Why I live in France

I wrote recently about the ‘flip side’ of living in France. Today is Sunday and it is the end of a frustrating week, dealing with French bureaucracy as well as trying to help with the problems of Paris apartment rentals. But Sunday morning is the end of the week and I look forward to bringing Carole breakfast in bed, reading the papers and getting bread from the Boulangerie warm on the table.

The boulangerie is the real heart of a French village – we must be from Gallifrey, the planet of the Time Lords as we, Like Dr Who, have two ‘hearts’ in our village of Montblanc. The one at the top of our high street had a ‘degustation’ of their bread this morning and were giving away balloons and samples of their produce, they also sell their own wine. With over 15 different varieties of bread baked continuously every day, it is a precious resource and makes a big difference to the quality of life and a very good reason to put up with the tribulations of paperwork.

www.EpiMontblanais.com

They have their own website which has a brief history of bread-making in Montblanc, the medieval oven is still in the center of the village (photos on their website), not in use today, but once it would have been the place where most of the village gathered each week to cook their food and exchange gossip – in a way this is still the tradition as the village boulangerie is as much a place for meeting people and hearing the news as for buying bread (or wine).

This is one reason why we have lived in France for 20 years.