to the mains drainage as the houses are on a very slight slope!

It is a hugely complicated process involving grease traps, bacterial digestion, filter beds and filtration processes where toxins and chemicals are removed.

Septic tanks are inspected every 5 years and as the laws concerning the filtration processes are continually becoming more and more stringent and I don’t know of a tank that has ever past the test!.. It may pass but then 5 years later it will fail as the regulations have become tighter. Our neighbour has just has a new septic tank installed … and this cost him €12,000 !…

Sewage treatment plant in your back yard!

The importance of wifi?

Enjoy free unlimited wifi at La Maison Blanche

The question is, would you like wifi in your holiday cottage?

It could be argued that when on holiday you want to be free of emails and social media. Just think how much more time you would have if you couldn’t check your emails or social media!.

But, whilst on holiday why not indulge in social media, check out websites you normally don’t have time to look at and email friends you have been meaning to email but have never got round to.

So, a tricky one and on balance we have decided to offer free unlimited wifi in four of our cottages and leave it up to you to decide if you want to use it or not!

For full details of all of our cottages see www.frenchgites.com

‘Galette’ appears on the French menu… but it can refer to three different dishes…

It is easy to be confused when someone starts talking about ‘Galettes’.

There are three types of Galettes and they are all very different… :-

1) Best described as a freeform pie

Galette no.1 (Open fruit pie)

The key to this type of galette is the crusty pastry.

2) A savoury pancake.

Savoury galette. Raw egg is optional!

This savoury galette is usually made with Buckwheat flour. One of the most popular varieties is a galette covered with grated emmental cheese, a slice of ham and an egg cooked on the galette. In France this is known as a galette complete. Another very popular variety particularly in our part of Brittany is a hot sausage wrapped in a galette (called galette saucisse) and eaten like a hot dog. Go to any village fête and the only food on offer will be a galette saucisse!

Galette saucisse

3) Galette des Rois.

My favourite!. Delicious combination of puff pastry and frangipane. Best eaten slightly warm and traditionally only on the 6th January, but I find that they taste very very good on any day of the year!

Galette des Rois

Wood a major heat source in Brittany

French chimneys smoking!

Right now, if I were to drive through any village or housing estate I would see chimneys smoking.

I can only speak for rural Brittany but I think more than 80% of the houses are heated by wood. Houses currently being constructed are still built with chimneys and wood burning stoves will be used to heat these homes. I wonder why? There are still a lot of woods and forests in Brittany but the price of wood is increasing which must indicate that the supply is being squeezed. I would like to know the cost comparisons of heating a house with wood and with oil fired central heating. With falling oil prices, I am guessing that the oil option may be cheaper but there you have a pretty expensive set up costs with a boiler and radiators compared with just a wood burning stove.

I am not even sure that other methods of heating are even considered. To heat by wood is to all the French the most natural way to heat your house. It is cultural. They have always kept themselves warm using wood and they will continue to do so.

It is true, nothing can compare to the warmth and smell generated by a fire. Something we see as a luxury the French just see as part of their way of life.

I have just discovered that the French have two Pancake Days

Crepes

Only in France could this be true!…

The first Pancake Day is called La Chandeleur  (Candlemas) and always occurs on 2nd February, which is 40 days after Christmas. This religious celebration recalls the Presentation of Jesus to the Temple, a decisive event that happened during the early years of Jesus.

The origins of the Chandeleur date back to a pagan feast: according to local customs, candles had to be lit at midnight as a symbol of purification. Chandeleur comes from the latin “candelarum” as does the English word ‘candle’.

It was also at that time of the year that the winter seed-time started. The surplus flour was then used without too much risk of shortage and crêpes were made as a symbol of prosperity for the coming year.

There are many Candlemas Traditions in France….

• One tradition was to light a candle in the church and carry it home without the flame going out. If you managed it, this meant that you would not pop your clogs in the coming year.

‘Celui qui la rapporte chez lui allumée. Pour sûr ne mourra pas dans l’année’

• To ensure that the crop would be plentiful for the coming year, it was an absolute must to eat pancakes. (If only I was a farmer….my crops would be very plentiful!)

‘Si point ne veut de blé charbonneux Mange des crêpes à la Chandeleur’

• If the elected tosser could flip a crêpe with one hand whilst holding a gold coin in the other, the family was assured of prosperity throughout the coming year.

• Quand il pleut pour la Chandeleur, il pleut pendant quarante jours.

If it rains at Candlemas, it will continue to rain for 40 days

• Quand la Chandeleur est claire, l’hiver est par derriere; Chandeleur couverte, quarante jours de perte!

If February is clear, winter is behind us. If the Chandeleur is overcast, winter will last another forty days.

The second Pancake Day in France is Shrove Tuesday which is just before the fasting period of lent.

As Shrove Tuesday varies every year depending on Easter does this mean that in France we must eat pancakes from 2nd February until Shrove Tuesday?…

Teenaged girls and Sport at School

Kayaking as a school sport

Sport is obligatory in all schools (up until 18yrs) in France but the amount of time devoted to sport declines as the child gets older.  Joe (12 years old) has 4 hours of sport a week, Iona (15 years old) has three hours per week and next year at lycée she will have to take 2 hours a week of sport.

The French Sport curriculum is not terribly focussed on team sports, and I am not sure if this a good or a bad thing. From my own perspective it is a good thing as I was pretty rubbish at sport and always the last one to be picked for any team sport!. This year Joe will do running, swimming, orienteering, judo, badminton, handball and circus skills. Yes, circus skills!!, quite how juggling and plate spinning can be deemed as a sport I have absolutely no idea!.

