Welcome to the Blog part of the website. This is my attempt to make sense of Kate and I living in France, the lifestyle,the french, my home and animals and anything else that seems amusing to me. Sorry I have a strange sense of humour!! 

The blog is written on a monthly basis with regular  news of my adventures and those of my animals at La Godefrere.  You can now look us up on our new facebook page - La Godefrere.

This website can no longer host my blog so I have changed to using wordpress. This can be accessed through the following link:

Link to my blog

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Browsing Archive: December, 2017

A Christmas “onctueuses et voluptueuses” animal crackers and for New Year – “A hard rain’s a-gonna fall”

Posted by Graham Parish on Sunday, December 31, 2017,
It is New Year’s Eve and Mrs. Parish and I are stuck indoors with pouring rain and a howling gale blowing outside. It has been like this since Christmas and seems likely to continue into the New Year. According to the English weather it is the result of storm Dylan although the French have named it Carmen.

So, we have been caught up with the Dylan reference and have concluded that the answer is “Blowin in the Wind”, which is an “Idiot Wind” caused by a “Hurricane” leading to “A...

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Four Christmas treats; three French hens; two outside cats and little owl in a dead tree; Christmas greetings from all at La Godefrere

Posted by Graham Parish on Sunday, December 17, 2017,
Today it is not raining and Mrs. Parish and I are awaiting the arrival of our son, Ian and daughter in law, Emma so we can officially start Christmas. Of course, arriving with them will be two dogs. The famous three-legged Keeshond called Tommo and the Romanian orphan dog that is Kiki. I sometimes wonder why nothing seems ever ordinary about the animals in my life. The arrival of two dogs will not be welcomed by our cats who will see this as an intrusion and a restriction on their contractual...

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Le jour quand la musique est morte, en France; Madame Meteo does the weather in style; Ambrieres has its Christmas market

Posted by Graham Parish on Sunday, December 10, 2017,

The whole of France has been in mourning this week after the death on Tuesday night of its most famous rock star, Johnny Hallyday. For the past three nights the news has been devoted to stories about him and his life.


Johnny Hallyday

He was born to a Belgian father in Paris as Jean-Philippe Léo Smet (15 June 1943 – 6 December 2017). He was better known by his stage name Johnny Hallyday which he took from a cousin-in-law from Oklahoma who performed as Lee Halliday. The latter called Smet "Joh...

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Snow and the hens go crazy; the cats turn the screw; the tale of the sheep whisperer and I meet the subjunctive and turn to whisky

Posted by Graham Parish on Sunday, December 3, 2017,
This week the weather has turned distinctly colder and on Friday we had a light fall of snow. Enough to cover the grass in the orchard. The wind chill factor meant it felt a good deal colder and we immediately lit the wood burner after breakfast. Up until then we had been able to wait until the afternoon.

The arrival of snow caused the hens to go a bit crazy. Usually Mrs. Parish is expected to open up the hens’ house at first light and the hens burst out and start their quest for food. They ...

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About Me


Graham Parish Graham Parish is a former UNISON Trade Union official who retired to France with Kate (a previous self employed gardener and now resident gardener here) to start a new life of wine, cheese, french bread and a vegetable garden on a large rural french farm with holiday gite, and associated animals.

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