Marseille soap

If you’re in Germany and you order a beer, you know that the beverage being served can only contain malt, hops, yeast, and water. That’s thanks to a Bavarian purity law, Reinheitsgebot, from 1516 that mandated the ingredients. In France, a similar concept applies to bars of Marseille soap; that is, originally only olive oil, plant ash, and water could be used. While the rules now allow other plant oils, manufacturing must still take place in this Mediterranean port city and each product should be stamped with the logo that guarantees its authenticity. We visited the Musée du Savon de Marseille to find out more.

Continue reading “Marseille soap”

And they lived happily ever after

Three years ago we wrote a blog post about a survey of 10,000 French adults asking them about their level of satisfaction with where they were living. Nearly 80% of the respondents declared themselves “happy” and almost half of those were “very happy”. Now a different company has undertaken a similar study with an indication of where within the country you might find the most contentment. On average, that “happiness quotient” has increased to 86% with the region of Bretagne at the top and our own Occitanie right behind. Let’s look at some additional parts of the country and find out what makes an area attractive.

Continue reading “And they lived happily ever after”

10-year blog anniversary

It was 10 years ago today that we published our first post on this blog entitled “This is where it all started” that explained how we came up with the name you see across the banner at the top. It also detailed our search for a retirement spot across the US that would give us the water view that we had enjoyed so much at Bill’s sister’s house in Florida. It wasn’t until we had visited several other cities along the US east coast that it occurred to us that while those vistas were important, what we really were seeking was a sense of “community”. During years of annual (sometimes more) vacations in cities, towns, and villages across France we always pretended that we lived there by making sure we rented accommodations with kitchens so that we could do our own cooking. That way, instead of just looking at all of the enticing food at markets, bakeries, butcher, fish and cheese shops, we could actually bring them “home”. That’s exactly what we’ve been calling France now for almost 10 years: home.

Continue reading “10-year blog anniversary”

Look before you leap

Several months ago we wrote about a retired American couple who had moved to France, expecting to settle here permanently. Wife Joanna said that they were looking for “civility, consideration and little or no gun violence” that they seemed to have found in Nîmes. Unfortunately, a year later they were preparing to return to San Francisco for a variety of difficulties revolving around: visas, banking and government regulations, the language, the food, and not having any friends. “Things are very difficult to figure out here…I miss familiarity…I miss knowing where things are,” she concluded. Then I saw a CNN Travel story about a Florida woman who so enjoyed her vacations in Spain that she took up residence there two years ago. Can you guess where she now lives?

Continue reading “Look before you leap”

15-minute cities

You probably know all about a New-York-minute but a 15-minute city might not sound as familiar.  In fact, we’ve already written about the concept in the blog post What’s the Point? where a community in Utah is hoping to create a “European one-car town” as one headline described it. The concept is that you could leave your car at home and walk or take a bicycle to work, the gym, the supermarket, or the doctor’s office, for example. A study of worldwide cities has resulted in an online database where you can check about 10,000 locations to see how accessible services are to those who are looking for a “greener” way and several French villes are in the top 40.

Continue reading “15-minute cities”

French kids

Bill and I don’t have any children but our friends and neighbors do so we still get some exposure to the behavior of young people here. Our friend, Larry, sent us a link to a story that was in the Huff Post with the title of “5 Key Differences Between Parenting In The U.S. And France”. Author Marie Holmes refers to an Instagram story by American moms Annabel and Dale who noted some differences about how children are brought up here from what they were used to in the US. Their observations matched ours and we had even written about one of the standouts—4 course school lunches—in a blog post years ago. Let’s see what else they found to be different.

Continue reading “French kids”

We siege Liege & Namur

A bit of poetic license gives us today’s title since the Belgian city of Liège actually has an accent grave but “siege” is a true part of its history. Given that there’s evidence of 9000 years of human habitation in the city, there have been plenty of opportunities for invaders to take over, notably in the 15th century and again in WWI. All of those conflicts meant that much of the city has been destroyed over the centuries yet museums have flourished to maintain a link to the past. The guidebook we were following suggested starting with the cathedral since it was one structure that has remained fairly intact and can provide a tangible historic connection.

Continue reading “We siege Liege & Namur”