Hello, hello my lovely readers! Today I have a special post for you! A link up, to be more specific. Phoebe of Lou Messugo has given me the reins for the August All About France link up and I’m hosting for her while she’s on vacation. I’m so glad you’re here. Link up below with a France-related post of your own or discover some new France-focused bloggers to add to your reading list!
Go!
All About France #19 (link up)
Happy summer! I can’t believe it’s August already and that Phoebe has hosted 18 of these fabulous linkys already. I sound like my grandma, but time really does fly. Anyway, I hope you’re all taking a week or 4 off this summer to unwind and spend time with those who mean the most to you.
Tom and I went on vacation early to visit family in the USA (even my own culture had a few surprises) and then on a fabulous river cruise to Normandy. The rest of the summer will be spent just hanging around our neck of the woods. Luckily we only had two days of super hot weather and the rest of the season has been mild with temps in the 70s. Knocking on wood…
To wrap up last month’s All About France link up, Phoebe sent over a few links that she wanted to highlight, so in case you missed them, be sure to click over to:
- The Simple Life from Lost in Lyon: Emily writes about the way the British and French see home decor and tells us about her quest to live more simply, with less stuff, in her new house.
- Secret Blois #1 from Aussie in France: Here we’re taken to the city of Blois in the Loir-et-Cher region of France and get a walking tour of the city including statues, the castle and even where to get ice cream.
- Diner en Blanc from The Smalls Abroad: Lillian and her husband just moved to Scotland, but back in June she had a very special night out with friends in Paris at the Diner en Blanc… where you guessed it, everyone comes dressed in white!
- On Running and French driver’s licenses from Bonjour Adventure: As a foreigner, you have a year to convert your American license into a French one (if there’s a reciprocity agreement with your state) and Tammy tells us about her experience where she was literally running to her appointment before the deadline.
So first, some background on the link up:
The All About France blog linkup was created in February 2015 by Phoebe and has been going strong ever since. It kicks off on the first Thursday of every month and features posts that in some way relate to France, French culture, the French language, etc. You don’t have to live in France to link up!
The whole concept is that participants and readers alike will have fun clicking around to discover new and interesting blogs while learning about France at the same time. It’s a win-win for everyone.
Topics you’ll read about in the All About France link up can include:
- Travel in France – recent holidays, dream trips, remembering past visits, travel tips
- Living in France as a foreigner- challenges, best things about it, advice
- French people living abroad – your experiences of your host country & difference/similarities with France
- Learning French – tips, problems, anecdotes, teaching methods
- French food – recipes, anecdotes, cooking, restaurants
- French culture – things you love about French culture, quirks, the similarities or differences you have found with your home culture
- Raising children in France or French children being brought up elsewhere
- Poetry and Prose – please feel free to share a poem or short story about France
- Anything else you can think of that in some way relates to France or French
If you’re linking up, please follow the rules:
First and foremost, this is a linky, so please share the love!
Read, comment on and share fellow bloggers’ links, at least two but ideally as many as possible. Please share this post as well. I can’t say that enough! It’s only fun if you link up and show support for your fellow bloggers. Don’t just link-dump (persistent offenders will be removed). That means if you leave your link and disappear without commenting or sharing others’ posts, your post will be deleted. Remember to come back a few times over the coming days to check out posts added after you linked up. And if you’re not a blogger and have stopped by to read the posts, thank you! Would you mind sharing and commenting as well?
Keep in mind that old and new posts are welcome. Please only post 2 links max. Save the rest for future months!
Don’t forget to add the All About France badge to the side bar of your blog and/or the post itself and a link back to this page please. This helps to promote everyone’s hard work. The badge is mandatory and posts without it will be removed.
Use the hashtag #AllAboutFrance when sharing on social media. I will retweet tweets with the hashtag or if you mention me (@OuiInFrance). The link up will be open for a week and the next one will be Thursday, Sept. 1.
Please consider following me on Twitter, Facebook, Bloglovin’, Pinterest and/or Instagram as a courtesy.
So without further ado, link up below and grab the code for your blog/post below.
First, to add your blog so it appears with the others below:
Just click the little blue button with white text below that says “Add your link” and follow the instructions on the page it generates. If none of this is clear, please contact me.
Then, grab the square #AllAboutFrance badget below. Either right-click and save the image to put in your post or just grab the code.
(Email me please if anything isn’t working right. I tried to work out all the tech glitches and we should be good, but hey, you never know.)
[inlinkz_linkup id=651269 mode=1]
All previous link-ups can be found here.
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Thank you for being here and joining in the All About France fun. A big thanks goes out to Phoebe for giving me the opportunity to host. Thank you for all that you do. Wishing Phoebe a relaxing vacation!
THANK YOU so much for doing this for me Diane, I really really appreciate it 🙂
You’re very welcome. Thank you for the opportunity!
Linking up and will be back later to comment – and you got close to us when you did your Normandy River Cruise. I love Honfleur and must make it back there again soon. Did you take Dagny with you?
Great to see you here! Thank you for stopping by! Nope, Dagny was on vacation at my in-laws’ place. I don’t know of any cruise line that accepts in-cabin pets. She would have loved it though, especially dinnertime at the restaurant! See u later
Well, this is my first try at one of this linkup things. I hope I did it right!
Hi there, not seeing your post… would you mind trying again? You put your link in the page that generates after clicking “add my link”. Blue box after the thumbnails on the left (blue box with white writing)… does that make sense?
