Category: Living in France
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The 5 Best Budget Restaurants in Toulouse
When I eat out, my first port of call is to google ‘budget restaurants in Toulouse’. I assume most of us do this, inserting our own home cities at the end. Eating is quite possibly one of the most enjoyable activities and food, well, it’s not free. So, the best option is to find restaurants,…
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The 4 Best Affordable To-Go Lunches in Toulouse
In the summer, a picnic is always a good idea. For those of us from famously wet countries, a picnic in the rain is part of our national identity, and not even a storm can keep us away from our scotch eggs and plastic-wrapped sandwiches. Toulouse in the summer, while a little wayward like a…
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The Best Hidden Beer Gardens for Summer in Toulouse
Every year when summer rolls around, I find myself nursing some very specific cravings: 1. Pimm’s – ideally with a medley of fruits, cucumber and mint floating on the surface. 2. Olives. Big, meaty ones, the brinier the better! 3. And last but not least, a beer garden or terrace with outdoor seating, ideally shaded…
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The Best Tea and Cake in Toulouse
For some reason, it is drilled into us from nursey age that there are three meals a day. I would like to propose that there should be a fourth meal and that one is clearly the tea and cake course. Not that I need to tell you, dear reader, I’m sure you’re like me and…
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The 5 Best Affordable Restaurants in Toulouse
I’d always wanted to live abroad and finally in 2019, I boarded that plane, carrying my life on my back. Incidentally, that flight took me to New Zealand, and through a series of exciting, surprising (and then there was a little pandemic) circumstances, I’m now living in France! In Toulouse in fact. Do you know…
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French recipe: Pain au Chocolat
What are the first three foods that come to mind when you think of France? Take your time, I will wait. Ready? Let’s see – I assume baguettes are up there? Baguettes seem to grow like grass here. What about delicate pastries like eclairs? Or their 1600 cheeses? Basically, anything involving butter? France is pretty…
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French recipe: Creamy Leek and Potato Soup
To quote Elizabeth Gilbert, since living in France, “I’ve been doing rude things to my body.” However, it seems unlikely that this leek and potato soup will help. While Liz made sweet love to pizza and pasta and gelato in Rome over the course of four months in her book ‘Eat, Pray, Love’, I have…
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How to Build a French Charcuterie Board
It was during my first visit to see Gaylord in France that I realised how seriously the French take charcuterie. While it took me another year to eat snails, then a whole year after that I finally encountered frogs legs, charcuterie has been a weekly snack since my plane touched down in 2020. As you…
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Cheat’s Prawn Ceviche with Avocado
Our evening binge-TV is Modern Family. There are 11 seasons so it looks like we’re covered until next summer (who am I kidding, we’ll be finished within a month). In an episode we watched the other night, a character lamented, ‘Do you remember when summer meant fireflies, cut-off shorts and ice cream trucks?’ Do I…