 Today, at BordeauxLife, we are very much looking forward to reading a new book. We adore our adopted city and wouldn’t change a thing but we would be lying if we said that the Bordeaux weather in January and February can be somewhat challenging. Cold, wet and still dark at early o’clock - well let’s just say it isn’t Miami! One of our favourite past-times is curling up with a good book and if that book makes us laugh, if it makes us think of long French balmy summer evenings and if it makes us feel slightly better about some of those silly mistakes we have made over the years, then all the better. Dan Jones has hit the nail on the head. His first novel - Extracting Goats from Jean-Claude’s Kitchen - is a wonderfully entertaining look at the challenges of expat integration to life in rural France. Whether Dan is contemplating the ins and outs of septic tank management or the pitfalls of “les bises”, his book is a combination of humour, empathy and a very obvious love of french life. Making mistakes, culturally or linguistically, is one of the pitfalls of moving to a new country (I still blush, some 10 years later, remembering my local butchers face when I resorted to mime, having temporary forgotten the words for “chicken breast”, and his cheeky response - “desolé Madame - j’ai n’en ai pas d’aussi gros”). Nice! We’ve loved reading the extracts and can’t wait to read Dan’s book in it’s glorious entirety. If you would like to order a copy then please click on this link www.danjonesauthor.com. A bientot.  Today at BordeauxLife we are doubly excited by yet another excuse to load on the calories with a Galette des Roi and the upcoming Winter Sales next week.
After a few glasses of sparkling water (dry January - please send help) we decided that we could have our cake and walk it off. Epiphany marks the end of the Christmas season and celebrates the day that the three wise men visited the baby Jesus to give their gifts and in France this is celebrated with cake. Each cake contains a little charm (une féve) and the person who finds it (and manages not to choke or break a tooth) gets to wear the golden crown that is sold with every cake and is king or queen for the day. Our top choice for cake (and bread, pastries, tarts and,and, and) has to be the Boulangerie Maison Lamour on rue Juadique. They don’t just offer the traditional frangipane galette but also a pecan nut version. We may try both. But enough about eating (for now) and on to shopping - the Winter Sales start on Wednesday 9th January. Sale periods in France are strictly regulated by the government and only held twice a year. Sales last for six weeks and discounts increase as the period progresses. BordeauxLife top tips
Whatever your plans are for the week - have a good one and happy bargain hunting |
Blogs At BordeauxLifeA mostly light-hearted look at life in South-West France Archives
November 2020
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed