We will always be known as ‘Les Anglais.’

If we book a table in a restaurant, order something from a shop or make an appointment with dentist we  rarely have to give our name. We are ‘Les Anglais’.

Yesterday, I was asking about a kettle and the shop assistant shouted to her collegue,’ L’anglaise wants the Phillips kettle, do we have one.?’

Just further proof that however much I try to improve my pronounciation I will never be able to hide my English accent!!

At this point I smile, as everyone looks at the ‘l’anglaise’ wanting to buy a kettle.

I feel I should be offended by this label, is it similar to a sexist remark?

But, I am not in the slightest bit upset, amused, yes, but not offended.

I guess, like any remark, it is usually HOW it is said, and I have never been referred to as l’anglaise in a nasty way.

We need a shed. For ten years we have needed a shed. For ten years I have nagged Mark about a shed.

As we don’t have a shed his tools are everywhere, in the hall, under the kitchen table, under the stairs… he can never find anything and I keep tripping over the circular saw in the lounge… ohhhh here I go again….

Finally, he has got fed up of my nagging and has converted a small ruin on the side of the house into a rather nice shed complete with work bench and racking for all his tools. Perfect. Last weekend all the tools were moved into the new shed. It is quite a luxury not having to share the sofa with a nail gun!!.

I hadn’t realised quite how many tools Mark had until I saw them all lined up… perhaps we should get a lock?.. this shed is quite exposed.

Mark gave me the, ‘Will she EVER stop nagging look’.  Saturday evening we have a secure shed (with a lock!!)  and a house tool free !!..

All safe....

Yesterday, I came home from dropping the children off at school to find two men with electric screwdrivers dismantling the lock!!!..

Thankfully they were electricians whom Mark had asked to install a couple of sockets into his new shed…. but maybe we need a ‘beefier’ lock !!

I peeked inside the letter box. An envelope says ‘Ministère des Affaires Étrangères et Européennes’.

Could this be ‘The Decision’. Do we have French nationality or not?

I tear open the envelope, a formal letter and four printouts, two for Mark, one for me and one for Iona. What about Joe?, as he was born here is he automatically French?.

I stare at the letters and the print outs. The ironic thing is….. I don’t understand a word of it !!.

The village shop was definitely the place to be today if you wanted a lively political debate !!..

I ran in for our lunchtime baguette. The bar was full, Nadine was in full flow. Lucienne arrived just after me. ‘Who did you vote for?’ Nadine shouts across the crowded bar.

‘Hollande, of course, Sarkozy is for the rich, Hollande is going to raise the minimum wage, that’s good for me.’ Lucienne replies and orders a coffee. There were murmurs of agreement.

Jean Luc arrives next and as a Sarkozy voter, the debate became heated….

All over France families will be sitting around the televisions…. waiting…

2 minutes to go until we know the result…

The battle between Sarkozy and Hollande continues.

The campaign officially ends at midnight Friday, before the polling stations open on Sunday. The last votes can be made at 6.00pm when the polling booths across France close.

The votes are then counted and the results are usually available before 7.00pm. It is however, illegal to publish the results in France before they are announced on French television at 8.00pm

However,  neighbouring Belgium and Switzerland have a keen interest in the forthcoming election results and are currently looking for loopholes in the current legislation which prevents them from broadcasting these results until 8.00pm.

Add the speed of the internet to the equation, along with France’s 23 million Facebook and three million Twitter accounts, and the law banning result predictions before 8:00pm appears increasingly unworkable.

On French social networks, users were discussing a variety of ways of getting around the embargo, including renaming the candidates after countries and presenting the results as sports wins.

Some suggested renaming Hollande as The Netherlands and Sarkozy as Hungary, where his father was born.