What a privilege it is

@ourfrenchvillagehouse Talloires

What a privilege it is.

Beaufort d’été. If you haven’t tasted this raw cow’s milk French mountain cheese with its distinctive concave heel, come … try. I challenge you to place a sliver on your tongue and deny your eyebrows a dance of tastebud synchronicity. AND at 26 euro per kilo (it’s triple that in Australia) you might feel inclined to re-engage with the charming, jolly cheesemaker who has captured your attention and ask for more.

“Je prends cette tranche ici, s’il vous plaît.” (I’ll have this slice here, please.)

 

Ooh. Seduced I must have been as it weighed in at a hefty one kilogram plus.

It felt like the right amount this morning at the Thônes market. But doesn’t it always when one is strolling in sans-coat weather under a bright blue sky and where the pre-market coffee and the friendly stallholder chit-chat stroke your cheeks and leave a trace of rouge.

 

It was a day off from the inevitable return-to-France, long days preparing our French village house (@ourfrenchvillagehouse) for its summer guests. The still snowcapped mountains of the Aravis knew to sparkle a spectacular welcome and the Reblochon Fermier (from the Reblochon capital), nine plump white asparagus, a fennel bulb and a basket of strawberries jumped at the opportunity to join our weighty bag of cheese.

Such a privilege to then carry our goods home and with my feet encased by tiny daisies to stand under the shade of the tilleul tree in our back garden and search against the cliffs of the Dents de Lanfon for the puffs of colour that I know to be paragliders.

From our back garden in Talloires

It is so special. When absent I forget how unique this beautiful corner of the world is, but am rewarded each time with an extra shiver of re-discovery.

Delayed by a month, we made it back to France a few weeks ago, landing in Paris to reunite with our eldest daughter (flyingpossum_illustrations). Together, we undertook a road trip into Germany to spend time with daughter number two before heading south towards Annecy where serendipity brought us to Kate and Nathan’s front door (la_grande_maison_burgundy) and the opportunity to embrace another pen pal of the modern era. if you are travellling in Burgundy, look them up. You won't regret it.

Kate and me @la_grande_maison_burgundy

 

Joy, beauty and gratitude in spades.

Here are the links to all my books:

French series Italian series

And, as always, you can find me on Instagram here.

Live in Italy, write about Italy, sit an Italian exam ...

Orgosolo - Sardegna

Live in Italy, write about Italy, sit an Italian exam ... yes, a bit one-tracked, I admit, but these were my goals for 2025 and as of a few days ago, the last of these was ticked off.

Honestly, I am now a bit lost.

For me, writing is all consuming. When I start a project I have to keep going until it is done. Fortunately, I have a husband who understands, stokes the fire, shops and cooks for those intense periods - and for that I am grateful.

Two books were not my intention when I began. But writing about Italy was. In fact, this story ... these books ... have been playing on my mind for more than ten years. And to complete a task, follow through on an idea or take actionable steps to fulfil a dream are what keeps me going. 

By October, I was ready to publish, but I waited until Nov 1. This date was important to me as it marked ten years exactly since the publication of my first memoir But you are in France, Madame. From accidental writing beginnings, never could I have imagined that ten years down the track I would be publishing my seventh book. It was a 'wow' moment for sure.

That done, my next date loomed. By December 4, I needed to be ready to sit an Italian language exam. Decades had passed since I last sat a formal exam and my nerves were in full derail mode. But, I walked out of the exam room, not only relieved and exhausted, but on an emotional, humanity-is-good high.

Let me tell you about it ...

The onslaught of Italian began with ringing the doorbell to the exam centre and my head, my mind, my body was not ready. But, I had four exam parts to complete: Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking.

"Terrorizzata" was how my examiner described me when we were chatting at the end. I didn't know the word. I certainly knew the feeling. In fact, the first play through of the Listening Test was a complete blur. The only thing going through my head was 'I should be listening, the exam is happening, I really should be listening...' 

Listening component done. Fingers crossed.

"Would you like some water?"

"Oh, it's OK. I have my water bottle, thank you."

A bottle of cold water was brought.

Onto the reading test.

I had calmed slightly.

"And now we have la pausa. Would you like some coffee?"

