Summer 2024
Full of fabulous features, fantastic photos - inspiring, entertaining and informative. Culture and history, destination guides including Paris, Brittany, Toulouse, Troyes, Alsace-Lorraine, Champagne and more. Discover brilliant city, country, seaside and gourmet breaks. Truly scrumptious recipes to make at home. And much, much more. Bringing France to you - wherever you are.
Full of fabulous features, fantastic photos - inspiring, entertaining and informative. Culture and history, destination guides including Paris, Brittany, Toulouse, Troyes, Alsace-Lorraine, Champagne and more. Discover brilliant city, country, seaside and gourmet breaks. Truly scrumptious recipes to make at home. And much, much more. Bringing France to you - wherever you are.
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Last<br />
Word<br />
In France they say of those of us who live in the far north of France, ‘they<br />
might not have the sunshine on their heads, but they have it in their hearts.’<br />
It’s true we are not as sun-kissed as our southern neighbours, but (and despite<br />
a particularly wet winter this year) it doesn’t rain half as much as people think<br />
it does.<br />
Writer Somerset Maughan once described the French Riviera as a “sunny<br />
spot for shady people”, you could say of Pas-de-Calais, that it’s a shady<br />
spot for sunny people.<br />
Any excuse to celebrate is considered a very good idea here. So when my<br />
neighbour Jean-Claude, a man who rarely needs a reason to enjoy a glass<br />
of wine or a plate of andouillette (extremely pungent sausages made with<br />
offal, much-loved by the French, not understood by anyone else), decided<br />
that he would honour the 60th birthday of his long-suffering wife Bernadette<br />
with something special we knew it would be memorable. “A secret party in<br />
the town hall salle des fetes” he said. It doesn’t sound like much, but in these<br />
parts, people are potty about parties, and a lot of effort goes into making<br />
sure the food is fabulous, the wine is worthy, and the music brings out the<br />
dancer in all of us. The birthday girl pretended she knew nothing about the<br />
special day, though you can’t keep a big secret in a small village.<br />
Came the day and almost the entire village turned up bearing bottles of<br />
wine, crates of beer and delicious dishes. A long table was crammed with the<br />
most delectable home-made pies and pastries, mouth-watering tarts and<br />
cakes, a basket of crisp baguettes and trays of smelly, sweaty and succulent<br />
cheeses. And in the centre, an enormous celebration croquembouche cake,<br />
a tower of profiteroles bound by an intricate embroidery of molten sugar<br />
topped with a love heart shaped pink macaron, made by Jean-Claude with<br />
help from Bernadette’s mother Claudette, the best cook in the village.<br />
The DJ played the songs of the late, great but still much-loved Johnny<br />
Hallyday, AKA the French Elvis, and upbeat songs that make the feet tap<br />
long before they reach the dance floor. Abba’s Dancing Queen echoed<br />
around the lush green Valleys battling with the gurgling of raging rain and<br />
the rumbling, roaring wind.<br />
And the sound of laughter of people with sunshine in their hearts<br />
was priceless.<br />
Janine<br />
Janine Marsh is Author of My Good Life in France; My Four Seasons in France; Toujours La France,<br />
and How to be French: Eat, dress, travel and love la vie Française –<br />
available on Amazon, all online bookshops and in bookstores in high streets everywhere.<br />
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