I think your grandma was right, I say it all the time… time is really flying. In the last month my daughter announced she was getting married and all I could think of was my little baby girl and where has the time gone. So cliche I know, but every now and again these sayings and feelings slap us in the face without warning. I am truely delighted now I have had time to process this good news!!
Hi Annette, thanks for your comment. Would you try again to post your link in the linkup itself? I want to make sure you get the views and shares too. 😉 Please email me if you’re having trouble, ouiinfrance@gmail.com.
And congrats to your daughter!
This is my first time participating, I hope I did it right! I put up an old one because I haven’t ranted about bureaucracy in a long time (I’m grateful I haven’t had a reason to lately!) Thanks for hosting this, what a cool way to discover other blogs 🙂
Excellent work, miss. Your link went through and I see your thumbnail. Looking forward to reading everyone’s posts! Thank you for being here.
This is great, thanks for letting me know about it!
You got it! Happy to have you here. Hope Paris is treating you well!
Hi Diane,
Great you are able to host All About France this month. Thank you to you and Phoebe for mentioning my post on Secret Blois last month. I’m contributing two posts this month, one from my Aussie in France blog and the other from my Loire Daily Photo blog. It’s the first time I’ve done so. I will enjoy reading all the other posts as well.
Thank YOU for being here and linking up. Bon week-end !
Hi Diane,
Thank you very much for hosting! Since it’s my first time, and I’m fairly new to the blog world, I’m really eager to meet and connect with other bloggers. I contributed two posts. This is such a great concept, and I look forward to reading all these great posts!! Thanks again!
You’re very welcome. Happy to have you here and looking forward to reading everyone’s posts!
Thanks for taking up the baton this month. I’ve added a couple of links and will get round and look at as many posts as I can. 🙂
You’re very welcome. Happy to have you here!
Thank you for this and for all your lovely blogs about France! I am new to this whole blogging thing (mine isn’t French/about France) so it’s great to find lots of links in one place!
I’ve ‘favourited’ a lot of pages today!
We hope to relocate soon, so I’m using them all for inspiration!
Keep up the good work 🙂
You’re very welcome and glad I could help provide some inspiration!
Hello,
This is not related to this article but I remember you mentioned how bad dentistry is in France. I must admit it left me confused since I’ve been living in the UK for a while and if you want to know what appalling dentistry or shall I say almost non existent is, move across the channel. So to summarise I have always found French dental care to be decent but I have never stopped wondering what makes American people’s teeth so extraordinarily good. I don’t mean just well lined up but also incredibly sparkling white, what kind of extra procedures do you guys do? Do you regularly whiten your teeth? I’ve been using whitening toothpastes, mouthwashs and an electric tooth brush for years and my teeth are ok at best. Tell me what is your US secret for amazing teeth?
Hi Ana, so I think French dental care is a few steps behind what I’ve experienced in the US but not bad. I don’t want to give anyone a bad impression. It’s just lower quality than what I’m used to when it comes to preventive care. It’s also not the same price, so in a way I guess you get what you pay for. There are also amazing (and terrible) dentists everywhere so I don’t want to lump anyone into one category.
In general I feel like French dental care is less preventive than American care, so a cleaning will be less thorough (over in 15 minutes whereas it takes an hour at my dentist in the US), there’s no mention of daily flossing in France, etc. You go to the dentist in France for problems and a quick cleaning. I feel like it’s partially because French dentists WANT you to have problems so they can make money. A cleaning is cheap and reimbursed but a root canal is quite expensive and even supplementary insurance plans don’t pick up the entire cost.
As for Americans’ teeth, I think it depends. It depends on the person’s genes but also the fact that many Americans do floss and take great care of their teeth preventively. Also many Americans in the public eye (politicians, celebrities, etc.) have paid $30k+ for full sets of veneers. Even people who aren’t famous pay a lot of money to cosmetic dentists. Whitening treatments are also very popular. White teeth = vitality and youth in a way so people want to have white teeth like the stars. I personall love Crest Whitestrips for home use — an easy $50 in the store — and try to floss daily and take care of my teeth the best I can.
Again, you’ll find plenty of Americans with horrible teeth — just that the people you see in the public eye have probably a combo of good genes/good preventive care/cosmetic treatments to keep them looking on point. Best way to get amazing teeth is preventive care and spending $$$ on cosmetic dentistry. Just my opinion though.
Thank you for visiting the linky!! Have a wonderful weekend!
Just adding my 2 cents here…. My husband just had nasty root canal treatment over a period of 4 sessions while I had a thorough cleaning over 2 sessions of about 45-50 mins each. His was fully reimbursed by sécu/mutuelle mine wasn’t in any way (not even mutuelle). So this certainly reinforces Diane’s point that treatment is more important than prevention but the absolute opposite in terms of payment. My cleaning certainly wasn’t cheap. I have never been encouraged to floss anywhere in the 9 countries I’ve lived in except France! So I guess it actually comes down to individual dentists.
Interesting Phoebe, was your cleaning just a “regular” one or a deeper gum treatment because of a problem? I’ve never heard of a regular cleaning taking two sessions of 45 minutes. But I love it. I want to see your dentist if he takes that much time to do a thorough job! I only ask because my MIL had something similar but it was a deep gum cleaning because of a problem and was not reimbursed. Also, I think it depends on one’s mutuelle because I know my husband paid a decent amount out of pocket for his crown. The secu reimbursed like 20 euros.
I’m always interested in sharing my love for France. Thanks for hosting.
You’re very welcome!