Wait, what? I've never been offered coffee mid-exam before. But this was Italy in the suburbs of Sydney - or at least Italians hell-bent on making sure that all candidates were greeted and treated like family.

With a little bit of chocolate ... 

I don't know if I have passed the exam as the papers need to be sent back to Siena and, true to the snail pace of Italian bureaucracy, I won't for months. But, it, the result, (almost) seems secondary. The examiners wanted us to pass. They were not there to judge, scrutinise and make us feel inept. They were there to encourage and support us.

What a revelation.

What a wonderful way to approach education.

With a copy of their newspaper and museum guide as parting gifts.

I can't say that I would rush to put myself under that sort of pressure again, but in amongst the current darkness of parts of the world, kind people exist. 

It was a good reminder.

If you have already added Book One, But you are in Italy, Signora: Prelude to an Italian Spring or Book Two, But you are in Italy, Signora: Diary of a Tuscan Beginner to your To Be Read list, that is wonderful news.

If you have read and enjoyed them, a review would be so helpful. They guide others to our story in a world that is both shying away from reading books and becoming increasingly reliant on the views of others to make decisions.

Here are the links to all my books:

French series Italian series

And, as always, you can find me on Instagram here.

Buon Natale, Joyeux Noël, Happy Festive Season and thank you for another year of support for my writing efforts.

Writing a book. What did I do?

Each writer has his or her own method and mine will not work for everyone or every genre. But, for those of you who have contacted me with an idea and a goal to write a book - this blog post is for you.

• I roughed out a timeline for finishing and made it generous, hoping that I could bring it forward.
• Before writing a word of the book, I made notes regarding the message I was trying to relay, thought about the feelings and themes I was trying to evoke, and, more significantly, tried to work out what the project meant to me.
• When ready, I wrote every day. 
• I aimed for 1000 words per day, whilst wanting and hoping for more.
• I broke the day into sections – before coffee (300 words), before lunch (up to 600 words), before finishing I wanted to have 1000+ words down. 
• I did do some research along the way, but my priority was getting the words down.
• At the end of each day, I recorded my total word count and how many words I had managed. Keeping an eye on whether I was on track to make my target date was motivating.
• Early on, I drafted a blurb outline and re-visited this sporadically.
• At around that time, I drafted my introduction and conclusion and consulted these frequently to help with the overall cohesion of the project.
• First draft done. Smiled with exhaustion.

• Then came the editing:
• First pass for strength of writing. 
• Second pass, word frequency.
• Third pass listening to the drafts with Word ‘Read Aloud’ function.
• Sent off for proof copies (by this stage it had become two books)
• Fourth pass. Reviewed the print books, pencil in hand. Tightened paragraphs that didn’t flow. Edited computer document.
• Fifth pass reviewed the word document – spelling, grammar, dialogue tags, missing question marks, comma use.
• Sixth, seventh passes – Read through keeping an eye on individual sentences as well as overall story. Looked for consistency between books 1 and 2.

• 
  

At my desk

• Dreamt it. Talked it. Reviewed it. 
• Chose launch date.

Now waiting.

 

But you are in Italy, Signora: Book One

Prelude to an Italian Spring 

and 

But you are in Italy, Signora: Book Two

Diary of a Tuscan Beginner

out on November 1 2025.

I hope that helps. Let me know. 😍

Please find below links to my 5 books (including Books 1-3 in my 'French at Heart' series). With thanks.

The links should take you to where you need to go, wherever you are in the world, to make a purchase.

• But you are in France, Madame: One family, three children, five bags and the promise of adventure living in the French Alps
• Weaving a French Life: An Australian story
• Love, fear and a return to France: A family memoir
• With bare feet and sandy toes: Growing up in Australia in the 1960s & 70s
• Talk and Play with your Child in French

Back to Burgundy

 

Burgundian countryside

Kate, it is hard to believe that it has been nearly two years since we last chatted about your French journey. At that time, you and your husband, Nathan, were navigating visa constraints and travelling back and forth between your homes in Australia and France. However, following you on Instagram, I know that there has been an exciting development in your French lives of late. Tell us more.

Thank you so much for reaching out to me and again being interested in our life here in France.

