How cool that it is our tradition to wish each other a ‘Happy New Year’. In France, folk are maybe more realistic and wish friends and family a ‘Good Year and Good Health’.

But I love that we make happiness the most important thing. Believe it or not, happiness is a choice. We can choose not to be miserable. Focus on the good things in your life and if something brings you down, try to learn from it and let it go.

And spread that New Year love around. We have kissed and exchanged greetings with EVERYONE in our village at the annual gathering organised by the mayor. It may chafe your cheeks but it’s a great way to bring a community together. That and the copious amounts of whisky and wine…

November at Happy Coulson is pretty much all about the birthdays. My birthday, Tana’s birthday and Chris’ birthday. My birthday was spent on the sofa, watching films and eating gâteaux. Perfect, actually.

Tana’s, as always, took the most time and energy. His ninth this year and maybe the last year he invites a big group. So we pulled out all the stops with a Star Wars X-Wing Fighter cake, a dusk treasure hunt through the spooky woods, a bonfire to cook crêpe burritos and fireworks. And homemade lanterns that used tampons dipped in petrol for fuel – failed miserably but caused much hilarity.

Chris celebrated his birthday yesterday. I say ‘celebrated’ – he had a French lesson in the morning then started to work on a laptop which belongs to a student and apparently has lots of precious homework stored on it.

Most of his birthday was spent sweating and swearing at the French laptop with its flaming French words and French keyboard. He did eventually find the solution – at 5am on the day after his birthday.

The children may have gone back to school in September but October has been a real learning experience for the Happy Coulson grown ups. First there was Chris’ survival skills training course. Five days in a woodland in Oxfordshire, learning how to make fire, build shelters, whittle and other manly things.

He was on his own each night, eating wild fare he prepared himself ranging from squirrel to rook and sleeping in his shelter, which he was pretty proud of by the end of the week. Chris will be sharing his skills with visitors to Happy Coulson, including our French students.

Now back on French soil, Chris’ learning month continues with the reprisal of his efforts to master the language. After two years here, his vocabulary and comprehension are impressive, now we need to fill in the gaps so he can take a more active part in conversations.

I feel moved to help Chris progress following my four-day retreat in Spain. Although all the teaching was in English so I didn’t need to speak Spanish, I found being unable to communicate unbearably frustrating. And not understanding the simplest of menus was just embarrassing. Next month I am starting an online TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course to help with my French students. When that is done I am going to start learning Spanish so the next time we go I will at least have the basics.

The yoga and meditation course in Asturias in northern Spain was wonderful. Amazing venue, beautiful scenery, great people, delicious food and four days of me being the student instead of the teacher. I found it so inspiring and came back rejuvenated and excited to share everything I learned with my students in France and England.

Back to school September has passed by in a flash. The kids settled straight back in – two years is proving to be a real breakthrough point in terms of language and integration.

The visitors just kept on coming, notably Chris’ mum and dad for their annual trip. It was a very busy time for us but Heather and Barry got stuck straight in and helped with everything, including the big apple and onion harvest.

We were also delighted to have a visit from my Australian relatives, Jon and Jill Holmes, who were on a tour of Europe. Chris and I stayed with them while travelling in 1997 so it was lovely to repay their kindness. Especially cool was the chance for them to meet Chris’ mum and dad, who they unwittingly took a photograph of on their honeymoon in London around 30 years ago. But that’s another story…

September saw our first wholly Happy Coulson yoga retreat – with yoga by Kate and food by Chris. It was just a day for some of my students, held at a friend’s house as our yoga studio is still a barn, but it went down a treat. We are now looking forward to the day we can host such an event…

To do that, we need a yoga studio so Chris is about to start work on a new shed complex, enabling us to empty the barn of all his tools and supplies. We also need to finish the floors and walls of the new rooms, work that was put on hold when the pilgrim season started way back in April. Lots to do, as always. Good job that’s how we like it.

The long summer holidays, which we thought would never end, are almost over.
We waved goodbye this afternoon to our final two French students – sisters Elisa
and Magda – who after just a week felt like part of our family.

We have had 12 French students in all, each staying either one week or two for an immersion in all things English, including Yoga and Zumba with Kate and cooking with Chris. This is our second year of hosting students and we have loved it.

Special credit goes to Tana and India, for uncomplainingly sharing their bedrooms, toys and mummy and daddy for more than two months. We are now all looking forward to some ‘just us’ family time in the autumn and winter.

We have had a constant stream of gorgeous guests at Happy Coulson. Wonderful workawayers, the Karate King and three Norfolk families (you know who you are) brightened up the sometimes woefully unsunny summer days with boozy suppers and general silliness.

Nanny was in her element with three of her grandchildren when she brought cousin Will over for a visit. We are already looking forward to the next time – with cousin number four, Oli, as well. Who knows, we may even brave Eurodisney…

With all of their help, we have managed to get to the end of an astonishingly busy nine weeks, with up to 19 people staying in our house (including a steady stream of pilgrims), feeling chilled and content. Happy, Happy Coulson.

July has been a month of transformation. Indy turned seven on 19 July, the day that we moved to France two years ago. Amidst the chaos of her pool birthday pool, we managed to find a moment to look around us and appreciate how much we have achieved in that relatively short space of time.

