The French Village Diaries is the blog of the Brown family who live in a village called Loubillé in the Poitou-Charente.

And the Brown family consist of…

Husband Adrian…

Son Ed (who has his own blog at English Kid in France) and

Jacqui (BlogMistress) and rather a lot of animals and birds and things….

And, I’ve heard through the grapevine (Jacqui and Mrs A Taste of Garlic swap smoke signals on Facebook from time to time)…

That Jacqui likes gardening and…

More importantly…

Is rather a good cook!

So, lets wash our hands and dive into….

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A new blog on the block that may be of interest to some of you is English Kid in France.

This is Ed’s blog and Ed says…

“My blog is about life in France from a child’s point of view. Having a bilingual life speaking French at school and English at home, growing up on a little fermette (small farm), and just generally living in France.”

By the way (and you’d never have guessed it), Ed is just 11 years old!

Now, I’m going to get round to reviewing it once Ed has got a few more posts on there but….

You might want to take a look at some of Ed’s writing or…

His Hot Tip of the Week

Or just catch up on his Blog?

Anyway, I’m sure it’s not for me to say but…

If any of you have children who are thinking about starting a blog (a great way for expat kids to keep up their written English skills?)…

Perhaps they might want to get in touch with Ed?

He seems to have made a great start!

All the best

P.S. I like your Chief Inspector Haddock story – carry on with it so that I can find out how it ends up!

The Overloaded Ark is Richard Brown’s blog and details his life with ten million animals in Loubille, Poitou Charente.

Richard describes his blog as…. “Thoughts of a retired couple living in la France profonde How to maintain and enjoy an ancient farmhouse.”

And lists his interests as… “Books drawing photography collecting pocket knives”

So, nothing about Citroen 2CVs, Lingerie Wearing Nuns or even Wild Mushrooms?

A bit despondent, I thought I’d take a look anyway.

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Baguettes and Roses is the blog of Katie Anderson who introduces herself in the following way… “I’m Katie Anderson and I moved to France in 2004 after working as a broadcaster for the BBC.

One thing I discovered is that living in Poitou Charentes isn’t all about basking in the sun and eating baguettes.

My blog is all about my life broadcasting, podcasting, writing, running a busy restaurant and seeking out gorgeous designs for my Vintage Homeware business.”

Now, I haven’t got the faintest idea how I stumbled on this blog but I’m certainly glad I did.

I determined to review as soon as I read the first post, Vintage Clothing treasure hunt from January 2010, where Katie describes “people fighting over Johnny Halliday records!”

How could I not review this blog?

A very thoughtful post about A wise man (with a poem) convinced me!

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Prunings from the Vines is Andy’s blog about his life in the Cognac area of the Charente.

I say that you can always tell the man from photos taken of him in the 70′s.

In Wish you were here we get to learn a bit more about Andy.

Groovy sandals, Man! Groovy beard!

He’s a bit of an old Rocker, isn’t he?

It’s obvious that Andy used to (and probably still does) like a bit of music.

Now, whilst I’m firmly an Elgar, Mozart and The Nolan Sisters man, I do like to wave my bald spot in time to some more modern music!

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My Life in the Charente is Diane’s blog.

Diane says that “At the moment I live in France for the summer and in the UK for winter. As soon as my husband retires then France will become our permanent residence. Meanwhile he takes as many holidays as possible to join me during the summer. Before this I lived for many years in what was Rhodesia and then South Africa.”

My Life in the Charente is a blog that was bound to come to my attention with posts like Old Vehicles, Two and Four Wheels.

I counted 17 2CVs – there may have been more but, by the time I got in to double figures, I was so excited that I may have missed a few!

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I was busy working on a post about a wonderful Paris blog when my Google Reader indicated a new post by Equine Rescue France.

I took a second to take a quick look and then, after a bit of thought, decided to create an ad-hoc post here to bring it to your attention.

I will warn you that some of the images on the Equine Rescue France site are quite disturbing but I do believe that they, and the work that Equine Rescue France perform, need to be brought to the widest possible audience.

I’ll say no more; it’s not for me to tell people what they should or shouldn’t eat (I’ve eaten horse and enjoyed it)  but even a carnivorous (if it moves, I’ll cook it rare and eat it), ex-abattoir worker like me knows that Being Cruel to Animals is just wrong!

I’ll be making a donation to Equine Rescue France as soon as this month’s chômage comes through….

I hope what little I can afford is a help?

I hope the horses can wait that long?

I hope that you might be able to find a penny or two as well?

The post is at Investigating Horse Markets – Our Findings.

There were 762 unique visitors to A Taste of Garlic on Saturday; if each of us could afford a few euros, what a difference that would make!

All the best

If you like a Taste of Garlic, why not share it with your friends on Facebook

Haddock in the Kitchen is a blog that I’ve been following for a long, long time now.

I also follow Helen on Facebook (and one day I’ll work out how to use Facebook properly!)

The author of Haddock in the Kitchen is Helen Aurelius-Haddock who, according to her about page….

