Bonjour,
I hope that you and yours are well.
This week I learned a strange thing.
Bread Man, who delivers the bread to our village and all around the Seven Valleys where I live in rural northern France, dropped off my baguette as usual.
“The last week of the holiday season” he said, “back to normal next week, la rentrée.”
If you’re wondering what that is, the French name the end of the holiday season and the restoration of daily normality – school, work, etc as “the return”, “la rentrée.”
I invited Bread Man in for coffee and a chin wag, a British term for a gossip or a chat, though I rather like the idea that we sit about wagging our chins like happy round-the-wrong-way dogs!
Bread Man is a source of fascinating facts. He drops them into the conversations we have like Hansel and Gretel dropping navigation breadcrumbs!
“Old man Fontaine has a new donkey up at the Chemin of the Lost Lady” he said. “Horrible creature, it tried to bite me when I held my hand out. I didn’t call it a name though we don’t have a law against slandering a donkey here. They do in Brittany you know.”
He sipped his coffee and watched me with narrowed eyes over the top of the cup, waiting for my reaction.
“What? Surely not, you’re pulling my leg, having me on.”
“Non” he grinned. “In the town of Saint-Léger-des-Prés, it’s illegal to insult a donkey, like calling them ‘jack-ass, or dumb-ass’, it’s not allowed” and he rocked with laughter making Tigger the Cat – who hates everyone, except me and Bread Man – jump from her lookout position on the windowsill.
Of course I had to check and he’s right. And what’s more, if anyone is caught insulting a donkey in this little town, that person must present the donkey with an apology in the form a carrot or other donkey treat. True story. Stay tuned for more fantastic Bread Man nuggets!
In a couple of weeks’ time, I’m off to Nancy in northeast France to explore the city’s art nouveau charms, and especially its gastronomic credentials. And then I’ll pop to Paris for an adventure. I will be staying at the hostellerie of the Basilica of Sacre-Coeur in Montmartre, whose terms and conditions are that you must spend at least one hour in the Basilica between the hours of 11pm and 6am when it is closed to the public – a spiritual experience, a silent watch. And I may pop to a fashion show catwalk event! Come with me on my trips via Instagram – I’ll post video and photos as I go.
Finally, after I mentioned my upcoming week-long Perfect Paris Tours next year, thank you so much for your lovely comments. I’m looking forward to meet some of you in Paris! You can find details here for the Spring tour and here for the Fall tour.
Bon weekend from the middle of nowhere France!
Bisous
Janine
Editor
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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