The French Horse & Country Lifestyle Magazine for the English speaking community
At the fabulous Lion d’Angers this weekend, where the sun is shining, people are smiling and there is a buzz of excitement and positiveness, you could be forgiven for thinking that all is financially sound in the world. The event is in full swing and the crowds are if anything, even larger than in previous years.
One of the great things about being younger was the length of the summer holidays. They lasted forever! Now they are over before they even begun it seems. This week the children were packed off, back to school, with what seemed like suitcases of stationery and books and the September feeling of autumn hanging in the air.
Working in the office during the last week of July, the sound of the phone ringing is constant. No sooner do I leave my chair than it rings again. The reason for this is quite simply that after this weekend, its August! So the need to tie up the ends and clear the ‘In Tray’ before Friday lunch time is the priority.
In a month where the weather has given the impression that the ‘end of the world is nigh’, the summer solstice gallops forever closer. From blazing heat, rock hard ground and burnt grass to violent electric storms and flooding with hefty showers of hailstones the size of golf balls. Such was the suddenness and ferocity of these painful ice rocks that the vineyards and orchards in France have potentially been devastated. More price rises in the future then to compliment the hay shortage!
Quite where the first half of 2011 has gone I don’t know. Planning ahead for the strongly held custom of August shutdown in France, I realised that its actually not that far ahead and I had better organise Plan B, C and D in order to deliver certain projects in the correct time. Its all very well living in the midst of the shutdown, holiday or even silly season, as we affectionately call it over here but when you have to explain to overseas clients that you are unable to act on a project because your producers are shut for a months holiday, then it does not go down so well. Its something we adapt to gradually when immersed in living abroad and come to accept the nonchalant shoulder shrug, palms upturned and smile. However quaint this maybe, its not a practical tool for keeping the cogs turning in business. So as I said I am already on Plan D now!
I have always said that I love my job and although it is at times very busy, it continually remains integrally entwined with life and so the two compliment each other. Its much more a way of life rather than two seperate paths. One of the lovely aspects of this lifestyle is the obvious plus of working with our equine partners everyday, but also the new people you come into contact with. People from overseas that you would never meet and get to know if your life had taken another direction.
The news from Japan is devastating. Our thoughts are with all concerned at this time. As you watch the horror and chaos unfold from the safety of your own home, it makes you appreciate the life you have. The previous niggles of everyday here, pale into insignificance in the light of such terrible trauma over there. I can not even imagine the fear and distress that is being felt. Watching the videos that are now being posted on the web and listening to reports, sets fear into my own heart. How must it be, to be there and part of the unfolding drama? I shudder to think. It makes me hug my children close as we watch the power of nature brutally destroy all in its path.
Well its been one of the busiest starts to the year that I can remember. 2011 so far has had every day jam packed . The best thing about this is that its all positives. Hope I have not just jinxed myself there then!
I write that title loosely as there would be many that say that I do not recognise sanity! However as far as I am concerned I am reconnected with internet and telephone and therefore as far as possible, all is good in the world.
This New Year came with a fantastic present of a new home and office. Well I am totally in love! Sometimes you can search a lifetime to find ‘home’, the place that you feel you have lived in all your life, and the place that you feel that you never want to leave. Luckily I have found that place. Home is not without its problems, that can certainly be said. Never have I written a truer statement. I am hanging on by my fingernails to the vision of the future, even if at times this image is almost blurred to oblivion.
The wonderful thing about living and moving in France is that it is so easy and stress free. This phrase can be said if you have the character of a horizontal, chilled out Vulcan!
A short and sincere message as in mid moving house, in what must be the heaviest rain known to France! Wishing a most wonderful Christmas to all our readers and clients. We hope it brings you all everything that you wish for.
The early snow and very cold weather in many places, seems to have brought forward the Christmas feeling. Maybe not for the high street retailers, that were desperately relying on the pre Christmas rush to the shops however. For many it is going to be a lean Christmas with spending possibly at its all time low.
For all of us living in France, the need to adapt and change is part of the course. Maybe you have to be a special type of person to actually make that move, rather than those that spend their life dreaming but never actually take that leap. Quite often though, those that do, may live to regret it and those that don’t, continue to envy and be jealous of those that have!
Maybe I am just a trusting person or maybe I have an old fashioned view of life. I like to think that you should be able to trust professionals when seeking advice and that they will act accordingly to uphold the law correctly. Surely this must be the fundamental criteria when they take their oaths of professionalism or whatever it is they do?
There is no question that the world has been a gloomy place for the last eighteen months. The ‘mauvais’ economy has had a role on effect across the board with many people being hit in their pockets. With lifting stories such as the rescue of the Chilean Miners raising the spirits somewhat, we shall all no doubt, settle back into routine nursing the fear that the recession has perhaps not passed as we are often informed by the media and infact worse is perhaps yet to come. Recovery is the important topic. We have all weathered the storms of recession but how do you bail out a sinking ship?
For the FH&C Team its been a long time coming! Hours of discussion, deliberation and determination et Voila!
Bienvenue a vous!
Where is the year going? The days in the Loire are still filled with sunshine and a very welcome 22° – 26° but the temperature is beginning to fall at dusk and the whole ‘autumn is drawing in’ feeling is creeping into the mind.
Holding the fort in France
When the call came for me to cover for the editor of FH&C for a short time, I had no hesitation in jumping in with both feet. The opportunity to spend some time in France and to edit French Horse & Country was to me a dream come true. So after what I must say was a very pleasant trip aboard the Eurostar, whilst I read ‘Eperon’ (Spurs), the printed Horse & Hound in France, I set about investigating the equine world in France for myself. The project was made easier by the fact that the weather was so much warmer, the scenery was varied and interesting and the wine was extraordinarily cheap!
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