It's Officially Summer!

And the pool is out!

I won't be going on holiday this year, but I must admit with the fabulous weather and a 3m x 3m inflatable pool on my terrasse, I'm contented with what this summer will bring.

Today I actually did feel like I was on holiday. You know that calmness that descends on the world on a Sunday? Coupled with beautiful sunshine and the splish sploshing of Tiana in the pool I could almost have been on the French Riviera!

I also love Summertime for chilling in the shade a reading a good book. I can devour a book a day if I'm left in peace! My mum brought me lots of Englsih books with her, and I've just finished The Paris Wife today.

It's the story of Ernest Hemingway's frist wife, Hadley Richardson, who has become to be known in history as The Paris Wife. Semi-biographical and semi-fiction, a fabulous read into the mind of the woman who made Ernest who he became. A must read in my book!

Wonderful News

Got some wonderful news today, my mum & dad have spontaneously booked some flights for a visit next week! I did however, make the big mistake of telling my three year old that nanny & grandad are coming, and having no concept of time at this age, she is now asking me every 5 minutes when are they getting here! It's going to be a long week! Ooh and my mum is bringing me a load of English books, it's the little things :)

Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong

My parents gave me this book not long after I moved to France. I read part of it and put it away. Being only 18 and working in Disney I was living anything but typically French. Ten years on and completely immersed in French life I thought I'd give it another go. And let me say after just the 1st paragraph of the introduction I found myself nodding enthusiastically along with the authors. I am thoroughly immersed in this excellent book, although written before the financial crisis of 2008 it is still surprisingly relevant today.

Let me give you a taste ...

"Imagine a country where people work 35 hour weeks, take seven weeks of paid holidays per year, take an hour and a half for lunch, have the longest life expectancy in the world, and eat the richest food on the planet. A people who keep alive their local shopkeepers, who love nothing better than going to the public market on Saturdays, and who finance the best health care system in the world. A people whose companies are the least unionized and most productive among modern countries, and whose post-industrial consumer society ranks among the most prosperous in the world.
You are now in France.
Now imagine a country whose citisens have so little civic sense that it never crosses their minds to pick up after their dogs or give to charity. Where people expect the State to do everything because they pay so much in taxes. Where service is rude. Where the State is among the most centralised and pervasive in the world, and where the civil servant class amounts to no less than a quarter of the working population. Where citisens tolerate no form of iniative or self rule, where unions are so pervasive that they virtually dictate the course of government and even run French ministries.
You are still in France."

Pure excellence! I'm sure I'll be back musing over their findings over the course of my journey with Jean-Benoit and Julie.

I'm also loving that it has been translated into French and the title has been changed to translate to "Not so crazy the French"!

French Children Don't Throw Food

I read this amazing book by Pamela Druckerman last summer and it was definately one of those unputdownable books. An American woman married to an English man living in Paris and raising three children. She highlights the huge differences in anglophile and francophile parenting, asking questions such as "How come babies sleep through the night?" and "How can french mothers chat to their friends while their children play quietly?".

I could totally relate to nearly everything she said, yet not because I'm one of those mothers who frets that my child isn't in the best playgroup or the best preschool, but because I embraced the French style of parenting from the offset and mainly due to my partner, who is already a Dad and Tiana being my first child, I followed his lead. There's obviously a bit of African mixed in there too but on the whole, Tiana is raised in the French "let them live" mentality.

One of the things that does frustrate me in England is that we've become a nation of bringing up Les Enfants rois (child kings). In France, children have their place and adults have their place. Children are told by a simple "attend" if they interrupt an adult talking not "wait a second sweetheart mummy's talking". The French language does help, simple one word directives are very useful and I find that even though I speak mainly in English with Tiana, I mix these words in, such as "rammasse" for pick that up. They're quick to the point and easy to apply a don't give me any crap tone!

I highly recommend this book to mothers everywhere. Give yourselves a break and let the kids grow up without all the pressure and the Dr Spocks and Dr Never Had a Kid in His Life shoving nonsense down your throat!