Things have definitely changed for us over the past two years. We made the decision to sell everything in Australia……our French restaurant, our house, our car and we packed everything up into two pallets worth of belongings and shipped them all to France.

Just reading this back it sounds quite crazy and a lot of people probably think that we are, but we followed our dream of living in France permanently, and without any children or family ties in Australia it was not a huge decision to make and we just did it!! We of course miss friends in Australia but so many have come to visit us and it’s just wonderful to have time here with them and to show everyone our day-to-day life, why we chose to be here and what we love about France. Its great to have one to three weeks with people to slow down and chat and catch up whereas when they lived around the corner we would just have quick get-togethers but we really have had quality time with friends here, and we know we will in the future when more of our beautiful friends around the world visit us.

It was really exciting for us when our shipment from Australia arrived. It was like Christmas and we got to unpack some really special pieces of artwork, books, photos and things that meant a lot to us to merge our two lives together and cement our life here.

In saying all that, cementing our life here has been a little bit challenging (to put it ever so mildly) with the French bureaucracy. The French are definitely known for excessive red tape and we have experienced these challenges and frustrations firsthand.

Kate and Nathan in front of their new home in Burgundy

Visas … I suspect that this might not be your favourite word. Where are you up to with this process?

We arrived on a tourist Visa which gave us one year to be here without working. During this year, we drew up our business plan to open a small cooking school in our home and to conduct small bespoke food and wine and cooking tours around the Burgundy region. We filled out all the relevant financial and health documents and since then we have been waiting for over a year for our right to work and then we had to fight to extend our visa for three months and now that is just about to expire. We’ve extended it for another three months, all this without hearing any updates or progress reports on our carte de séjour which means we would have the right to work and have healthcare etc in France.

But in saying all this, we would still encourage people to follow their dream to move to France if that’s what they would like to do, but to enter into it with an endless amount of patience and infinite financial resources in case they also have to wait a long period for a positive outcome to their Visa application.

Summer lunch with friends

Even without the right to work at the moment and the uncertainty of our permanent future here we feel as if we still have to strive forward with the process and be patient and be positive. So with that in mind, we have made yet another somewhat gutsy move you could say, and bought a bigger home in a wine village to create our cooking school with accommodation. We sold our beautiful little cottage here in the countryside of Burgundy and will be moving closer to Beaune which we believe is the wine and culinary centre of Burgundy.

It was a really big decision to sell our picturesque little stone country cottage in the Morvan national park. It was a fantastic holiday house surrounded by beautiful countryside, but it was a little more challenging to live there year-round. We also feel that for our clients, we can provide a better tour experience closer to markets and wineries and we will renovate this new house specifically to offer cooking classes, wine tastings, a small on-site brocante and accommodation.

You had some wonderful advice and practical tips in our last interview for anyone who was dreaming of buying their own place in France, did it make this second purchase easier?

Renovating decisions

We enter this new (and huge) renovation more confidently than when we tackled our first home, La Petite Maison, as over the past two years we have developed friendships and relationships and now have access to quality trades people. Renovating in France is incredibly challenging as I’m sure it as it is in many parts of the world and we have found it terribly hard with our limited French to talk about technical parts of the renovation with electricity and plumbing and that sort of thing. It was extremely hard to even get trades people to come and give us a quote for work and then there are the horror stories of people telling us that we would be charged tourist rates instead of local rates so we were only sceptical with some of some of the quotes that we received. But luckily now we have reliable and exceptional trades people that we get to work with on this new project. My advice to anyone buying a property here and renovating it is to get the advice of neighbours or local people and try and get referrals from them. A lot of tradespeople also will not travel far for work so will only work within a village and a very small radius around that village, so it really is best to talk to the locals about who they trust and recommend.

Having lived full time in France, organised renovations, and participated in village and social activities, your language must have had a work out. How is your French now?

