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I am thinking of compiling a book called “Gaelic Shrugs”, and I really would appreciate a little help with this. I have made a start, by numbering a few of them, but I need assistance with categorising many of the different expressions and then trying to define what they really mean.

FAILURE, I'M afraid. Signal, abject failure. Serves us right for being so cocksure, of course. We'll be back by teatime, we said. Nothing to it. Easy-peasy. A doddle. We'll call you from the top. Chill the champagne ready for our triumphant return

Occasionally in France I get a little treat, a little bonus, that makes up for the overwhelming sense of helplessness I have when confronted by bureaucracy, lack of urgency and a lack of appreciation of why "Now" means "any time before the holidays, perhaps". Last week was the time for one of these treats.

IN MANY years of writing for this most amiable of websites I've covered so many aspects of living in France with pieces about the food and wine, local restaurants, French politics and history and television, goings-on in our village, local fauna and flora, and of course the wonderful farrago and farce that often results from conducting everything in French.

A Wednesday morning in early June. The sun rose about ten minutes ago. Just outside the window, always open on fine summer nights, there's some unusually busy buzzing going on. (If you say 'unusually busy buzzing' to yourself several times over yo

WHEN WE built our new house here in the Languedoc about six years ago we had first to demolish a cherry orchard. We had mixed feelings about this, because they were handsome trees, arranged in parallel groves on a north-facing slope. In spring the

It is 7.30 in the morning and I am in the courtyard of the Mayor’s office in Pezenas. No, I’m not in trouble with the authorities again, but am here to sell fresh almonds.

There is a bustling market in Pezenas on a Saturday and