This year Iona can choose her sports. As with anything in France, this is extremely complicated!. Sport forms part of the brevet (GCSE’s) so you need to make a bit of an effort and not just stand at the back of the hockey pitch waiting for the bell to ring!  Iona does not enjoy sport (apart from swimming which she does religiously every weekend) so being able to choose the sports she does at school has really helped (well she doesn’t moan anymore about sport at school..which I take as her enjoying it…not the she would EVER admit it!). So this year, as part of her Brevet she will be tested on Badminton, Orienteering, Step, Kayaking, Table Tennis and Handball. The college also offers lunchtime Sports clubs which Joe goes to every lunchtime, but for the first time this year, Iona has enrolled in the Badminton class, so maybe having the ability to choose your sports does encourage girls in particular to do more sport… well, there’s a theory !

Let the decorating commence!

The gites are now empty for the winter so it is time to get out the paintbrushes and freshen them up for 2016!..

First up in La Maison Orange!, yes, starting with the smallest cottage to gently ease myself into smelling of gloss paint for the next three months!

La Maison Orange

The Ultimate Ferry Guide to Southern Brittany…. and there are some pretty good offers as well!

Posted by Nicole on January 15, 2016 | Edit

La Maison Blanche (sleeps 5)

One of the most frequent questions we get asked is… ‘Which is the best and cheapest ferry crossing from the UK to Brittany?’

As with most things, the ‘best’ crossing is of course the most expensive!..

So, this morning I have spent a couple of hours researching ferry crossings and prices.

For my research I have compared prices for a car and two passengers leaving the UK on Saturday 9th April and returning to the UK two weeks later on the 23rd April. When calculating the drive times I have taken to port to Réminiac which is in the depths of Southern Brittany!

THE CHEAPEST crossings are from Dover to Calais (P&O) where you can get a return sailing for £122. The downside is the drive time to Brittany is about six hours. The motorway tolls will be about €25 each way.

THE BEST crossings are to Saint Malo as the drive time when you arrive in France is only an hour and a half. But that of course depends on whether you prefer a longer drive or a longer ferry crossing. When my children were babies I took the Dover / Calais crossing every time!.. the theory being, they could cry and scream for 6 hours in the car and no one would hear them… To have them crying, screaming and grumpy on the ferry for 8 or 9 hours filled me with horror!… Now, they are older the longer crossing is better (the tablet is such a wonderful invention!)…, BUT it is expensive.

Brittany Ferries (Portsmouth / Saint Malo) costs about £335 return

AND THOSE CROSSINGS IN BETWEEN. Depending on where you live, Poole or Plymouth may be an easier option, and from these ports :-

Plymouth / Roscoff (Brittany Ferries) will cost £268 and the drive time is 2.5 hours.

Poole / Cherbourg (Brittany Ferries) will cost £240 and the drive time is 3 hours

Poole / Saint Malo (Condor) will cost £355 and the drive time is 1.5 hours

INTERESTING POSSIBILITY. DFDS offer sailings from Newhaven to Dieppe for £159 (but if you were to travel on the Friday 22nd the return sailing price goes down to £98) I think this is the best value crossing but the drive time is a bit longer, 4 hours. DFDS also has a great Special Offers Page.

MY PREFERRED SAILING is Portsmouth / Caen with a drive time of 2.5 hours and a cost of £240. Somewhere in the  middle of the cost and drive times!

VERY GOOD OFFER by Brittany Ferries. I have just discovered a very nice offer… Travel on any crossing to Caen, Saint Malo or Roscoff during April and stay for 4 days for just £69 per person, but you need to book before 2nd February. If you fancy a sneaky four day mid week break…drop me a quick email and we can sort out a gite deal as well!.. Check out which gite suits you best..www.frenchgites.com

20% OFF ALL BRITTANY FERRY CROSSINGS. Don’t forget we can offer you 20% off ANY Brittany Ferry Crossing.

La Maison Creme (sleeps 8)

Note – The ferry prices quoted were taken on 15th January for an outbound sailing on 9th April and inbound on the 23rd April.

Parisianism, is this the same as Parisian?

There are Parisians and there are the provincials and then there is Parisianism. What is that?

To find out more, I looked up the definition of Parisianism in the ‘Grand Robert de la langue française’, an authoritative dictionary.

Parisianism ;- a particular language and set of customs specific to Parisians. The  nature of what is ‘typically Parisian’, that is to say that concerns the socialite life of Paris.

To put it more bluntly…’superiority for some and inferiority for others, depending on whether you are Parisian or not.

As a Parisian once said…’Parisianism is a mentality if not a system of thought that tends to place in a hierarchy the quality of events, artistic productions, but also schools,. even people and their cultural and intellectual level according to whether they are situated in Paris or in the rest of France (the provinces, from the Latin pro vincia, the conquered ones…..)’

It is therefore no great surprise that the relationship between a Parisian and a provincial is a difficult one. It is a permanent jousting battle and a source of jokes amongst the French people.

There are also many songs devoted to this tempestuous relationship, one by Ricet Barrier, sums up the Bretons attitude towards the Parisian:-

The holidaymaker, when he drives, you have to throw yourself onto the verge.

You have to leave your hens in the hen house.

It is even worse when he stops,

All he thinks about is his stomach

I have to put barbed wire around my pear trees.

and it goes on…..