Teddy

Our French has definitely improved over the past two years mainly out of necessity but also out of a desire for us to be able to communicate with our friends and now we are comfortable in nearly all situations and social environments. People may have seen on Instagram that we bought a puppy about six months ago and locals are very amused when they realise that Teddy is bilingual. All his commands he understands in both French and English so if he has one of our French friends looking after him, he can understand them and then also us when we forget to use French. 😆

To finally wrap this up I would say that we are very happy with our life here and with our decision to move here permanently. We’ve had some stressful times lately with the prefecture and our Visa status and how slowly that is moving along, but we couldn’t wish for more beautiful friendships and relationships  and we continue to embrace French culture, its food, wine and lifestyle and we absolutely love hosting our friends from all around the world and sharing with them all that makes France so special and so enviable for many. We truly feel lucky to have had the opportunity to make this move and to create a new chapter in our lives…

Wow, from one leap of faith to another. At the moment, you are burning both end of the candle having moved full steam ahead with your renovation. Your project looks both exciting and exhausting ... and fun to watch from the sidelines and see the wonderful progress that you're making. 

I look forward to staying in touch and wish you both the very best with your new ventures. 

 

If you would like to follow her journey (highly recommended), Kate can be found on Instagram @la_grande_maison_burgundy/

Nathan and Teddy at home in France

And for another French-Australian story (mine 😊), please find below links to my 5 books (including Books 1-3 in my 'French at Heart' series). With thanks.

The links should take you to where you need to go, wherever you are in the world, to make a purchase.

• But you are in France, Madame: One family, three children, five bags and the promise of adventure living in the French Alps
• Weaving a French Life: An Australian story
• Love, fear and a return to France: A family memoir
• With bare feet and sandy toes: Growing up in Australia in the 1960s & 70s
• Talk and Play with your Child in French

A new French life in Bordeaux (Part Two)

In Part One of my interview with Clare, we learn why it had to be France for her family, we read her excellent pre-departure tips, she shares the decision-making process which led them to Bordeaux, and hear how her children adapted to life in a new country and language.

Today, we discover if the family's French journey is set to continue and her advice to other families who are dreaming of a new life in France. 

Clare can be found on Instagram @mme_cabernet_franks. If there is any chance that you might one day find yourself in or near Bordeaux and keen to do a wine tour in the area, I would highly recommend that you follow and save Clare's details. 

Please enjoy Part Two of our interview:

Now settled in France, what does a typical day look like for you?

My husband works remotely and I’m currently in the wine tourism off-season, so we have a fairly relaxed time during the week. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, we get up for family breakfast and one of us walks the kids to school for an 8.30 am start, then swings by the boulangerie on the way home. We then work on our businesses - I’m starting up my own independent, bespoke wine tour guide business in 2025, as well as planning to take on some freelance work while I’m developing my business. We often go out for walks together while the kids are at school, heading to the beautiful Jardin Public or out along the Garonne riverfront with our newest family addition, a cocker spaniel pup named Pépite! At 4.30 pm, one of us walks Pépite over to get the kids from school - fresh croissant/chocolatine in hand for goûter (afternoon tea), naturally - and Adam helps with homework and makes work phone calls while I make dinner. It’s a fairly normal evening family routine, but when the marché de Noël (Christmas market) is on, we’ll take an evening walk through there, or through the city under the beautiful Christmas lights. Bordeaux is such a vibrant city that it almost always has some fun exhibition or festival to see or explore. 

Wednesdays are pretty packed, with a French tutor for Flynn first thing (there’s only so much we can do to help him with his French homework!) and then soccer training for the boys in the afternoon. Similarly, Saturday mornings tend to be based around soccer matches and afternoons for birthday parties of their friends (typical family stuff, whether in France or Australia). Sundays/weekends generally are spent heading to the open-air fruit and vegetable markets in the morning for our fresh produce and meats for the week, and afternoons exploring new parks or hiking trails with the kids and the dog.

On days when I’m working as a wine tour guide, we have breakfast together and then I head out to get the van. I then meet my group of lovely, relaxed tourists at the Office de Tourisme and drive them out to the medieval village of Saint-Émilion, or to the Médoc region. As I drive, I tell them a bit of the history of the region and how it became a world class winemaking area. We stop at a few chateaux throughout the day to tour the wine-making facilities and see how the wine magic happens, then they have a tasting. At lunchtime on Saint-Émilion days, I take the clients on a 15-20 minute tour of the village and tell them some of the history and point out my favourite lunch and shopping recommendations. I then spend a couple of hours wandering the village and exploring the surrounding streets myself. It’s such a great job!

