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  Day 3409 (Friday) 9th October 2026. Huw found this photo online, it was the sunset last night. 7 Great Reasons to Discover France in Autumn There is a chill in the air, and the trees are turning orange: it is official, autumn is here. It is the season for mushroom picking, incredible golden light, and major, must-see exhibitions... It is also the perfect season to discover France’s finest treasures without the crowds. To savour seasonal produce While summer gives us fresh fruit and vegetables at their sun-kissed best, autumn is a time for cooking up delicious meals and savouring the produce that hasn’t crossed our lips since the previous year. Autumn brings the aroma of freshly picked mushrooms, and the joy of porcini simmering away in a pan with some garlic, or a tasty girolle sauce.   The stalls at the market are creaking under the weight of myriad varieties of squash, the stars of any autumn meal whether served mashed, as a soup, or as a gratin. Autumn is also the perfect...
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  Day 3408 (Thursday) 8th October 2026. This is Saint-Jean Cap-Ferrat and this is Coco beach near the old port of Nice. Huw found this photo online this morning - this was the storm over Nice yesterday. All is well in the world again as the sun was shining and the Rade looked as good as usual. After lunch we went for a walk down to the beach and were chuffed to see that they are dismantling the private beach DeliBo - it’ll be gone soon.   On the way home we stopped for a coffee in one of the restaurants   along the seafront and the waiter’s English was very good. We overheard him saying that he’d lived in Croydon, how do you get from Croydon to Villefranche? Huw couldn't resist and asked him and he was pleased to announce that he had lived in Galway and then London and that he’d travelled to Wales. Here are the rest of the French Customs and Traditions by Andi Fisher. Thursday Carte du Jour Eating out is one of the major expenses of any trip – especially for a foodie like...
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  Day 3407 (Wednesday) 7th October 2026. This is Saint Paul de Vence and this is Beaulieu. It was grey and wet this morning and it stayed that way all day and we stayed at home. French Customs and Traditions: A Francophile’s Guide  by Andi Fisher French customs and traditions are the everyday rituals and unwritten rules that shape daily life in France, from greeting with la bise and gathering for l’apéro to the long, unhurried meal and the near-sacred August holiday. Some you will fall for instantly, and others will leave you politely baffled. Here is my personal collection, gathered over decades of loving France, marrying into it, and living there, along with the essentials you should know before you go. Culture is a tricky thing. You may fall in love with some of the surface aspects at first, but the more you keep digging, the more you realise what a bottomless pit of wonderment it can be. There are the obvious things, like food and holidays. And then, there are the things y...
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