Happy Coulson is not the only thing to transform – Indy lost both front teeth in a matter of days. I always think this is a real turning point, when a child’s face begins to transform, giving hints of what they will look like into adulthood. Indy is so grown up now – I really hope the diligent way she is caring for her new birthday rabbits is not just a phase…

Another transformation, observed with humour by Chris, was how I cater for my children’s birthday parties. When we moved to France, I was horrified at how kids ate just cake and sweets at birthday parties, usually drinking sugary, fizzy drinks as well. For the first two years, I persisted with cherry tomatoes and cucumber sticks and crisps (if you were lucky). This year, however, before I even realised what I was doing, I had served up rainbow cupcakes with sweets on, with more sweets on the side. Fizzy drinks are still a step too far for me but I did flavour the water.

To round off a truly transformational month, today our local town of Maubourguet morphed from a sleepy village of 3,000 inhabitants into a bustling crowd of more than 10,000. People came in droves to witness the start of stage 19 of the Tour de France, the first time this has happened here.

First, a convoy of brightly-decorated sponsorship vehicles, hurling toys and sweets into the crowds. Then the cars and coaches bringing bikes and teams. And finally, the lining up and departure of 140 cyclists, all looking rather tired after the hard ride in the Pyrénées yesterday. They were gone in a flash and people immediately started melting away – it’s exhausting work, this metamorphosis.

Anyone else thinking where on earth did June go? Here at Happy Coulson, it passed by in a flurry of pilgrims, weddings, music and bizarre weather.

First, a wedding with two brothers serenading their father and his new wife as they went into the ‘mairie’ (town hall) to get tie the knot. Formerly of the Troublamours, these guys are incredibly talented and all their friends either played an instrument, sang or danced. There followed a very special wedding, with live music all the way through, even when we danced around a bonfire to celebrate midsommer’s eve.

More music at the Larroque Festival, a great little festival which took place the same weekend as Glastonbury and suffered the same weather. The first time I have seen drizzle since moving to France but up the road they had hail the size of golf balls so I suppose we were lucky!

Rain stopped play for a couple of hours but resumed with a rocking reggae band. And some of the musicians from Blues Café serenaded the hardcore all-nighters in the beer tent.

We’ve had over 100 pilgrims already this year and are now entering full summer season. Now gearing up for our village fête, our neighbours’ wedding, the Tour de France and the Jazz in Marciac Festival. Vive l’été!

Pilgrim season is well and truly upon us. Our new pilgrim accommodation (finished with only hours to go and still needing a floor!) was christened by 14 Italian pilgrims. The jolly group, led by ‘The Boss’, Franco Stagni (pictured with Chris), left their confraternity in Rome last August and are still nearly 900km from their destination in Spain.

Since then, we have had a steady stream of pilgrims from various countries, including France, Belgium, England, Australia, Holland, Germany and Japan. They are all pilgrims of St James (in France, St Jacques) and are following one of four ancient pilgrim paths that cross France. The route that Happy Coulson lies on is the Voie d’Arles (GR653).

Each ‘Way of St James’ leads over the Pyrenean mountains to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, where the remains of the apostle James were discovered in the ninth century and are now entombed in a huge cathedral. When the pilgrims arrive, they present their pilgrim passports (stamped along the route at all the places they stay, including us!) and are invited to a ceremony in the cathedral.

Happy Coulson is also at the start of another pilgrim route (GR101) that heads south to the holy city of Lourdes, made famous in the 19th century after a peasant girl saw a vision of Virgin Mary. This weekend, we visited for the first time the cave where Bernadette saw ‘Our Lady of Lourdes’, now beneath an impressive three-level church. The whole city was thronged with pilgrims, many of them sick, in wheelchairs or even beds. They come to pray and be bathed in the Lourdes water, which flows freely from taps all around the sanctuary. The feeling of faith was tangible. I fully recommend that any visitor to Happy Coulson fits in a visit.

This month has been all about friends. Friends leaving, missing friends and making friends.

We have said goodbye to two sets of very dear friends. First, Jim and Becci, who stayed in their converted library bus at the back of our house for over a year. These two, from Herefordshire, have been part of  Happy Coulson almost from the beginning. They have helped with everything from building to babysitting and will be sorely missed.

And yesterday we said goodbye to the Gofton-Kielys – Warwick, Allyson Jean-Luc and Olive Rose – who returned to New Zealand after an 18-month adventure in France.

We have grown very close to the GKs as our friendship grew during a special time for both our families. It was very hard to say goodbye to them but we know we will be friends forever and, as we have said to the children, it is super cool to have friends on the other side of the world.

As anglophone friends leave, one chapter ends and another begins. After nearly two years in France, we are making some really good French friends. This takes time, due to cultural and language differences, but the children have been invited to stay over with mates this holiday and we have friends we know we can call upon in an emergency.

We feel lucky to have shared life with some top notch Brits and Kiwis. And excited to be developing friendships with our new countrymen. Happy days indeed.

We don’t have half-term here. Instead, we have a two-week ‘vacances d’hiver’ (winter holiday) at the end of February or beginning of March. Holiday dates are staggered across France so the ski fields don’t get too crowded.

We made full use of this year’s winter holiday and spent a week in the mountains. Every morning, the children went to ski school, leaving us free to explore the slopes. And by the end of the week, they had passed their ‘flocon’ (snowflake) medal and could keep up with us anywhere.

I have been skiing four times in the last 20 years – twice 20 years ago, then last year and this year. But until last year, I had never had a ski lesson. Poor student status made that impossible. Last year and this I treated myself to a couple of private lessons and learned a whole host of techniques.

Armed with these techniques, I now understand what to do. But it hasn’t made me a better skier than the 20-year-old me – completely unskilled but fearless, childless and unaware of the damage it could do to my knees. Now, I am prone to try too hard and find it harder to just relax and go with it.

It is difficult to find a balance between effort and surrender – expressed beautifully in the Serenity Prayer:
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.

Religious or secular, there is no arguing with that.