 

Honestly, I can’t work out how we both managed intense full time careers, parenting and managing a household in Australia. Life here definitely feels like it moves at a slower pace, but we also feel equally as busy as when we lived in Australia and worked so many more hours.

 

Do you have any stories that you are able to share with us: moments that have been truly joyous, difficult, rewarding, funny etc.

 

We have had so many incredible moments! 

 

Our first day (back) in France, when we went to the best local boulangerie and grabbed 3 baguettes and 4 croissants and sat together, devouring them in the sunshine as we discussed how amazing French baked goods are. 

 

Attending our first parent-teacher interviews and being able to understand 90% of what the teacher (speaking slowly) was saying - not to mention hearing how well the kids were doing in school already. Going to apéros after kids parties and making friends with their French parents - we’ve spoken mostly Franglais but have shared wonderful times and many laughs with them and are really feeling accepted into their French friendships. 

 

The moments where I’ve realised I can now communicate properly with people in French - whole conversations - albeit a tad stilted and not the most extensive vocabulary, but actually being able to speak French after only taking it up at 40 years of age has been such a rewarding accomplishment.

 

I think our best day was, after driving the 2.5 hours down to the Pyrénées on a whim for an overnight stay, going hiking in the mountains the next day and stumbling across a massive paddock with about 300 white cows with cowbells clanging and gorgeous, gentle giant Percheron mares and their foals wandering freely. We spent about 3 hours just taking it all in, having a little picnic and patting those beautiful horses. It was truly the most magical afternoon. 

Less incredible moments have been watching the kids struggle in the early weeks at school - we spoke to our oldest son’s teacher, explaining that he was struggling to make friends (hoping she would assign a kid to look out for him at break times). Her response? “Bahhhh oui, mais c’est normal. Il ne peut pas parler français.” Another memorable moment was crying in frustration to a woman on the phone regarding the share car service, after getting stuck with a car with a flat tyre and trying to get her to let me just take the other share car that was parked there too “Non, c’est pas possible. Vous avez réservé ce véhicule et vous ne pouvez pas le changer” - we’ve all been there, right? Dealing with the French pace and state of administration has been a steep learning curve. Saying goodbye to expat friends who spent a year here and then moved home has been really tough too. 

Overall, the good has outweighed the bad by far. The day-to-day experience of living the European and particularly French lifestyle has just been a real pleasure and we feel happy and settled here. We originally thought that 6-12 months would be enough to know how we felt about staying here long term, but we were really only hitting our stride at the one-year mark and over 18 months later we actually feel really settled now. 

Is your French journey set to continue?

 

Absolutely! We’re currently arranging to sell our home in Melbourne and are actively looking to buy a limestone country manor or old farmhouse here in the Bordeaux region! 

 

And finally, would you recommend the experience of living in France to other families?

 

100% yes! We love the pace of life here, the beauty of the architecture and medieval villages, the gorgeous, green countryside free of deadly snakes(!), the fresh food and, arguably, the best bread in the world. The butter is outrageously good too - especially the cristaux de sel de mer (sea salt crystals). Not to mention the access to visit so many wonderful countries in Europe. Life in France feels like it is more family/friends/happiness-centred than it did (for us) in Australia. France is certainly not a capitalist heaven, so there’s no feeling of competing for who works the longest hours and makes the most money and drives the biggest car. On the contrary, most friends here work part time, drive a car that’ll get them around safely and enjoy their free time out in open spaces or going to art exhibitions etc. Even if only for a year, if your heart longs for France and you can afford it, I say ‘go for it.' 

 

Thanks so much, Clare. I look forward to staying in touch and, once more, if you would like to follow her journey, Clare can be found on Instagram @mme_cabernet_franks

And for another French-Australian story (mine 😊), please find below links to my 5 books (including Books 1-3 in my 'French at Heart' series). With thanks.

The links should take you to where you need to go, wherever you are in the world, to make a purchase.

• But you are in France, Madame: One family, three children, five bags and the promise of adventure living in the French Alps
• Weaving a French Life: An Australian story
• Love, fear and a return to France: A family memoir
• With bare feet and sandy toes: Growing up in Australia in the 1960s & 70s
• Talk and Play with your Child in French