Now, Éminence Rouge is not actually a Life in France blog but I feel that it deserves inclusion here because of the immense amount of effort that Howard Copping (aka Abbé Henri Proust) has put into it. In any case, it make a change from all those Life in France blogs that seem to concentrate on Doog Poop in Paris, 2CVs in rural France, Lingerie and those incessant campaigns to make “Que je t’aime” the new French national anthem!

As it’s not a very personal blog, I asked Howard to say a few words about himself.

This is what he had to say… “We have a house in this very interesting little town of 2000 souls. The walled & moated ideal town of Richelieu is more or less unique in that it was built from nothing in the 1630s and has remained largely unchanged and unspoilt since that date. Although most of the building projects of the famous Cardinal in Paris (Palais Royale etc) and elsewhere have been overbuilt, much of this little town remains in its original state. Despite this heritage, the town is in a poor state, as the houses within the walls are generally too big and expensive for individuals to restore, but at the same time are too small individually to warrant the nationally-financed restoration they deserve.

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Let me tell you a story…

Are you sitting comfortably?

Yes, well then I’ll begin.

Once upon a time (actually twenty one years, four months and two days ago) a young American girl call Dedene moved to France.

That year (1989) was a very special one for the French people as it was the 200th anniversary of the founding of their republic.

The French celebrate their national day on July the 14th.

This just happened to be Dedene’s birthday.

So when the whole country went crazy with huge concerts, street parties, firemen’s balls and fireworks all over, the young Dedene thought it was all in her honour.

Well, perhaps it was and perhaps it wasn’t but whatever, it was only a short 19 years, 9 months and 26 days later before Dedene got round to starting her own blog - Bienvenue Chez Moi.

And, if you really want to see Dedene, back in the day, with her arm round a man with a seriously striped shirt, you could look no further than here!

By the way, Dedene doesn’t often mention mistaking France’s Bicentenaire of the founding of the Republic for a bit of a knees up in honour of her birthday – neither does she mention the man in the seriously striped shirt (I do wonder what became of him?)

And, somehow, I’m not surprised!

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A blog that I’ve been meaning to review for a long time is Jean and Nick’s blog, A Very Grand Pressigny.

This blog tells the story of how, as Jean says, two people, having spent years exploring France by motorcycle, eventually decided to buy a holiday home there. The story now continues beyond the point where we bought the little house in Le Grand-Pressigny. It tells the tale of the doing-up and our holidays there.

Jean goes on to explain that she is at the age where most people are looking after their grandchildren – but she is still riding her Harley and wondering what to do with her life.

So, what can Jean and Nick tell us about the Loire (or Harley’s even?)

Well, it appears, quite a lot.

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WCS is Walt’s blog which contains pictures and descriptions of life in rural France, some travels, and other stuff about him, his partner Ken, and their dog Callie.

WCS is a blog that was always going to find its way top my heart (or maybe that should read… my belly) as, out of the 1747 posts (yes, you did read that right!  Walt defines the term, prolific blogger!) 174 of them are about Food and Cooking.

A yummy example is Côtes De Porc Au Fenouil.  Mind you, if I was in a restaurant and had to choose between that and Tarte Tatin de Poireaux, I’d find it very had to choose which one to have.

In fact, to be honest, I’d probably be a pig and order them both!

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Now, I don’t want to say that Days on the Claise is a big blog but… for a blog that only been going since 2006, 889 posts is rather a lot of posts.

This is another of those blogs that I’ve been watching for a while, meaning to review but, never quite getting round to it.

Not the fault of the blog at all!  More the fault of the lazy reviewer!

You see, there just aren’t any bad posts on this blog.

You can dive in anywhere and come up with something good;  take a look at what I found…

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There are three reasons why I like Living the Life in Saint-Aignan so much!

The first is the author writes about food.  Cooking it, eating it, buying the ingredients and, above all, enjoying it!  You might almost think he was French the way he goes on about it!

Secondly, he goes mushrooming (or, at least he did this year), and writes intelligently and amusingly about his finds.  That makes him out to be both French and an all round decent chap, just for that!

Finally, when I was 11 years old I went on holidays for 6 glorious weeks in the Loire Valley.  I’ve always had a soft spot for that enchanted land – all those chateaux and all that water – so close to home!

The author of the blog (who really needs to change his name from Ken Broadhurst if he wants to really be mistaken for a Frenchman) says…. I’m an American from North Carolina who lives in France. I speak French and love French cooking, French history, the French language, and living out in the French countryside. My first stay in France was in 1970, and I’ve been coming back ever since.

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