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: October, 2018

Brexit blues and bureaucracy; Hen harassment; Euro Mayenne meets El Barbie and we visit the giant cheese van

Posted by Graham Parish on Tuesday, October 30, 2018,

The weather has definitely turned a lot colder and we have had to light up the wood burner after a long run of fine weather. The air is now coming from the North and has brought heavy snow to the mountains of France. We have just got a cold strong wind which makes it very cold outside. With the change in wind and temperature we are also seeing a difference in the birds visiting the garden and the local area.

We have large numbers of greenfinches now coming to the bird feeders as well as sparro...

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The repas season opens; we hear of the accursed geese and read about the accursed kings of France

Posted by Graham Parish on Tuesday, October 23, 2018,
The village repas season has started and we had two to go to over the weekend. On Saturday we went to Oisseau, at their village hall. It was fantastic value. For 15 Euros we had an aperitif of Kir (white wine with blackcurrant liqueur) of which there was a second glass. For starters we had a chicken soup and then the main meal a quarter of a chicken in a white wine sauce, with rice. There were huge portions. Red wine was included in the price and on finishing a bottle another suddenly appeare...

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Birthday treats; the frightener of the bell tower; buzzards and deer; Renault Clio conundrums

Posted by Graham Parish on Monday, October 15, 2018,

It has been an unseasonal warm week here in France. Mrs. Parish and I have been working outside in tee shirts and could even have gone back to wearing shorts! The temperature has remained at a steady 18 degrees throughout the week. Of course, this doesn’t come without some negatives!

The warm weather has encouraged a whole load of flies to breed in the gite roof and we made the mistake of leaving the door open when we were cleaning up. The consequence has been a week-long battle with the fli...

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The Vauboreau slate quarries; eating out; the Oisseau fete communale; trail camera; tractor trapeze

Posted by Graham Parish on Tuesday, October 9, 2018,
The weather is a bit curious just at the moment. We thought that autumn had arrived as the weather turned cold and we even had some heavy rain. But over the weekend, yesterday and today we have had clear skies and full on sun. It was really hot today.

For much of the past week we have been helping our friends, Ian and Sarah with the job of removing the roof of their very large barn. The roof was in a poor state and the slates needed to be replaced. This meant stripping all the slates off one s...

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The swallows fly away; cold winds arrive; crazy people come and go almost taking Archie with them; the cats now rule and we get a new French car

Posted by Graham Parish on Tuesday, October 2, 2018,
It is now October and all the swallows have gone. Off on their long flight to Africa for the winter and a bit of sunshine. We will not now see them until the end of March. It is now definitely Autumn and the weather has turned much colder. All thought of wearing shorts and t shirts has been consigned to history. We have even had to put on the convector heater this evening.

We have a cold wind that has been blowing all day and even a bit of rain this afternoon. It seems an age ago to last week ...

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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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