This French Life

Websites I've recently stopped off at

THE mist and clouds have been hanging heavy around the tree tops over the past few days, weather for web browsing so here are a few places I've stopped off.

La Fine Mousse quenches Paris’s thirst for craft beer
The popularity of micro-breweries grows in the French capital.

My sales & experience in the education app market - 2012 report
How the creator of a French language iPad app, as well as other languages, built a successful business from his home in France.

Inside Burgundy iPad ebook brings vintage tastes to Apple's iBookstore
Bringing a wine guide to the iPad lets its author try new ways of telling vineyard stories.

Launching a travel start up today
If you have used the Boots 'n' All website here is how it started, and the piece goes on to offer tips about growing an online business.

Blog spots: Tackling the twinkly stars

AS you would most probably expect from a former nurse, Diana Newnham's account of having a biopsy under the French health system is calm, composed and authoritative.

Diana writes of the 'twinkly stars' which showed up on an x-ray after a mammogram and her experience of the procedure to find out if they were cancerous.

Blog Stops: Highland Games in France, winter cooking and tea

highlandgames.canalblog.com par EBOBE
OVER the past few days I've enjoyed some interesting articles and blog posts so instead of keeping them to myself I thought I would point them out so you can follow the authors and their experiences of French life.

Remember if you enjoy the websites a short comment to add to a piece or just to say thanks will always bring a smile to a blogger's heart.

Cooking on a poele a bois - woodburning fire: Deux-Sèvres Life
I've used the top of the 'poele a bois' for heating soups, browning jacket potatoes (wrapped in foil, of course), warming plates, simmering casseroles - all standing on cast iron trivets - and as a heat source for proving bread rolls before cooking in the electric oven.

WoW l'Herault
If you are new to the Herault region of France then drop in and find out more about the local area.

Highland Games, Bressuire
Get in training in time for this summer's games, or just find out more about the Highland Games competition in Deux-Sèvres.

Tea and the working man – a tale of two countries: Michael Streeter
It is a cliché – and therefore true – in Britain that when you have a workman in your home the chances are that before long they will ask you for a cup of tea.

Four young men save elderly French woman from fire: France Today
In need of a break from all the usual doom and gloom you see, hear or read about in the news? Then how about the story of an elderly woman saved from an apartment fire by the quick thinking and bravery of some of her neighbours.

Sowing for 2012: Kitchen Garden in France
I sowed my first seeds of 2012 today. Just a few cauliflowers and some Antirrhinum's which I'm hoping to get to grow in a corner bed, I use for attracting insects into the "potager". I also planted up some pumpkin seeds I had germinated.... I know it's a bit early but hey!!

Spread your wings with some blogging tips

IF you have been thinking a little about starting a blog for your business in France, to pass on tips about a favourite hobby or just to write about where you live, here is a good starting point.

My friend, Andrea Wren, has been involved in a project that has tracked and recorded all the steps involved in starting a blog, regular updates have appeared in The Guardian newspaper, but for the full story drop in on Blogging Case Study.

Andrea has been working alongside internet specialist, Glen Allsopp, and over the past few months they have created the Butterflyist website, which aims to inspire people to spread their wings and travel.

The Blogging Case Study provides detailed information on starting a blog, and whatever your reason for setting one up you are sure to pick up some helpful tips and advice.

Blog Stops: Festive Paris windows, meeting Chirac

A PICK of Christmas posts, plus keeping the home lights burning if the electricity goes off and meeting Jacques Chirac.

Twinkle and Tinsel: Christmas Displays in Paris - Vingt Paris
Boulevard Haussman is the main drag where all the action happens. Just look for the crowds of people and you'll know you're in the right place (the more people crowded in front of a window, the better the display).

Post office doesn’t like brown packaging paper - Le Franco Phoney
The man at the post office explained that brown paper packages were no longer acceptable. Cardboard boxes are now the way forward. He mentioned ripping and lost addresses and suggested I gaffa tape the entire package and rewrite the address details in a thick marker pen.

The last Christmas of the world - Berry Deep France
This year there is tangible misery about Christmas. At work we didn’t have a tree, simply because someone forgot or couldn’t be bothered to put one up.

Electric power cut? Suggestions to help deal with it - Deux-Sèvres Life
I received a plea for help after the storms last week (12/2011) from a couple who only moved to France at the beginning of 2011. With pouring rain and a flooded courtyard, their electrics had completely failed!

Chirac's disgrace, my slight distaste - Salut
Our paths crossed a couple of times, once when I was among British correspondents he perhaps unwisely invited to the Elysée before an official meet-the-Queen visit to the UK, and later at the New Year's drinks party he threw for the press. Some of the reporting of that first meeting was harsh, but his chief mistake was probably in thinking it could be otherwise. And I'll never forget the man from The Guardian describing the grandfatherly paunch spilling over his waistband.

Blog stops: Photos, cars and more to explore

IF your week has been a bit tough then take some time to chill out and enjoy a few of the recent photographs uploaded to the This French Life Flickr pool.

Or why not take a stroll around some of the blog posts I've been reading in the past few days and make a new discovery or two.

Blog stops: Hopital Lariboisière, beyond the buzz of Paris

OVER the past few days I've enjoyed some interesting articles and blog posts so instead of keeping them to myself I thought I would point them out so you can follow the authors and their experiences of French life.

Remember if you enjoy the websites a short comment to add to a piece or just to say thanks will always bring a smile to a blogger's heart.

Blog stops: What do bees eat?

IT has been a busy time in the world of blogs about life in France, here are some of the articles that I've been reading.

"Escape the plate" thoughts on helping animals - France and the Unknown
I think I’m going to have to try and avoid markets where animals are being sold. I don’t want to dwell on it, but just in brief, my problem is that to me animals are just as important as humans – if those two bunnies were human slaves being sold at a market (let’s go back in time to when it was legal for this to happen) I would buy them and free them – even though it meant contributing to the system.

So, I assume, would a lot of people. Whether that’s irresponsible or not in our society, I can’t help the way I feel.

Web stops: Provence bike rides

THERE seems to have been many websites and blogs zipping through my web browser this week, here is a quick look at some that might appeal.

Blog stops: Genealogy in France

OVER the past few days I've enjoyed some interesting articles and blog posts so instead of keeping them to myself I thought I would point them out so you can follow the authors and their experiences of French life.

Remember if you enjoy the websites a short comment to add to a piece or just to say thanks will always bring a smile to a blogger's heart.