Fandango’s Flashback Friday 6 March 2026

From 2015, a time when I was writing (allegedly) humorous posts purporting to be journalism. This one illustrates how two nations can be divided by a single postcode. Meet The Neighbours Today, we feature the latest product of the joint venture with the online edition of our local newspaper, Le Quotidien de Faire-le-Dodo (87). Our regular…

One-Liner Wednesday: Headless

“Sorry I’m late, but I’ve got 13 chickens” Our Monday afternoon French class is quite a source of quotable quotes and this week provided yet another. A new (well, old, to be honest) lady breezed in about quarter of an hour after the start time, introducing herself with the above announcement. Follow that (I didn’t).…

Cutting Crew

In recent days we’ve been contacted by a number of expats – especially newer arrivals in our lovely commune – concerned by an apparent spate of intimidating threats to their property perpetrated by a very large man in a very yellow jacket, driving a very large tractor around, and in some cases almost into, their…

Faire-Le-Dodo (87): Did You Know?…

We didn’t see you at the recent annual Vin d’Amitie at the village hall. We can only assume that you didn’t know there was free drink involved (quite an agreeable rosé méthode champènoise, as it happens). You may not even know what the Vin d’Amitie is. For the uninitiated, it’s an evening ‘do’ early in…

Faire-Le-Dodo (87): What You May Have Missed

Greetings from The Management. As we indicated in the recent post announcing that we were stepping in to rejuvenate Mr Deadhead’s blog, our aim is to keep our readers much more informed about local news – even if we have to make it up ourselves – as it concerns the local expat community. As Deaders…

Together no more

Some of you may be wondering whatever happened to the public service joint venture – announced with so much fanfare at the beginning of last year – between this blog and the local newspaper, ‘Le Quotidien de Faire-le-Dodo (87)’. Late last year Le Quotidien, like so many other print journals faced with rising print costs…

Don’t mention the Bastille

Tuesday was a public holiday in France. Arguably, it was the public holiday: July 14th, the Fête Nationale. You may even think it was Bastille Day. Wrong. We were surprised to discover that French people don’t refer to it by that name and would quite likely have no idea what you were talking about if you…

It’s All Kicking Off In Faire-Le-Dodo (87)

The traditional tranquilité of our commune was shattered yesterday when two members of the local constabulary were called to an altercation at La Petite Superette et Salon de Thé. This is believed to be the first time that the gendarmes have had to be diverted from their usual job – manning speed traps on the Route Départemental…