France’s most searched dish
Tartiflette has been listed as Google’s top recipe search for France. So what is tartiflette and is the rest of the world going to jump on the bandwagon? First of all, you might be surprised to learn that tartiflette — …
Tartiflette has been listed as Google’s top recipe search for France. So what is tartiflette and is the rest of the world going to jump on the bandwagon? First of all, you might be surprised to learn that tartiflette — …
At a job interview, I asked about employee benefits. “Optional health insurance, flexibility, etc. etc. Oh and restaurant vouchers.” Having never been employed by a French business before, this benefit was a new one for me. I’d seen people handing …
Being a vegetarian in France is getting easier, with more products appearing on the shelves each month (and some disappearing, unfortunately). Supermarkets are finally jumping on the bandwagon, with many producing their own range of veggie options. At Intermarché supermarket, …
In France, it’s unheard of to start a meal with without saying “Bon appetit“. Cheese is served before dessert. Kids are shooshed if they talk loudly in a public place (making the parents far louder than the kids), and it’s …
There’s a reason that faux pas is a French phrase. As a non-French person, I’m constantly making mistakes with both the language and the culture. I reckon they invented it for foreigners. As mortifying as it can be to mix …
Apologies for the delay between blog posts: I suffered eight days of toothache after a root canal went wrong. The experience made me realise I don’t often talk about the more mundane aspects of living in a France. Visiting a …
Did you know that French stamps come in three flavours? Since October 2011, there have been different classes of mail in France. I doubt that my monthly rental cheque — which, after I post in the box in Saint Jean …
Brest is a long way away from where I live in the Aravis region of Haute Savoie, but it’s still part of France. Or is it? More on that later. I spent a long weekend in the region, catching up …
You know that saying: “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone”? Well, that was me with cottage cheese here in France. That weird, lumpy stuff that I shunned as a kid and grew to enjoy as an adult …
Just a few summers ago, the few Chinese restaurants in Annecy served less than authentic food, including omelettes and stir-fries using tasteless, pre-cut, frozen vegetables. Some were called ‘Asiastique’ restaurants, serving everything from Thai to Japanese — the authenticity watered …