I will show your book collection to my husband, hopefully he will then consider my/his collection as modest 
I always donate a bag of books when I go to a charity book event, but I usually come away with a bag full 
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we are so lucky to live in a beautiful place and to have been accepted so well here.
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Ditto Jane 
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You are so right Jane …
With all that is going on… it is reassuring to be aware of just how folk have accepted us… how they are concerned for our welfare (and we for them)… and although we have visited many lovely parts of the world… and glorious residences etc…
there is always that lovely warm feeling of “coming home” when we get back here… and it doesn’t bother me at all that we can’t go anywhere at the moment…
home is where the heart is… and my heart is definitely right here…
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I remember how dreadful I felt when I drove away when the house was only a maison secondaire.
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I also remember the horrible feeling driving up M20 from the Tunnel when arriving back in UK late at night in the rain asking “why are we doing this?”.
I was once in a traffic jam all round the bottom half of the M25 and then along the M4 as it was the day that the schools broke up for the summer and everybody was going down to the West Country.
A 13 hour drive. I just left Jim to unpack, had a drink and a shower and went straight to bed.
We used to guess how far we could drive before seeing red cones 
Ditto (even for the Parisian wife!) Last week we opened our front door to find two new re-usable facemasks on the top step. No note, just gifted from presumably the village. Many times we open to find baskets of fruit, vegetables etc.
Live back in City or even a town? No chance!
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What am I thankful for?
Simple - that I live in France and not the UK. Though I often wish the French could design a better keyboard; unlike the semi-colon, every sentence needs afull stop, yet one only needs to use the Shift key for the latter ;;;;; …!
Not on my iPad.
I wanted to resurrect this thread to say that those of you living in France should be thankful for 1 thing in particular (I know there are many) - the climate/weather.
Today, in the East Midlands of England, it’s 10 degrees centigrade with a pretty stiff breeze. That means it’s bitter outside and, collecting the washing in just now, my hands and face are freezing cold. It’s nearly May for goodness sake.
I imagine most of you are experiencing between 15 and 25 degrees today. That sounds like bliss too me.
What I miss about France is not the weather in July and August it’s the weather in Spring and Autumn. I can remember a picnic by the river in November and going shopping in a T Shirt from about March. Here in the UK, it feels like perpetual winter. Then we will have a few days of unbearable sticky oppressive heat and we will back to winter again.
There are things I love about being back in the UK (proper bacon, jellied eels, being with my family) but the weather is not one of them!
Izzy x
Edit: oh, and it’s grey clouds and not a bit of blue sky to be seen. 
Have you considered remapping your keyboard? I’ve done that so I have easy access to a full stop. (… … … … - just to prove it 
)
Thanks, but thanksto advice on this thread I learned there’s one on the numeric key pad, I’d have found it much earlier, but it’s so tiny, that it’s easy to miss. However after several years of semi-colon / shift I’m still trying to get used to this option.
I am grateful for a second chance in life, I lost my wife to a stroke at 51 and nearly lost my life due to an accident so every day is a bonus, now I have everything I need in life, my fiancee, a farm that I always wanted, contentment and a life in a country I love.
Waking up to everything every day I count my blessings, another day with everyone and everything I love 
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Think all that’s a little bit more important than discovering the full stop on the French numeric keypad!
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Having just seen the latest Covid news coming out of India I feel thankful I’m not there. I just wish there was something I could do to help these poor people.
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And the UK has sent 600 items of medical equipment to India…hugely helpful but if numbers are right down in the Uk couldn’t they have sent more? 500 oxygen capture machines isn’t going to go far in a country the size of India.
We should be thankful that the UK is sending something. What are other countries sending to help?