Forked Tongues: Conversations with Foreigners Living in France

Welcome back to Forked Tongues: Conversations with Foreigners Living in France! Episode 16! The first conversation in over a year on the podcast. To mark this special occasion, my guest is Kerry Varo from the US. He's a young guy, open, friendly, fearless. A talented baker, musician, and polyglot (his parents are Mexican), he has been in France for almost ten years now and has had many interesting experiences. We had a great discussion, touching on some of my favourite Forked T...

Welcome to Forked Tongues: Conversations with Foreigners Living in France! Episode 15 of the journey but, once again, not your usual FT episode... This episode, dedicated to two of my favourite things: Paris and the movies, is a small FT homage to poet, Charles Simic, who died in January. In it, I read his piece: With Gene Tierney in Paris, taken from a book of film appreciation called O.K. You Mugs: Writers on Actors. With humour and poetry Simic describes his experience of being a ...

Hello all! It's been too long... But I'm happy to let you know that Forked Tongues will be returning soon with new episodes. New conversations with fascinating foreigners talking about their experience of this equally fascinating country that is France. The adventure continues! I hope you'll join me. Thanks for listening. A bientôt! Derek Rawson

Welcome to Forked Tongues: Conversations with Foreigners Living in France! Episode 14 of the journey, but not your usual FT episode as it's not exactly a conversation... This episode is dedicated to French food, as seen through the eyes of one of my favourite writers, Jim Harrison. In it, I read his piece, Thirty-three Angles on Eating French, taken from his first collection of food writings, The Raw and the Cooked: Adventures of a Roving Gourmand. Jim Harrison's glorious pen and unm...

Welcome back Forked Tongues: Conversations with Foreigners Living in France! Episode 13! The first episode of 2022. In this episode I speak with Lesley Webster, a retired English teacher and passionate Francophile, who has been living in France for 20 years now. I met Lesley 10 years ago but hadn't seen her since, so our conversation was a great opportunity to not just catch up but learn about her life and life-long love of France. Our discussion takes us from her first visits here as a yo...

Welcome to episode 12 of Forked Tongues: Conversations with Foreigners Living in France! In this episode I'm joined by Jim (and Janet) Neve, an English couple who live in the Pyrenees Orientales where I spent two weeks during this year's French summer holidays. When I visited them at their home they were busy looking after their grandson but kindly took time to speak to me about their life in a beautiful corner of France - at the foot of Mount Canigou! We discussed many aspects of French da...

Welcome back to Forked Tongues: Conversations with Foreigners Living in France! This is Episode 11! The French summer holidays are over, and the French rentrée (back to school) is too. A new (French) year begins... the second year of existence for this podcast! For this first episode following the summer break I spoke with Michael Strutt, an Englishman living in Vernet-les-Bains in the Pyrénées Orientales where I spent two weeks this summer. Affable, insightful, and incredibly knowl...

Hello all, Just to let you know that Forked Tongues is taking a short French summer break before returning with new episodes - new conversations! - from September. There's also a new email address for any comments, questions, or anything else you might like to share : ForkedTonguesPodcast [at] gmail.com Don't hesitate to send me a message! Thanks for listening. A bientôt! Derek Rawson

Welcome to Episode 10 of Forked Tongues! In this episode of the Forked Tongues journey I'm joined by Eduardo Martini from Brazil. Eduardo hasn't been in France for very long but his experience has been interesting and unexpected, by turns enjoyable and challenging, arriving for his second, current stay just days before the Covid pandemic hit the country. Our discussion covers his background in Brazil, his arrival in Poitiers, his wedding here when he hardly understood the language, learning...

Welcome to Episode 9 of Forked Tongues: Conversations with Foreigners Living in France! In this episode I am once again joined by Octavian from Romania. If you listened to episode 8, you know that Octavian and I ran out of time so I invited him back to continue our conversation. (It's not absolutely necessary to listen to episode 8 before listening to this episode... but I recommend it!) In this - Part 2 - we begin where we left off last time, with some amusing food-related stories. Then we ...

Welcome to Episode 8 of Forked Tongues! In this episode I speak with Octavian from Romania. Octavian and I crossed paths many times taking our children to school before I engaged him in conversation, which is one of the good things about doing this podcast: it's an excuse to talk to strangers! In our discussion for this episode, we talk about his background in Romania, his arrival in France, staying with a French couple, his discovery of French food and French eating, working in a biscuit f...

Welcome to Episode 7 of Forked Tongues! In this episode of the Forked Tongues journey I'm joined by Selene Piantanida from Italy. She has been in France for a few years now, and while she is far from being the loud and talkative Italian cliché (her words!), she had many interesting things to say during our wide-ranging discussion. Just some of the topics we covered are: her first visits to France as a young girl, being an Erasmus student while at university, learning French and speakin...

Hello all, Welcome to Episode 6 of Forked Tongues! Thanks for your patience. It took me a bit longer to get this episode ready than previous ones - I'll blame it on the (French) winter blues... I shouldn't have delayed though, because as you'll discover my guest for Episode 6 is a very interesting, intelligent, warm and easy-going Brazilian, Igor Albuquerque Maia. Our conversation took us on a journey across countries (France, Brazil, Australia, among others), touching on a wide-var...

Welcome to Episode 5 of Forked Tongues! In this episode of the Forked Tongues journey I'm joined by Deniz Aksay from Turkey. I had never met Deniz before our interview so had little idea of where our conversation about life in France would take us. But I can say now that it was a fascinating and wide-ranging discussion, full of surprises from Deniz who is a very intelligent and talented person! Just some of the topics we covered are: her first impressions of France, learning French and stru...

Welcome to Episode 4 of Forked Tongues! The journey continues in 2021... In this episode I'm joined by Mark Jordan, a towering and jovial Irishman who is the manager and chief brewer, not to mention co-owner (with brother, Peter) of an Irish brew pub here in Poitiers, The Cluricaume Café/Brú Pub. Together we discuss Mark's family history and connection to France, his arrival in Poitiers, how he came to be co-owner of the most authentic Irish pub in Poitiers (if not France!), brewing beer i...

Welcome to Episode 3 of Forked Tongues! In this episode I'm joined by Liang Na who, originally from China, is my first non-native English-speaking guest. Na was a little worried about her English level being good enough but she shouldn't have been. I'm sure you will be as impressed as I was, and maybe even somewhat jealous (as I was)... Na speaks three languages fluently! Our conversation covers her first visit to France and first impressions of Paris, her move here years later; how she lea...

Hello all, Welcome to episode 2 of Forked Tongues... the journey continues! In this episode I'm joined by David Malek, a terrific artist - a painter - who lives and works here in Poitiers. I first met David a few years ago when our daughters started at the same school but we haven't had the opportunity to get to know each other until now. You won't be surprised to discover that we talk a lot about art, especially David's work and painting generally, in this episode. But of course, our c...

Welcome to episode one, the beginning of this Forked Tongues journey through France. In this episode I have the pleasure of speaking with a good friend, Peter Jordan, a multi-talented Irishman who's been living in Poitiers, France for 19 years now. Join us for an in-depth discussion of what it's like to be a foreigner living in France. We'll be talking about everything from our first impressions of the country to learning the language; from French culture (French music, and French singe...

Hello and welcome to my new podcast... Forked Tongues: Conversations with Foreigners Living in France. My name is Derek Rawson. I'm Australian and I've been living in France for 10 years. Join me as I seek to rekindle my love of France and French culture through conversations with other foreigners living here. I'll be discussing all aspects of France with my guests, from daily life to French culture of all sorts. So whether you know nothing about France, or already know and love the countr...