petite anglaise

Paris has been my home for over a decade. I set up this blog in July 2004. A year later, I left my partner, Mr Frog, the father of my daughter Tadpole, for a man I met in my comments box. In 2006 I got dumped, dooced and outed, but also snagged a book deal. In 2007 I won my case for unfair dismissal against my ex-employer.

petite anglaise started on a whim one day, after reading the guardian’s guide to weblogs and becoming engrossed in the adventures of Belle de Jour. A matter of minutes later, I created a site of my own using blogger. I came across the union jack eye image quite by accident, but it summed up my perspective nicely: a Brit’s-eye view of life in Paris.

anglaise means, quite simply, English female, and petite means little. French people tend to refer to all English females, regardless of age or size, as petites anglaises so it seemed like the obvious choice for my nom de souris.

petite anglaise started out mainly as light hearted commentaries on aspects of life in France/French, with some anecdotes about the trials and tribulations of raising a bilingual toddler thrown in. It has evolved somewhat over time, becoming more personal, touching on adoption, the breakdown of my relationship with Tadpole’s father after “meeting” a man in my comments box, and our subsequent separation.

petiteanglaise.com was site of the day on the Guardian newsblog back in July 2004, and has since been nominated for a Satin Pyjama European Weblog Award (cue rash promise involving posing in pair of satin pyjamas) and a Bloggie for best new weblog.

And then, in April 2006, I got the sack from my secretarial job. Because my employer had found my blog and objected to its very existence. And the sky fell down. Well it didn’t, actually, but for a while I thought it had, and then I had to cope with a lot of press interest unleashed after giving a single interview to the Daily Telegraph. I certainly didn’t expect my story to make the front page of CNN.com, and my web host simply couldn’t cope with the traffic that ensued over the next week.

The silver, even platinum lining to all of this is that I signed up to write “petite anglaise” the book soon afterwards and was able to concentrate on writing full-time.

You can find more - extremely random - info about me on my 35 things page or on my Q&A page.

You can email mehere.

Photo © Laurent Attias