Bonjour!
Next week we celebrate May Day – one of 4 national holidays this month in France. The shops are full of the scent of lily of the valley plants, as it’s a tradition in France to give them to loved ones on 1st May (you can find out more about why we do this in the podcast link below).
My chickens meanwhile, are full of spring fever, clucking coyly at cockerels George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Gregory Peck. I know you think that I am a little cuckoo when it comes to animals, but my friend Annette, who lives a couple of villages away, also keeps chickens and ducks, many more than me, is even more cuckoo than I am!
Once I visited her and she was walking so slowly that I thought she was in pain until she confessed that she in fact had an egg in her bra. A chicken had been sitting on a duck egg for a few weeks and decided to abandon it, but Annette said when she picked it up, she could hear the baby bird cheeping inside, and to keep it warm she popped it inside her bra. That night she went to dinner at the house of some friends, with the egg still in situ which every now and again cheeped out loud. She said she didn’t dare tell her friends because they would think she was bonkers – it drove them mad trying to figure out where the noise was coming from. The egg hatched the next day, a cute, fluffy little duckling that lived in the house until it was old enough to fend for itself, named Titania, after the Queen of the Fairies in Midsummer’s Night Dream of course.
Last week I nipped across the border of Pas-de-Calais where I live, and into Picardy to visit the new International Language centre which is a truly fascinating exploration of the history of language – French and others. I’ll be writing about it for the next issue of The Good Life France Magazine (subscribe here for free)! Next week I’m off to historic Arras in northern France, and after that I’ll be scampering up the side of extinct volcanoes and exploring Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne area in the southeast France. Come with me via Instagram as I post photos and videos on my journeys.
Wishing you a very bon weekend, wherever you are, from my little rural corner of northern France,
Bisous
Janine
Editor The Good Life France
Top photo: It’s wisteria time in France! This lovely photo of Sarlat in spring is by Pat Bruce
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Janine Marsh is Author of My Good Life in France: In Pursuit of the Rural Dream, My Four Seasons in France: A Year of the Good Life and Toujours la France: Living the Dream in Rural France all available as ebook, print & audio, on Amazon everywhere & all good bookshops online. Her new book How to be French – a celebration of the French lifestyle and art de vivre, is out now – a look at the French way of life.
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