“lives in France. I moved here in 2004. Our home is in the Poitou Charentes. I wear many hats – wife, mother, teacher, renovator of old houses, and more recently , blogger and writer. I have wanted to write for some time and blogging has allowed me the accessibility to writing I was looking for. Having a laptop in the corner of my kitchen helps as well. My master plan was to write . I do that, here and other places too.  I want to write a book about my experiences here, as I have a story worth telling to others.”

Helen also writes for Flavour Magazine, French Property News,  Haddock’s Daily on Twitter, The Connexion and The Daily Telegraph.

A busy girl, eh?  But it is Haddock in the Kitchen that I am about to review.

So, bib on, belt loosened… let’s tuck in!

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Anji Patchwork is a blog that has been going since the beginning of time.

Well, since the beginning of the internet anyway.

Well, to be absolutely precise, it’s been going since 2003 but, that is a very very long time in blogging terms.

What gives this blog that enduring quality?

Well, Anji is based in La Rochelle and does something with vintage postcards (actually, she is a professional power seller on ebay, whatever that is – I’ve yet to be let loose on ebay and she and her husband have made over 5400 sales and have 2000 postcards on display!)

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Having spent far too much time in Paris recently (purely in an electronic sense), I decided to head out to pastures new.

I ended up in Poitou-Charentes at the lovely blog known as Bellebouche!

Bellebouche tells the ongoing tale of restoring an 1850′s farmhouse that was first spotted on a hot, sunny day in September 2004.

According to Adrian and Joan, it…. “looked like a great place that was in need of some TLC. Bits of it were more derelict than they looked, other parts less so.”

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An ‘Old Biddies’ Life is Trisha’s account of her life running a Bed and Breakfast in Deux Sèvres (more details here… La Tranchardière) and downsizing at the end of it all.

Trisha says that she’s been married forever to the same man, is mother to 3 lovely daughters and grandmother to 4 delightful grandsons and 3 beautiful granddaughters.

Trisha blogs about the weather, good or otherwise,  a fair bit….

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A Little Drop of Cognac is Graham Downie’s blog. Graham is a property professional with over 20 years experience with Savills & Chesterton and who has lived in Cognac since 2003.

Although many of the posts are to do with buying and selling property, this really is a personal blog as entries such as…  French Schooling,  Thumbs up for a French Christmas and Felicity Kendall eat your heart out will attest.

However, Graham does offer plenty of free advice on property matters on this blog and these articles are interesting, even to me (and I’m not looking to buy any time soon.)

The other posts cover such diverse matters as… How not to earn a living, Living in France, the reality and Now, that’s what I call a party!

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Equine Rescue France is the blog of ERF, a not-for-profit association created by like-minded individuals in the West of France who are all passionate about welfare in both the short and long term, and are working to promote the well-being of equines in France.

I’ve got to warn you, at times the blog can be a bit upsetting – I can’t believe that people would abandon their horses and donkeys and am glad that there are people about to sort out the mess afterwards.

I’m pretty sure that I’m going to ask the people behind ERF for  an interview – their project just seems such a worthwhile thing to do.

Rather than ask my own silly questions, I’ll probably throw open the questions to all the visitors to A Taste of Garlic so that you can ask your, probably less silly, questions too.

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Boris in Cognac is a strange blog in that it is written by Boris (who else), who happens to be a six year old Old English Sheepdog!

For a six year old, he certainly writes well!

I do have a sneaking suspicion that some of the posts are written by his owners (Clive and Craig) but I’m sure that Boris had editorial control!

The reason I say this is because of some of the posts, such as…. An Irish Prostitute – not really doggy sense of humour, is it?

I’ve asked permission to interview Boris for A Taste of Garlic and, once I’ve worked out what sort of questions are suitable for a six year old dog (I don’t know how that equates to people-years and don’t want to ask anything too old for him), I’ll publish the interview here.

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I knew I was going to like this blog.  How could anyone not like a blog a that starts with the words… “OH DEAR GOD, what have I done?”

tout sweet is the blog of Karen Wheeler.

Karen describes herself as … “the former Fashion Editor of a well-known British newspaper – now a freelance fashion and beauty writer, living in a small and unfashionable French village in the Poitou-Charente.”

As well as the opening sentence, I also got the feeling that I was going to enjoy tout sweet when I read articles such as… serial killer, how to keep a minx and bell bottoms!

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A Night on the Tiles is Stewart Paterson’s blog about working in a tile factory.

Because he hasn’t updated it for a few months, I wouldn’t normally include on A Taste of Garlic but…. having myself spent 600 years working in a Pig Abattoir (was it only 6 years – it seemed an awful lot longer!)

I felt that I had to let people know that sometimes there is more to living in France than sipping Pastis outside a sunny restored farmhouse overlooking the lavender fields.

Now, I do have to warn you that some of Mr Paterson’s posts contain rude words -  please forgive him and try to bear in mind that he does work in a tile factory!

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My Photo Blog is the (wait for it….) photo blog of La Spice.

La Spice lives in the Poitou-Charentes region of France and takes photos that somehow sum up much of the experience of living in France.

Whether she’s taking photos of sunsets or bumble bees, La Spice seems to get the ambiance just right.

I think that my favourite photos are these two at… Still Waters but it really was a very difficult decision to make – too many great photos, too little time!

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