Bon weekend from a village of cider makers

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Bonjour,

I hope you and yours are well.

I’m absolutely delighted to be sharing the latest issue of The Good Life France with you: The Autumn edition. It’s totally free, and it really is totally brilliant – there’s a link below or just click here: The Good Life France Magazine Autumn 2025

I hope you enjoy it, and if you do, feel free to share it!

With autumn on the way, the pace of life is starting to slow down here in rural northern France where I am. The leaves have begun to fling themselves off the branches, the grass is dewy and mist rises over the valley in the morning, woodpiles are being readied as fires will soon be lit, and dusk arrives by l’heure de l’apéro – the cocktail hour when friends and family get together for a natter over a glass of something (not every day of course, we’re not that indulgent here!). And the harvest party has been – and gone, though it will remain in the memories of most of us as “the one where Bread Man didn’t go home early to make bread.”

You may remember, I told you that Bread Man has retired, replaced by a vending machine in the next village along (it is not an improvement) as currently there is no one willing or able to take his place and drive around the valleys with a van load of cakes, croissants and baguettes. Fortunately, a proper bread shop is not far by car or tractor from the village and we, like everyone here, have a big freezer, so we stock up once a week on market day when we go to town, and a few minutes in the oven works wonders for a defrosted loaf! I’ve noticed too that most of us in the village appear to have lost a little weight without Bread Man’s tempting tarts and irresistible gateaux!

It’s a short letter from me as it’s the end of the week as I write this and my four dogs – Australian Shepherds Nina (the chatty one, she asks for biscuits all day long), Lady (who shrieks like a gibbon when she is excited about going for a walk), and Labradors Ronnie and Reggie Kray (who in their third year are lazy and calm except if you say the words “ball” or “dinner”, are insisting I take them for a walk before I take the first of the fallen apples in our garden to my neighbour Jean-Claude for the village cider club haul!

Bisous,
Janine
Editor

PS Top photo: The Pont du Gard – few people know that it’s possible to walk along the top inside the canal, and it’s awesome! I’ll write more about it but in case anyone wants to know how to have this experience – book a guided tour at the ticket office, you can’t go it alone.

Read the whole newsletter here

Janine Marsh is Author of My Good Life in France: In Pursuit of the Rural Dream, My Four Seasons in France: A Year of the Good Life and Toujours la France: Living the Dream in Rural France all available as ebook, print & audio, on Amazon everywhere & all good bookshops online. Her latest book How to be French – is a celebration of the French lifestyle and art de vivre.

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