Brexit. It’s the most hotly debated, fiercely argued, ruthlessly divisive, deeply controversial political topic of the last five years (on this side of the Atlantic, at least). It’s taken four and a half years, one hotly contested referendum, one snap general election, two Prime Minister resignations, three extensions, one UK…

I should probably apologise for last week’s missing blog. I know, I let you all down. Every Friday, I promised. But I didn’t show up. I didn’t deliver. My excuse? Don’t worry, it’s a good one… J’avais un empêchement. A what?! I hear you say. An empêchement. It’s one of…

When I was around seven years old, my Francophile parents decided that road tripping the Atlantic coast and caravanning around Brittany would no longer suffice. They would buy a house in France. This was the ’90s, back when Peter Mayle’s “A Year in Provence” was the bible for British holidaymakers…

It’s hard to explain the importance of tea to a British person. A hot cuppa is our lifeblood. It’s what we bond over, gossip over, make friends over, console each other over. …

If you believe the stereotypes, French gastronomy falls into two main categories. There’s the Michelin-starred world of fine dining where your legumes are velouté-d and your gold-leaf flecked macarons wouldn’t look out of place in the Louvre. Then there’s the snail-snacking, frog-leg roasting craziness so-often touted as ‘traditional’ French cuisine. …

In the UK, the annual Black Friday or Christmas sales play out like a cross between Supermarket Sweep and a Roman gladiatorial combat. Shoppers queue for hours outside popular stores, swarming the rails as soon as the doors open to snap up last season’s must-haves at rock-bottom prices. Credit cards…

When it comes to baring skin, the French and English seem to have very different ideas of modesty. Contrary to the French stereotype of sexual liberation — a myth fuelled by risqué cabarets, French kissing, and topless sunbathers lounging along the Côte d’Azur — Brits might be surprised (disappointed, even)…

Pre-2020, whenever the subject of the infamous L’Administration Française (French Administration) came up — at least once a dinner party — my go-to joke as the token English invitee was a faux-angry rant about how in France there are so many papers to sign, you have to provide a signed…

For some reason all French people seem to have an encyclopaedic list in their brain of all things that the French ever created. As if it’s genetically installed as part of their factory settings, like the ability to sniff out a decent wine or the art of râler. Mostly these…