As I was away for Cath’s birthday, she booked a table at nearby Chateau de la Gaude for a belated celebration.

When we looked at the menu there were many delicious-sounding dishes on it – but one in particular caught my eye.

Douze cuisses de grenouilles en persillade.

Now despite having lived in France for four years and been here on more holidays than I care to remember I have never tried frogs’ legs.

Les escargots? Oui. Les huîtres? Oui une fois mais jamais encore. Le foie gras – bien sûr. Mais les cuisses de grenouilles? Jamais.

So I ordered them. And???

Elles étaient exquises! Nickel. Super.

It made me wonder where they come from and I have since discovered they are not the most sustainable of foods – largely imported from Indonesia, Turkey and Albania.

Hmmm, maybe they should be an occasional treat.

I’ve been away in Prague for work for two weeks and, try as I might, I couldn’t find many French connections.

When I got back to Venelles we had a visit from Cath’s niece Hanna and great nieces. Alma and Iris.

So a trip into Venelles to the library where there is une aire de jeu outside was in order.

After Alma had a go on le toboggan and la balançoire we went inside to see what the library had to offer.

There were plenty of games and books for children to explore.

And there were also some books to help me brush up on my French history.

A trip to the supermarché in Meyrargues gave me a chance to brush up on my boucherie vocab.

• Macreuse – shoulder of beef
• Quasi – fillet
• Noix – round fillet
• Gîte – shin

• Échine – spare rib
• Jarret – knuckle

We bought une galette des rois to celebrate the epiphany. There is une fève hidden in the cake and I forgot about it until I bit down on it.

As I found the feve I got to wear la couronne.

The fève, once I cleaned it a bit, was une petite brebis.

Before Christmas I went with Alma to post her letter to Father Christmas.

Now, she has had a reply.

His lutins/elves had paid attention to Alma’s requests and had noticed how well-behaved she had been.

Santa and his rennes/reindeer were ready for the big night and he would do his best to make sure Alma’s Christmas was full of magic.

Well I think he achieved that.

We went for a walk by the sea at Carry-le-Rouet.

On the way we saw a warning sign to watch out for wild goats – les chèvres sauvages.

And then we saw des chèvres sauvages – un tas de chèvres sauvages.

Carry-le-Rouet was very nice on a New Years’s Day too.

As promised in my post before Christmas I thought I would count the number of buzzards we saw on our journey back to Venelles from Rye, in East Sussex.

The journey was about 700 miles/1050km and we decided to try and do it in one day.

In my previous post I made the bold claim that we had probaly seen more than 100 buzzards on our way day so I was hoping to be able to back that up.

However, there are two mitigating factors with our return journey: the hour’s time difference between England and France meant we were only travelling from 11am til it got dark at about 5pm; and much of France was covered in fog as England had been so visibility was poor.

So how many did we see in that time? None? 10? 50? 100?

Well before the fog and darkness descended we saw 76 buzzards – soixante-seize buses.
We also saw about 20 kestrels – vingt crécerelles.

By the time we had travelled half the distance we had seen 62 buzzards so, with a few more hours of daylight, I am confident that my more than 100 prediction would have been proved to be correct.

Nearly 100 birds of prey, presque cent rapaces – not a bad way to pass a long journey.

In January 2023 I was on a work trip to Brussels when I watched my team Fulham beat Chelsea in the Premier League.

Well, I was in the UK for Christmas so took the opportunity to go to the Boxing Day fixture – Chelsea v Fulham at Stamford Bridge.

Now Fulham haven’t won at Stamford Bridge in the top flight since 1964 and their only other victory there was in the old Second Division in 1979.

So hopes weren’t high as I went with my sons to the Bridge.

But the boys from SW6 did not disappoint.

A 95th-minute winner meant a very merry Christmas for all fans of the only team in Fulham.

Where will I be watching the next one?

We are travelling to the UK for Christmas and, because of presents etc, we are driving.

We stopped overnight in Arras after reading this recommendation in The Times (subscription required).

There was a big Christmas market in the main square.

But the main attraction for me was the rats of Arras.

Apparently, since 1311 the rat has been the symbol of Arras.

It was the Thirty Years War that established the rat of Arras’ place in history.

When Louis XIII troops captured the Artois city from the Spanish on 9 August 1640, they found an inscription left behind by the Spanish:

When the French take Arras, the mice will eat the rats

The French soldiers replied by deleting one letter in the French word prendront to make it rendront, so the phrase became:

When the French give up Arras, the mice will eat the rats

Arras stayed in French hands – much to the delight of the rats.

So rats are everyone – especially chocolate ones sold in Patisserie Thibault.

Obviously we bought some.

Remember I once said that la buse should be the national bird of France as I’d seen so many on the drive to Lyon.

Well from Venelles to Calais I think we saw more than 100 on fence posts along the various motorways.

Cath said it was like they were forming a guard of honour.

I will endeavour to count them on our return journey to confirm.

Something for you to look forward to.

As it was nearly the last day of term before Christmas, Alma came home with a present from the mayor.

It contained:

Un père Noël en chocolat

Un gaufre

Beaucoup de bonbons

Alma also had with her all the work she had done in her first term at school.

It included les règles de la classe.