My story

A little taste of France

I was born in Meaux, grew up in Nice, and somehow found my way back to France by way of the Netherlands, with an English husband in tow! But wherever I’ve lived, you’d always find me in the kitchen.

As a kid, I was the one who wanted to chop, stir and taste everything. I drank watered-down wine before I was ten (that’s just what French children do), and I still put far too much butter in, and on, everything.

There was no single dish that defined my childhood. It was the whole culture of it. The pleasure of good food. The cheeses. The vegetables pulled from the garden that morning. And the unspoken rule that food is love, and meals are meant to be shared.

Today I live in a little village where the neighbours grow more courgettes than they could ever eat, and leave bags of them at my door. Where the woman at the market knows exactly which goat my cheese came from, and won’t rush the conversation. Where an apéro invitation always turns into dinner. And where a tart is pressed into your hands as you leave, wrapped in foil, as if it were nothing. When really, it’s everything.

This is the France I love, and the one most people never get to see. So I became a French food blogger and started Obviously French, to open my kitchen door and share the real thing with you: the recipes we actually cook at home, the traditions you won’t find on a postcard, and all the little everyday moments that make life here so special.

So pull up a chair, pour yourself something good. And let me show you the France I grew up in, and the one I will always go back to.