The Sunday Roast

Now We Can All Parlez-View Francais

This week's interview is with Debs Lehner,
who writes the blog Lehners In France.

The first of the standard questions. Why do you blog?

Life was never dull in rural France, so I started to write down the amusing incidents as they happened and happen they did and often! I thought my family and friends back home would enjoy my take on life in "The Darkest Dordogne". Bob (my husband) had never settled and disliked life in France. Ever since we arrived he had wanted to return to the YUK. I thought that by writing down our experiences we could look back on our adventures in years to come and smile rather than think of it as time wasted. After two months I had never received any feedback from my family and friends, so I got bored and stopped.

Three months later I revisited the blog and saw that someone had left a comment, I visited him and realised that I could also click on others on his side bar, and it snowballed from there.

It’s interesting to read back over my first posts and then my more recent ones, I’ve changed a lot! I think I have tailored my blog into what my readers want, hopefully a light-hearted, easy read. Humour is very personal and I am astounded that so many people share mine. Bob reads my posts and says he can hear my voice, as I write, exactly as I talk. If sharing my experiences makes someone "smile" or "LOL" or "spit out their coffee" then that makes my day. So, that’s why I blog.

What’s the story behind your blog name?

Now this could be a very dull answer, sort of like our name is Lehner and we lived in France. I’m afraid I used no imagination whatsoever for our blog name. You see as a child I was not blessed by the "imagination fairy". I had a large collection of cuddly toys, including Teddy the teddy bear, Fish the fish, Koalie the koala and Poogie the poogle (I couldn’t say my d’s.) I promise to try harder and be more imaginative in the future.

What is the best thing about being a blogger?

The feedback and interaction with people from all walks of life and all corners of the globe is what makes blogging great for me. I have always loved to communicate and blogging has brought me a whole new world of cyber friends. Some of whom we have had the pleasure to meet and some we still look forward to meeting. I like to think of my comment box as a cyber café where people not only leave comments, but also partake in banter with other readers too. More often than not the comments make much better reading than my posts.

What key advice would you give to a newbie blogger?

We all have different tastes in what we read and what we like to watch on T.V. and blogging is no different. If you read a post and enjoy it then leave a positive comment. If you don’t enjoy a blog then leave quietly and move on. Nobody wants nasty or hurtful comments. Enjoy blogging, it’s a bit of fun and not to be taken too seriously. You will come across some inspiring people and have a great journey.

What is the most significant blog post you have read?

I don’t feel I can name only one post that is the most significant to me, as all posts are significant to the writer. Many have touched me and reduced me to tears, others really have made me laugh out loud and others have been thought provoking. All posts bring people together to discuss their shared experiences and hopefully make hard time a little easier to bear.

What is the most significant blog post you have ever written?

This is a very difficult question to answer as I tend to add a humorous slant to the majority of my posts and they are far from significant I did however write a post in July, having just returned from England and visiting my friends and neighbours. We had just put our French house on the market. I suppose I was feeling a little lost as if I didn’t belong anywhere. I was in limbo. The post was called Alone, Not Lonely. Nobody knew we were planning to leave France, but this post was me admitting to myself and Bob that I too had had enough and was ready to go "HOME".


Today's Sunday Roast with Debs Lehner is the 57th in a weekly series of interviews with bloggers from around the world.