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A quiet life in the country…..

1st July 2008 by Helena 4 Comments  

LoudThe Savoie is idyllic. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to, rather like Devon on steroids but with mountain ranges. But this tosh about a peaceful life in the country is, well, tosh.

I am pleased to report that the well-known and well-documented international terrorist conspiracy to keep me awake has another victim: Rupert. I never thought I would see the day but since we have been here he has been woken up by:

An over-sexed or over-something moth living in the beams

Rats or some rodent with fast friends running over our heads

Cows mooing (I am not joking, it woke me up too)

A neighbour’s dog running upstairs

Lambs bleeting (I noticed he ate his roast lamb with particular gusto on Sunday)

Dogs barking (no change there, we are in France after all)

Tractors racing (or at least that’s what it sounded like)

Birds singing

Cockerels crowing (to be expected)

It feels like we’re living in a mini-farm. But I love it. I have invested in some multi-coloured ear-plugs and am fighting the forces of evil. Rupert says he can’t wait to get to London next week for a bit of peace and quiet. I might just stay here with my earplugs in.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2008


Filed Under: France, blog --> Tagged With: country, quiet

4 thoughts on A quiet life in the country.....

  • GHCH says:
    1st July 2008 at 6:49 pm

    Dear Helena.

    What you have running overhead is most probably a stone martin. These nocturnal critters live in the roof and come home around 4 am to chew on their prey – frogs, lizards, mice etc. They are fond of the hilly regions of rural France and Switzerland. One forced me out of my house, it was either sell or spend €200,000 on the roof insulation that it had destroyed. Be careful, they are pretty but dangerous and will attack humans if cornered.

    As for cows, tractors, lambs and birds, well, it’s the country ain’t it.

    Graham

  • sharyn G says:
    2nd July 2008 at 2:51 pm

    Helena,

    As a country girl growing up I never noticed the quietness and background sounds. I moved to the City where wailing sirens and traffic are the norm. I stayed with my parents a couple of times on the farm since then and the quiet is unnerving. I couldn’t sleep! It could be worse! You could be smelling the clean country air perfuming PA Dutch Country when the fields are fertilized.

    Sharon G

  • Barbara says:
    2nd July 2008 at 7:50 pm

    I had a wave of nerves when I got at the over-sexed bit wondering what was coming next.
    The only sound on the list is the moth beast creature but we have the horses going by on their way to the gallops instead.
    The mice in the loft have even eaten the baby moses basket: discovered last week when we got it down.
    Hope your trip is all you hoped for.

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Helena Frith Powell was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and Italian father, but grew up mainly in England. She is the author of eleven books, translated into several languages including Chinese and Russian. She wrote the French Mistress column The Sunday Times about life in France for several years. She is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Tatler Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar.

Helena has been the editor of four magazines, including M Magazine, a supplement for the Abu Dhabi based National Newspaper and FIVE, a high-end fashion glossy, also published in Abu Dhabi. Helena was also editor in chief of 360 Life, a quarterly glossy magazine published with the Sports 360 Newspaper in Dubai, part of the Chalhoub Group.

Helena contributes regularly to UK-based newspapers and magazines and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. Helena is also working on a thriller called Thin Ice that will be published in spring 2021 as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

Her latest non-fiction work Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles came out in hardback in 2016 and in paperback in April 2018.

Helena, who was educated at Durham University, lives in the Languedoc region of France with her husband Rupert and their three children.

Bibliography

More France Please, we’re British; Gibson Square 2004

Two Lipsticks and a Lover 2005; Gibson Square (hardback)

All You Need to be Impossibly French; (US version of above) Penguin 2006

Two Lipsticks and a Lover; Arrow Books (paperback) 2007

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (hardback) 2006

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (paperback) 2007

So Chic! (French version of Two Lipsticks) Leduc Editions 2008 (also translated into Chinese, Russian and Thai)

More, More France; Gibson Square 2009

To Hell in High Heels; Arrow Books 2009 (also translated into Polish)

The Viva Mayr Diet; Harper Collins 2009

Love in a Warm Climate; Gibson Square 2011

The Ex-Factor; Gibson Square 2013

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles; Gibson Square 2016

The Arnolfini Marriage; Amazon Kindle December 2016

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles (paperback); Gibson Square spring 2018

The Longest Night; Gibson Square spring 2019

 

 

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