David Miliband has admitted in a Vogue interview that he misses Britain and that absence has made his “heart grow fonder.” His words instantly struck a chord with me because it’s not until you go and live in another country that you appreciate the merits of the place you left behind. That’s exactly how I felt when we uprooted to the French city of Orléans, on the banks of the ...keep reading
When our children were little we took the plunge and uprooted to the French city of Orléans, on the banks of the Loire. My husband was offered a job working for a dynamic (and scary) Australian tycoon who’d snapped up a French business, so we crossed the channel, rented an old house covered in vines and enrolled our daughter at the local école maternelle. Ten months later the scary tycoon ...keep reading
“You only ever say three things in French,” said my son. “Bonjour, s’il vous plait and merci.” Crushing words, but the trouble is he’s right. Even though I studied French till the age of 18, spent four months in Paris as the world’s worst au pair and lived in Orléans for a while, I’ve forgotten virtually everything. Worse still, by the time I’ve figured what to say in French, five ...keep reading