Meanwhile, here in France - Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

What’s Provence got that Brittany hasn’t? That’s what I’d like to know. Go on, answer me that.

Admittedly, Provence does get a lot more sunshine than we get in Brittany.

And, the winter rainstorms down there don’t last for months as they do up here (I once heard of a winter shower in Finistere that lasted for 13 years!)

And perhaps the olives do grow a bit better down south.

And possibly Provencal winters aren’t spent up to your armpits in mud.

And it must be rather nice sitting around in the sunshine, drinking Pastis and listening to the Stella Artois theme music being played on a mouth organ.

But, apart from that, what’s Provence got that Brittany hasn’t?

Now , don’t get me wrong; I’m not bitter and twisted.  I love living in Brittany and, for me, it is the best part of France.  It’s just that sometimes, in the middle of winter, when it’s been raining for three or four years without pause and I’m up to my neck in mud I do wonder if I may have made a little mistake somewhere down the line?

One thing’s for sure; Provence has got an awful lot of bloggers.

And one of the most prolific of them all is Ruth, whose Meanwhile here in France sets some sort of standard for lazy bloggers like me who would rather sit around complaining about the rain (and the mud up to the neck, don’t forget that!), than get down and actually do some blogging.

Meanwhile here in France covers subjects as diverse as Smelling the Flowers (in which we learn that Haydn was a rather ugly man. He had very short legs and a very large nose!) and  Snow and Sunshine in Provence, with Ruth claiming that she lives in Narnia.  I don’t know about the Narnia bit but that little dusting of the white stuff wouldn’t rate a moments second thought up here in icebound Brittany.  There’s also a beautifully foodie post about a Simple Supper which has to be tasted to be believed!

The article about the Thunderstorm is illustrated with a photo of two lovely Ceps (it’s funny what turns me on these days….) which automatically confirms this as one of the Great Blogs of France (told you I’m mushroom fixated!) and the obligatory Two Cats Kissing photo (all the best blogs have one) is entitled  Easter Snog and even had my two monsters asking me “Daddy, why did we move to Brittany and not Provence?”

As well as being a blogger, Ruth is also some thing of a musician (take a look at her other site… www.RuthPhillips.com) and is married to the painter,  Julian Merrow-Smith who site, Postcard from Provence is enough to make anyone want to jack in a perfectly good job, sell the wife and kids and hitch-hike down to the south of France to become a painter (the Moon and Sixpence, anyone?  Or am I thinking about The Rebel?)

Amongst the five years of blog entries are delights such as … Happy 900th Birthday, Julian (he doesn’t look that old but I have heard that people weather better in the sunny south that they do up here in the frozen wastelands of Brittany), Provencal Big Hair (we do big hair up here too, in the muddy fields of Brittany, I’ll have you know!) and Dancing (no, don’t worry, I’m not even going to start to try and explain the sort of dancing we do up here – you’ll have to visit a Fest Noz to see for yourself – Good luck, you may need it!)

So, if you ever wondered what life was like down in sunny Provence, where everyone sits around all day wearing berets, drinking Pastis and listening the the Stella Artois theme music in the sunshine; wonder no more.  Go visit Meanwhile here in France – you’ll need to pack your bikini (the women readers of A Taste of Garlic might want to do that, as well) and leave your wellington boots at home – it’s more of an espadrille sort of place!

And me; well, I’m off down to the boulangerie.  I’m going to put on my waders and I’ll take my snorkel as well.  That mud looks pretty deep! And I daren’t even think about the snow drifts…. I’m going out for a walk and I may be gone some time!

All the best

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