This French Life

Author: Craig McGinty

  • Spotting the beetles of France

    France beetlesIF you spend a few hours in the French countryside you are sure to cross some of the meanest looking beetles ever to walk the planet.

    But if you have wondered what the different beasties actually are then a great piece by Susan, of the Days on the Claise, website will help you spot them.

    Her Big Black Beautiful Beetles article provides detailed photographs, info on where the different bugs live as well as their names in French.

    And if you are scared of such bugs I’d read the piece from a safe distance.

  • Inheritance tax black hole for same-sex couples

    Civil partnerships France
    THE inequality that same-sex couples from the UK, and elsewhere, face in France can see people have to pay massive inheritance tax bills.

    Here a reader of the site, Jerry, who has owned a property in France for nearly four years writes about his own experience of the system following the death of his partner.

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  • Explore photographs from France


    IF you need a dose of France from a far then drop in on the This French Life Flickr group, which offers pics of everything from old bicycles to Mont St Michel.

    And don’t forget if you have visited France over the summer, or have some favourite photographs from past adventures, feel free to add them to the group and share them with others.

  • Ten ways to make a success of your move to France

    Richard StewartTHE internet is peppered with tales of woe from people who followed their dream and moved to France in search of a better life, only to discover that things over here weren’t as advertised on A Place in the Sun, writes Richard Stewart.

    But why did they fail? And what can we learn from their experience? Here are ten things you have to consider before you take the plunge:

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  • Learning from The Book of Rubbish Ideas

    Book of Rubbish Ideas
    IF there was one thing I learnt from living in the French countryside it was the beauty and balance of the natural world around me.

    When out in the fields I would spot signs of the changing seasons, from the migration of cranes overhead to the swirling clouds of frog spawn in muddy puddles, all highlighting the delicate changes over time.

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  • Language subtitles added to YouTube videos

    Top Gear subtitledWHILST it has been possible for people to add subtitles to their video clips on YouTube, the service has now been made much easier for them to be properly synchronised.

    As PaidContent reports video producers can now add subtitles to their clips in a variety of languages, including French.

    For example, a clip from the BBC’s Top Gear programme has been enabled with French subtitles, and a number of others, letting you watch Richard Hammond gassing on while the translation runs below.

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  • Ian Walthew, author of A Place In My Country

    Ian WalthewWHY would the marketing director of one of the word’s most famous newspapers give it all up to move to the Cotswolds, and then leave that corner of England behind to head to the Auvergne?

    For Ian Walthew there were a number of complicated reasons but deep down he knew there was something missing, both in his heart and the countryside around him.

    “For me personally England was a place of loss, it was where I lost my brother, it was where I lost my father and that personal loss was mirrored in the loss of the English countryside around me,” said Ian.

    “The future of the local pub was that it was to become a gastro-pub, the future for my neighbour, who was a struggling farmer, was that at some point his barns would become executive homes for accountants from Oxford.

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  • Chatting on BBC Radio Manchester


    I AM set to chat about all things France on BBC Radio Manchester tomorrow morning – I have been pencilled in for 8am.

    If you want to listen to me waffling on, and don’t live in Manchester, then you can listen online through the station’s website.

    UPDATE: I spoke with BBC Radio Manchester’s Eamonn O’Neal and Dianne Oxberry about the different attitude in France to children in restaurants, and I highlighted how dinner table manners start in the school canteen and the importance in the French home of gathering together at mealtimes. Listen out for 20-month-old Lilly who steals the show.

    BBC Radio Manchester interview

    Or you click on the play button of the YouTube video.

  • Interview with Jonathan Trigell, author of Cham

    Jonathan Trigell
    THE snow fields and mountain peaks of the Alps have inspired artists for many centuries and for author Jonathan Trigell they lie at the heart of his book Cham.

    His novel tells of the almost spiritual enlightenment skiers feel when heading off piste through pristine snow above Chamonix, only to tumble back to earth like novices on a ski lift for the first time when the shot glasses begin to fill.

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  • Ten quiz question on France

    Van GoghHAVE a break for five minutes and see how good your knowledge of French life really is.

    Quiz master Andrew Whittaker has compiled another selection of questions featuring recent news headlines, but also a challenge or two of you knowledge of French cinema and tradition.

    The list of questions are below, alongside a .pdf that you can print off and take away with you, and feel free to hand them out at a get-together or similar event.

    Plus there are many more questions to tackle in the French quiz archive.

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