THE mayor of Dijon, François Rebsamen, has been in Paris to put his case for Dijon to be awarded the status of ‘City of Art and History’, a status that has been awarded since 1985.
TO the strains of accordion music and the songs of Edith Piaf, thousands of people strolled around the exhibition hall at Olympia, in London, taking in The France Show.
ARE you tempted to tell the boss to keep his job, hand back the commuter season ticket, chuck all your suits in a bag for the charity shop and do something a little less stressful in France?
All well and good, but what’s the reality of taking such drastic action?
If you long to downshift abroad, it’s a good idea to look at the broader implications of this radical change and try to ensure you are not one of many who head back to the UK, with their tail between their legs, because it all went horribly wrong.
THERE is nothing like a waist-expanding Christmas to put you in the frame of mind for change, writes Tracey Smith. Especially if over-indulging in spending didn’t really jingle your bells.
Perhaps you found yourself craving more time with loved ones instead of shopping for them; it could be time to shift down a gear.
If you are aiming for a more self-sufficient lifestyle, look at the year ahead as a comfortable learning curve and prepare yourself as much as possible, perhaps for donning those wellies in the Ardèche.
IF your home is heated by fioul and you are living on a very low income then government support is available towards the payment of bills.
Householders who were not required to pay any income tax in 2006, and who have filled up their heating system from November 10 and up until January 31 can apply for a €150 assistance package.
More on Service Public: Chauffage – une prime à la cuve de 150 euros
THANK you for subscribing to the This French Life RSS feed, your free .pdf ebook will work on PC’s and Mac’s.
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In the ebook you will find an overview of the buying process in France as well as a selection of other articles.
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I RECEIVED an email yesterday asking if I knew how to get hold of instruction booklets for France Telecom telephones – I enjoy such challenges.
Naturally I thought a quick search of Google would do it, unfortunately the results are dominated by a website that is rather cumbersome to operate, but there is a section on the France Telecom website that is much simpler.
Its Notices des Produits page lists phones by manufacturer and then product name, with the manuals available in .pdf format so you can print particular pages off, or just save the document to your computer.
AT this time of year the market in Strasbourg draws thousands of visitors and events take place into early January, here Zach Spittler takes a tour.
Ahh, the smells of Christmas. Eggnog, hot chestnuts, candy canes, the distinct aroma of a pine Christmas tree filling the family room. Until this week, nothing else even compared. Those scents had history and tradition behind them, leaving them unparalleled by any other Christmas fragrance. Then I went to Strasbourg.
HERE is a handy new feature for users of Google Talk that will help you with translating words on the fly.
The big G has incorporated translation tools into its service so if you want to translate a word from English to French, you invite en2fr@bot.talk.google.com to chat, then simply chat the line you want to see translated.
Of course any translation tool is only as good as the software driving it, so I wouldn’t rely upon it for important work, but if you use GMail and have chat enabled you could translate phrases received in an email.
IT is important to consider what impact a move to France will have on your life, here Beryl Brennan casts an eye over some of the key things to consider.
