Visitors to France often arrive with a head full of expectations and a deep desire to blend in with the country’s inhabitants. This is because the French are stereotypically regarded as casually chic, urbane and quick to judge (and probably dislike) tourists who commit minor infractions against manners and good taste. While it may [...]
If you should need a doctor, hospital or ambulance in France, these useful words and phrases might help you. If you need to call an ambulance try to make sure you can give location details and an update of the situation as best you can. Calling an ambulance in France 15 – The national emergency [...]
You scour the stalls of the street markets, haunt the antique shops and comb the second hand sales stores – you spot it, that special item. You want it but, you need to know how much and, if it is over budget how to get it at the price you want. Here’s a quick [...]
Since my last post I have been undertaking my French studies with renewed vigour – perhaps the approaching printemps (spring) is spurring me on, anyway I have now completed lesson 8. I found myself in conversation with my neighbour last week – never an easy thing as he tends to sprinkle it liberally with ch’ti [...]
So you want to learn to French – of course the best way is to attend a course, either online or at school and there are lots of great courses around, like Learn French with Alexa which lets you learn online at your own pace (we find her learn French podcasts very helpful too). [...]
Due to a hectic week following a trip to London for The France Show, I’ve only had enough time to take lesson 3 of my learn French with Alexa course. Everyone says that I’m just making excuses to give up as usual but it’s not true, I’m really determined to learn French this time and I [...]
The Good Life France brings you the diary of team member Mark, a fifty something British man who spends much of his time in France and yet, he has never learned to speak French. We thought we’d put him through his paces with Alexa Polidoro, a French lady who teaches French to English speakers with [...]
Alexa Polidoro is the internet’s favourite French teacher! Here at The Good Life France we thought we’d put Alexa’s teaching skills to the test. Mark who provides our technical support, spends a lot of time in France but – he doesn’t speak French. We thought it would be a grand idea to have him [...]
The Good Life France team met a lady who came to France 6 years ago to live – she had been going back to London every few months to get her hair done because she didn’t know how to ask for what she wanted in French. What is the French word for Hairdresser? A hairdressers [...]
The festival of Halloween is celebrated in France but with not quite the same amount of enthusiasm as the US or UK. It has grown in popularity since the mid 1990s but is seen as a little too commercial for French tastes. Nonetheless, the concept of Halloween is becoming more fashionable and so, [...]
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The papers are currently full of news about proposals to mount wind turbines on the beaches of Normandy – including at least one of the D-Day landing beaches. Some newspapers are calling it an “invasion” – emotional words, and this is a very provocative subject. The proposal is to erect 75 of the huge [...]
The Good Life France talks to Roger St Pierre – an award-winning writer who has visited every one of France’s 94 metropolitan departments as a cyclist, journalist, author and Francophile… Roger, who The Good Life France is honoured to include amongst its very talented group of writers, tells me he taught himself French by [...]
Well, it is with a heavy heart that I must tell you that the sheep across the road has gone to the great pasture in the sky. When I bought my house nine years ago it came with a sheep! The lady who owned the house before me had let the man across the road [...]
The allure of the good life in France and the charms of the beautiful town of Beziers ensnared British expat Mark Binmore who runs the highly successful Maison de l’Orb, a beautiful B&B. Mark told us that he lived in London since the early 1990s, worked as a pub landlord for several breweries, is the [...]
Expats in France Donna and Dave Faulkner fell in love with Deux-Sevres in the Poitou-Charentes region when they visited friends who lived there. When Dave was unexpectedly offered a job – they said goodbye to Britain and jumped head first into life in France in their new home which needed a bit of renovation as [...]
British expat Sue Aitken lives in south west France and runs Blackhen Education – a business that she set up after planning to move to Spain to be a teacher. She and her partner travelled through France on their way to jobs and a life in Spain but they fell in love with [...]
How two Brits met and changed their lives with a move to France… Chris was a veteran of 30 years in the Metropolitan police, running his own outdoor activity business specializing in mountain biking, walking and climbing, father to three grown-up children and mentor to many more. Charlotte was a classic single “Social Butterfly”, [...]
I was recently asked to write about expats in France, people who leave their homes in all areas of the world to go to France to live. I thought back over the years about the many expats I’ve met, interviewed (I am a journalist not just a crazy person going round firing questions at [...]
