I was in year 7 when we moved over here but, because I didn’t know a lot of French, we decided that at my new french school I should go back a year. It is not unusual for students to do this (to “redouble”). If a student is struggling then a decision is made between the student, the parents, the college and a governor. There is no stigma attached to this decision, as it is considered the best way forward for the student and their education.

When we arrived in France, I went into school for one week before the Christmas holidays to get used to it. I have to say it was very hard, sitting at the back of the class with everyone talking French, not having a clue what they are on about, not to mention the difficulties of getting into the school routine or finding some friends. That went on for a few weeks, but with every month my french progressed and every new year I went into my new class understanding more than i did the year before. I was soon telling the French what lessons we had next and when the holidays were. I felt much better.

In 4eme (year 9) I joined a music club where, every Monday lunchtime from 1pm to 1:55pm, a group of musicians reproduce songs with different instruments, and because I’ve been playing the piano since I was seven years old, I thought I’d give it a go. At the end of the school year we got to play our songs in front of loads of people at the ‘Fête du collège’. Everybody loved our songs and I even had a teacher come over to me and tell me how very talented I was! I felt very happy

I also joined a ‘Comédie musicale’, which is a theatre group held during lunchtime at school, where we act, sing and dance, and at the end of the school year we perform our play to everyone in a theatre. First of all I had to do a singing audition, which was scary at first, but at the end everyone said that I sang very well. A few weeks later I heard that I got a part and I was delighted. It wasn’t a big part, but I opened the play and I closed it so I guess it was okay. It was really hard to remember the lines and to make sure that I prononced the words correctly (it doesn’t help when you have an english accent). I suspect the teachers didn’t think that I’d be able to do it, and neither did I to be  quite honest. It didn’t go so well in the dess rehersal and the first performance, but I think the last performance went really well and the teachers were very pleased with me. It goes to show that english people who don’t know a lot of french can play a part in a French play.

This year I’m in 3eme (year 10) which is my last year, finally! This year is a big year, i have 2 ‘Brevet Blanc’ exams, which are the equivalent of “mocks” in England, and at the end of the year I take my ‘Brevet‘ (similar to GCSEs) I  have already had a ‘Brevet Blanc’ in November and I will have another in May. In September I will be going to Lycée. I have to choose between two Lycées. I’ve been to an open day at one and I’ll be going to another one in March. It will be a hard decision.

College St. Joseph, Fontenay-le-Comte

I would really recommend Collège St Joseph to anyone for their children. It is a good school and the teachers are very nice and they are always there to help.

I still miss England and I would really like to still be there. Depending on where you live, life can be very different to England. We used to live in a village where most of my friends were and I’d see them everyday. We’d walk to each other’s houses and could catch a bus or a train to Grimsby town centre in around 15 minutes. Here I live in a lovely little village, but I don’t have any friends who live here, and to go into town it’s about 20 mins drive and there is no train or bus. I think that probably, from a parents point of view, this could be good because you can spend more time with family and explore more things together. Then, when you go to school in the week, you can see your friends again and have a good gossip with them about the weekend.

I’ll soon be 16 and that means I can start driving. I can drive with a parent in the car with me. I have to do so many hours with an adult till i’m 18 then take a driving test. When I heard I could do that I was so happy! It’s a really good idea because, when you’re 18 you will have a good experience of driving, and so you will pass your test much easier (hopefully!). I can also start working here as well, like in england. I was scared at first because I heard that you had to be 18 to work but I did some research and I found that you can work at 16. I will be doing that soon

Thanks for reading and I hope this might help you if you are a teenager who is moving to France soon. If you want to ask any questions, just leave a comment and I will try to answer for you.

So the water-less day came and went without any problems. We filled every available jug, bottle, pan and bowl with water first thing in the morning to keep us going through the day. but as it turned out, the water came back on just after lunch, so we didn’t really need it in the end. Quite remarkable that something like that actually finished ahead of schedule!

Family but no fish

This week has been a bit hectic as both my parents and my sister and her two boys are visiting. We’re having a lovely time catching up – something that there wasn’t much time for at Christmas – and we’re keeping our fingers crossed for some decent weather at the weekend so we can get out and about. We were going to head to La Rochelle aquarium but unfortunately it is closed this month.  Still, a visit to La Rochelle may well be on the cards, and a coffee with the Dixies perhaps…

It’s a snip!

Charlie and Lola (our kittens) have now been “done”   They were very well behaved for the vet and coped admirably with the operation. Poor Lola was very wobbly when she came round and was clearly in some pain as the anaesthetic wore off, but after a big sleep that night she was much brighter in the morning. They are both now back to normal and up to their usual tricks!

Plotting our veg

Michel our soon-to-be-permanent neighbour called us over earlier today with some good news. he has a JCB at the moment which he is using to level a lot of his land off as part of his renovation project next=door. He is very kindly going to also level off our little patch of land at the back of the house which we have earmarked as a future vegetable plot. Wahoo! In a couple of weeks we should be able to get planting our own veg, so look out for some posts all about that coming soon. Anyone with any tips in this area, feel free to leave a comment.

And finally…

Next week I have to endure a trip back to England for a big company meeting over 2 days at the Center parcs in Longleat. Sounds nice, but I’d really rather be here with my family, drinking Pineau round the fire. Ah well, one day…

We finally made it back to Foussais on Saturday night after 14 hours and 1100km travelling. We had had a strange week back in England – it was lovely to see our family and friends again, and especially for the kids, but it all seemed very strange. Like we now have 2 lives and they very rarely meet. Back in the UK we were part of a circle of friends families that all knew each other and now we have that life, but also another over here. We have some great fiends and a while different way of living, but it hasn’t replaced what we have in England, but the 2 lives co-exist. When we returned to Grimsby we just picked up where we left off 5 months ago and I’m sure we will again, although quite when that will be I don’t know.

