Thanks for the links /merci pour le lien
We're not living in the Essonne area but in Marseille, but it is very interesting for us too.

izzy

 

Yes, the weather is fine here...if you like the wind ! the old ladies can cling to the poles not to be blown away but their poor poodles often turn into living kites !
OK, it is a bit of an overstatement...but, hey ! typical Marsillian

izzy

 

Torrential ? Well, it must take that much water for the Périgord Vert to keep its green colour all year long. And the rain is a perfect pretext to find a shelter in a nice little restaurant and eat a traditionnal dish.

I cannot really complain about the rainy spring : we were in Edinburgh in August last year and even my partner who is 100% Scottish thought it was going to snow ! When we left on August the 27th, I had two jumpers, a denim jacket and (of course) a kagool on ! However bad the weather, a French spring canoot be as cold and rainy as a Scottish summer !

Don't get depressed, in only a couple months we'll have to moan about the wave of heat and the coming drought !

izzy

 

Well, funily enough, we would like to meet some and we can't find any in the neighbourhood. We arrived in Marseille in August to have a baby , my partner does not speak French at all and with the stress of the pregnancy then our new baby, he often feels a bit homesick. My English is very basic , so it would be good for him to meet other British guys living the same experience and have a good chat and get some tips, but where are they ? I think we need a massive British immigration wave here !

For the foie gras....well, I am a veggie so I won't encourage you to taste it: visit a farm first and see how they feed the poor ducks and geese ! And if you go back there in August, I don't think foie gras is recommended during a wave of heat: have a slice of watermelon instead (or some real tomatoes ), that will be easier to digest...and that counts for one of your five-a-day

izzy

 

Hurray ! my partner and I went to the supermarket together today and we bought SNAILS (for him) ! Not too bad, he only arrived here on August the 27 th and on March the 26 th, that's him ready to eat snails

Learning French takes a bit longer though, and it is abit of a problem because he has no British mates to talk to here and taking part in a conversation in French is very difficult for him, he has to give up after a few sentences.

But we have a beautiful 4 mo son now and he is going to be bilingual, so his Daddy will learn French in the same time as the baby, I think

It will sound a bit funny if a 45 yo Scottish guy starts speaking French baby language though! Imagine him in a pub : "bon zé eu assez de lolo maintenant,ze vais manger la poupou et au dodo ! "

izzy