While walking around the 15eme Cath spotted this pâtisserie. The name Yann Couvreur rang a bell with her.

She had seen his creations on social media and his obsession with fox chocolate creations – foxolates if you will.

Apparently he has long had an association with foxes – because:

Car c’est un animal libre, qui parle à tout le monde et qu’on trouve sur toute la surface du globe. Qui plus est, l’animal est malin et élégant, tout comme les créations gourmandes de Yann Couvreur… Et puis, il est roux, comme le chef !

All of this meant we went in and bought some foxchocs. And I’m glad we did because they were delicious.

In the three years we have been in France we realised that we hadn’t been to Paris – except to change trains. So it was time to put that right with a weekend away.

We were staying near Parc André Citroën in the 15eme. Having just been reading up about Gustave Eiffel I was surprised to see his most-famous creation in the park.

On closer inspection it was a very accurate replica made of bamboo canes.

So we sought out the real one before going to see how Notre Dame is looking.

There were big queues to see inside so we made do with a look around outside.

Before we left we checked in on Gustave’s other famous creation.

It was nice to revisit some old haunts and see how the neighbourhood had changed since our last visit.

This morning the path opposite our house that leads to Venelles was blocked off.

On closer inspection it is closed because of a hunt for les sangliers – wild boars.

The cull is being carried out by the lieutenants of wolf hunting

That particular rank dates back to the time of Charlemagne, in 813, when the population needed protecting against wolves.

Nowadays, the lieutenants of wolf hunting regulate the numbers animals likely to cause damage and harm and that are also a danger to the public.

So watch out wild boars, the wolf-hunting lieutenants are coming for you.

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.