The journey back home was pretty easy and uneventful. After driving up to England in 2 cars, it was nice to all be together for the return trip (having left the Picasso in the hands of my folks – it’s being picked up any day now) and it meant that we could share the driving. So I had the job of getting us from Grimsby to Dover, then from Dunkerque to Rouen and Lisa got us home from there. On the subject of Dunkerque I have to speak up in praise of Norfolk Line ferries. The return journey cost us just £38 which we were amazed by. The ferries are fairly modern and well stocked, although the port at Dunkerque felt a bit like we were going to be lifted onto a container ship rather than a car ferry – very out of the way in the middle of an industrial estate! The 2-hour journey was just long enough to have a meal and stretch those cramped legs before embarking on the 2nd leg of the journey. Altogether a grand experience.

Upon returning to our house we were excited to see how the builders had got on with finishing Rosie’s bedroom. What a great job they have done. We are all hugely impressed with the work. Having never really done any renovation before, it’s hard to believe that our cold, dusty loft, with holes in the floor and roof, has now been transformed into a large, cosy bedroom. It really is quite a stunning transformation and makes such a difference to the upstairs of the house. If anyone is in the area and looking for good builders, I would certainly recommend them. We will have lots more building work coming up – I need a study, the kids need a play room and Lisa wants her new kitchen! – and they will certainly be top of the list to do the work. The only downside was that they cleaned us out of tea, coffee and milk! On our departure I had said “Help yourself” and they did…emptying the box of milk from the fridge AND the 2 from the store. Not a huge problem – a quick trip to St Hilaire des Loges on Sunday morning did the trick – but would have been nice to have breakfast in the morning without having to go for a drive first. But hey, they were a great team and I can’t grumble.

Our other surprise was not quite so exciting – we had had visitors while we were away…Ants! The kitchen was awash with the little blighters. I set upon them with the kitchen spray to stem the tide and managed to clear most of them away, only to find them back again in the morning. All part of the fun of living in the countryside I guess… A kettle full of boiling water over their entry point on the outside wall seems to have slowed them down for now until I can get out to buy some proper stuff… Anyone got any tips for shifting Adam and his mates?

Of course, having been away for about 10 days, the grass, of which we have plenty, had grown rather substantially, so I tackled that little job next. The grass by the back-door was first – rather quickly done due to the multitude of buzzing insects round there. I fear we may be providing bed and board for the local populations of bees and wasps in our un-renovated rooms. That’ll be more fun to come. Although I did spot a rather interesting looking red beetle tightrope walking along the washing line, who didn’t buzz and stoood nice and still for a photo…

Anyway, the grass got half-way cut when suddenly with a loud TWANG the mower stopped. Somehow the drive belt had snapped!

So much for our nice short grass – I hadn’t even got round to the front yet, which was the bit that really needed doing. And of course, it being Sunday, there was nowhere open to get a new one, so the now-useless machine went away and we sat in the sun and drank wine and beer with Peter and Judith instead…a much better prospect. I do love Sundays over here…

5 months ago we left Grimsby on a wet and windy December day, but our hearts were happy as we were starting our journey to our new life in France. So much has happened since then and it feels very strange to be back in Grimsby again, knowing that it isn’t home.

We came back for several reasons. Firstly to sell our English car, the Picasso. It’s done us proud, never really going wrong, never failing to start, and only once allegedly getting us into trouble. But sadly, although she is a French girl at heart, she has an English slant, being a right-hand drive which makes her a bit of a cripple when it comes to driving on the french roads. So we brought two cars up to England (leaving Chippie to have a well-earned break), me driving the Picasso and Lisa in the Zafira. The Picasso is 6 years old, but she did a cracking job on the drive up. Not a murmur from her for about 1100 kilometres. Then as we sped along the Lincoln bypass, with journey’s end in sight, my poor Picasso developed a very throaty noise. Yes, we had negotiated the hills and valleys of northern France, done battle with the M25, conquered the A1, but the A46 was just too much for it and the exhaust fell apart. Our triumphant return was not quite as spectacular as we had hoped, limping in sounding like something from world war 1. And now I have to try to sell the bloody thing! I had hoped that I would easily shift it, as it is in generally very good condition and everything else works, but a dodgy exhaust really gets you off on a bad footing with a dealer when he can hear you approaching from a mile away. Ah well, we’ll see how we get on and I’ll let you know.

Another reason for us coming back to the UK was for us all to see our family, and, perhaps more importantly, for the kids to see their friends. This was a difficult decision for us as we were unsure how much it would unsettle them. Although they are very happy in France and they all have really good friends from school, it is still a lot harder for them a they are still elarning the language and so cannot just chat with their mates, like they could in England. We all know that will come, but it must get very frustrating for them. So a return to England was very welcome for them so that they could have a few days of being able to hang out and natter with friends like they used to do. The danger is, will this then make them realise how hard it is back home in France and send them off the rails in terms of their settling down? I don’t know – It’s really tough to know what to do for the best. We will just have to cross that bridge when we come to it I think.

One thing is for certain. Upon reading the papers, watching the television, driving around and seeing the people here, we are all glad we made the move. It has been great to see our family and freinds while we are here and we wouldn’t have missed the opportunity to see them, but we know we could never move back here. France is our home and that’s where we will stay.