Can anything be more French than le couac? Although it is pronounced like ‘quack’ in English, ‘couac’ has less to do with ducks than it does discord. (French ducks are said to go ‘coin-coin’). In other words, a hitch, a screw-up. Or, translating from French dictionary Le Robert, ‘an incident that disrupts the harmony of a process.’ A lot of incidents tend to disrupt the harmony of processes in France. This is not a random statement but an observation based on experience. And it seems that many such couacs are being observed in advance of the Paris Olympics. It doesn’t take a lot of imaginatio ..read more

One of my favourite French expressions is ‘remercier’. Used not to thank someone, but rather to fire them. Or to ‘let them go’, as we so kindly put it in English. To me, ‘remercier’ illustrates all of the subtlety and indirectness of the French language, and why it is the language of diplomacy. Not that I would know much about that: I’m about as indirect and diplomatic as my French bulldogs. This week Emmanuel Macron ‘thanked’ his prime minister for the past two years by accepting her resignation. Here again, it makes it sound like she wanted to leave. But no, essentially she was forced out s ..read more

“What can I wish you?” people will ask. “Health? Success? A little wealth?” The very first post I published on this blog in January 2013 was about the month-long tradition of ‘les voeux’ or new year’s wishes in France. That’s still the case, although here in Switzerland I’ve had little chance yet to observe whether people wish each other a happy new year all through January. Most people’s greatest wish is for good health. “La santé par dessus tout,” I often hear the French say. Beyond that, they will add, a bit of prosperity and enjoyment of life. It is rare to hear people ask for more love ..read more

“La neige? Pas trop.” That’s what the locals said when I asked: “Do you get much snow in winter?” “Not really. Usually melts around here. You have to go higher up for it to stick.” Our Swiss village is at 800 metres altitude and surrounded by mountains, so I found this surprising. But we are reputed to be in a bit of a microclimate here in sunny Valais. So much so that the former owners planted palm trees and yuccas. So, I took them at their word. Until this happened. But the snow turned to rain and our winter wonderland soon turned into a giant slushie. Maybe they were right. When we went aw ..read more

La pendule de Foucault, proof that the earth rotates every 24 hours, is the only pendulum for me. It’s that time of year again, folks. When the clocks go crazy and change by one hour, mostly in the uncivilized countries of the EU and North America. Everyone seems to have an opinion about whether summer time or winter time is better. Few seem to grasp that it doesn’t matter which time we choose, if only we could stop this silly semi-annual pendulum swing. Allow me to illustrate my opinion with what has to be the most bizarre expression in French: “Chier une pendule.” Literally, to shit a clock ..read more

Once upon a time we had a cat. Leo was not your average moggy. He had the proverbial nine lives. Leo was born in 2005 in Vourles, France, a short drive from where we then lived, in the countryside outside Lyon. Our cleaner, a rocker chick with cat-like eyes and a nimble touch with a feather duster, told me how his mother had rejected him and she had been forced to find an adoptive family in a hurry. That second life was short-lived as the family quickly gave him back. As it happened he was currently available for adoption. In fact, if she didn’t find a home for him soon, she didn’t know what ..read more

It seems our long, hot summer has finally come to an end. The weather is suddenly cooler and last night we had the first long-awaited rain. Here in central Valais the grapes are ripe for the picking, hanging plumply purple and golden and ready for the ‘vendanges’ which are getting underway. Since we moved back to the French-speaking part of Switzerland, I have been thinking about ‘point de vue’. Point of view as in a viewpoint from the top of a ridge or mountain (we have a great many of those), but also in general: the way we see the world. It seems this is coloured by so many different thin ..read more

photo: Evaan Kheraj When a light goes out in the world, no matter how great or small, it’s as if the stars shift in the sky above us. This past week the world has lost a few lights that for me shone big and bright, loud and angry, warm and fuzzy. When I was a girl, my mother loved to listen to her favourite crooners: Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. There were others, but those two voices topped the charts in our house. Later, when I began to expand my musical horizons and listen to jazz, many of those old songs were familiar. And I found myself singing along with tunes like ‘I’ve got you under ..read more

Here I am again. Finally. Enfin. Or, to use a current turn of phrase in French, enfin bref! Meaning: long story short, whatever, anyhoo… It feels like forever since we packed up our stuff and moved from beautiful Brunnen in Central Switzerland to our new village in the French-speaking Canton of Valais. Forever since we last woke up to our stunning view of Lake Lucerne. Oddly, it’s only been two months. I’m not going to lie: the past few weeks have been tough. Nothing life-threatening: first-world problems and all that. Still, hugely disruptive. Messy. Frustrating. Expensive. And nowhere near ..read more

In German-speaking Switzerland, they don’t say goodbye as you might expect. I was all ready with my limited vocabulary including ‘auf wiedersehen’ or even ‘tschüss’ but it turns out that around here they just say ‘ade’ (ah-day). It’s an adaptation of ‘adieu’, but without the finality of the French sense. I’ve been feeling a strange mix of emotions this week. One minute it’s like time has stopped, and I’m happily living in the present. Then it’s like things are going too fast, and I feel anxious and unsettled. The next moment feels like forever, like things are dragging on and I will never get ..read more