Introductions

So who are we then? Let me introduce our little clan (names have been changed to protect the innocent and guilty alike...) There's me and husband 'Nobby', who is responsible for our current location just outside of Paris, and our 2 kids 'Poppet', age 6, and 'Pickle', age 4 and 3 quarters - the 3 quarters is very important, he has a chart to count the 'sleeps' until his 5th birthday, it's a serious business.

We have been living in France for 3 years and can confirm that all the cliches in books like 'Year in the Merde' are true! Seriously though, it is actually a lovely place to live and we have really enjoyed it. The children go to French school and are almost bi-lingual while we parents are still struggling to make ourselves understood. We've learned to live with some local customs, such as the shops closing for 3 hours for lunch, dog poop in the streets and ubiquitous cigarette smoke, and we've even adopted some others including agressive driving, queue-jumping and turning up late. At least we can see a doctor within hours of getting ill and the rubbish is collected twice a week...

Nobby is a Marketing Director and is responsible for launching a new product later in the year. I am a Domestic and Offspring Director, working from home, with responsibility for procurement, catering, financial planning, chauffeuring, valeting, training and ad-hoc project management. The pay isn't great but there are a lot of fringe benefits.

So this blog is mostly for family and friends to keep abreast of what we are up to over here. I should have started it 3 years ago of course but better late than never. We will be leaving France at some point in the next 12 months, not sure where to yet but I'll keep you posted.