Columnists

Autumn in Creuse

October is autumn in Creuse, our part of central France. September is still summer, and November is when winter starts, generally very enthusiastically on the first day, so that give us just the thirty-one days of mists and mellow fruitfulness.

A Different Idea Of Home

Canadian and British homes are worlds apart in terms of style and layout. Before moving to Canada, my husband and I renovated and extended our 1930’s UK property, stripping the interior – re-plastering, re-plumbing and re-wiring. It was a major

My Mexican Father-In-Law

Machismo manifests in different ways. Sometimes it’s outright sexism – not letting your wife work, loudly demanding your breakfast, cheating on her with prostitutes. Sometimes it’s a societal problem, like lower salaries and poorer job prospects for women. Sometimes it’s

Shelter From The Storm

The more we (Linda and I) think about an emergency bolthole to escape a worldwide economic collapse, the more we wonder if we’re not already living in it. (The bolthole, that is: not the collapse!) One’s home is always familiar

Some Things Just Don’t Grow On You

No matter how long you’re an expat, there are certain things that you’ll just never get used to. Having lived in the States for twenty-two years now, you’d think that most things would be second nature to me. I have

11 Tips For Saying Goodbye To Visitors

I’ve just said goodbye to my parents who have been with me for a month. I love that they stay a month—now that they’re retired they can do that and it makes the visit so much easier, almost like they’re