Monthly Archives: November 2008

A bit of a face-lift

Posted on by Richard
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Did you notice anything different?

Yes, unlike Barry Mannilow (honest), La Vie en Foussais has had a bit of a facelift :)

This is down to some technical jiggery-pokery that you probably don’t want to hear about, but basically I can now offer somewhat of a more “rich customer experience” as the marketing folks would say. At the moment things are pretty much as they were before, but I hope to be able to introduce some more goodies over the next couple of weeks that will make La Vie en Foussais even more exciting than it was before.

Okay, well they may not be that exciting, but every little helps!

Please let me know what you think to the new look and especially if you spot something that is broken or missing. Also if you have any suggestions as to what else you might like to see here, I would be very interested to hear from you. I am always open to suggestions for new content so get in touch and let me have your ideas.

Guy who?

Posted on by Richard
6

As we approached November, we were asked one question more and more by our friends and family back home…”Do they have Guy Fawkes night in France?” [what's "Guy Fawkes night"?]

Now, think about it folks…

Guy Fawkes caught red-handed

Clearly, there is no reason for the French people to want to celebrate a group of persecuted Catholics trying to blow up the Houses of parliament. Although, given the violent and revolutionary history of France, it could well have been a chapter in early French history rather than English.

But no, sadly there is no bonfire night in France. We have other excuses for a feu d’artifice throughout the year (Bastille Day anyone?) and tonight there will be no fireworks, no sparklers, no rockets streaking across the sky until the early hours of the morning….

If you are in the UK and are enjoying these things tonight, have fun and stay safe. :)

Grand Pavois - La Rochelle Sept 2008

No tricks, no treats

Posted on by Richard
6

Halloween is something that we have never really made much fuss of. Yes, in the UK we had all the american-style hoo-har over it with school parties and competitions among the cliques at the school gates as to who can create the most wonderful costume for their kids. But we never really got into any of that, thank goodness.

We have been known to have small parties with a couple of friends, but these were generally just an excuse for the adults to get together for a drink, rather than a desire to celebrate the day!

So when we found that here in rural Vendée they don’t make much of Halloween either, we weren’t too disappointed. It has been interesting to compare the small collection of Halloween items in the supermarkets here with that in the UK. In our local Hyper U and Leclerc there has been just one or two shelves of very low-key items and you could very easily miss them. Compare this with the likes of Tesco and Asda, where generally they give up aisle after aisle to ghostly-inspired stuff and the entire shop takes on a Halloween theme.

Now we like a good party as much as the next personm but we have never really “got” Halloween. So last night, being that we are a good 10 minute walk from the centre of the village up a very dark lane, we were not surprised to find that we received no Trick-or-Treaters at all.

I fear the ghosts and witches would have been too scared to make the journey! Ironic isn’t it? :)