When I first heard about Kodawari Ramen, I almost couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Had someone really opened a restaurant that was a replica of the famous Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo? The answer was yes
10 Ways to Stay Sane in Confinement
We will be so grateful when we visit places, when we taste new dishes and hear new languages. And we will love stronger, hug harder and be more grateful than ever before for our freedom, friends and families. We took even the smallest of things for granted and we should remember that after this is all over.
The French You Don’t Learn at School – The Verlan Episode
Do you remember when you were a child and you used to make up your own language that your parents couldn’t understand? Maybe you used words in the wrong context, or deliberately reversed the order of words to confuse any eavesdropping adults. Whatever you did, it exists in French too. Originally used by French teenagers,…
An Evening With Le Cheese Geek
Anyone who knows me, even a little, knows how much I love cheese. Even before I lived in France, my love affair with cheese had already begun. It was just, well, a bit limited. I’d mostly eaten English cheddar, English stilton and a variety of Italian cheeses from Waitrosz. I didn’t realise how much cheese…
How to Apply for French Nationality Part Four – The Interview
Five long months later and I finally arrived at the not so pearly gates of the Val de Marne prefecture, ready to face the last step of the nationality process. After weeks of revising and repeating the President’s of the 5th Republic in order, it was time to see if I had done enough to…
A Weekend in NYC
I think a weekend in a city like New York is definitely short. BUT if I had to choose what I’d do / eat / visit in just two to three days, these would be the things I’d pick: I last went to New York in May of last year and I fell head over…
My 2019 Goals
Thanks to Jeff Goins and his 500 words a day challenge, my 2019 writing goals have got off to a good start. One of the prompts I was given last week was simply to make a list of what I would like to achieve this year. As I have surprisingly not yet written my regular…
How to Apply for French Nationality – Part Three: The Prefecture
And so it begins… After it took me roughly two months of resending the same email again and again, over and over just to get an appointment, I had mentally prepared myself for a really difficult time at the prefecture. They weren’t going to make life easy for me, I thought to myself , as…
Getting a Gynecologist in Paris
When I first moved to France, like most people I imagine, I didn’t immediately start looking for a doctor. I waited until I needed to see one and after a few less than successful appointments with various doctors I eventually found a GP that I liked and she became my médecin traitant. When I finally…
How to Apply for French Nationality Part Two – The French Test
As some of you may know, and if you’ve already read my first article How to Apply for French Nationality – Part One, I am currently in the process of applying to become a French citizen through naturalisation. After you’ve followed the steps in my first post, you’ll know what documents you need to be…