This memoir was written to leave, for the next generations, a record of a French childhood and adolescence.

Annette was born in wartime Paris in 1940, and spent her early years in France. She moved to England after marrying Christopher.

Their three children and many of their grandchildren have been born and educated in England. Those born in France are growing up in a country that has changed since the middle of last century.

For all these and successive generations, it seemed important to keep alive the French part of their inheritance associated with aspects of the country as it was during World War II, and in the years following it. This is what this short book aims to do.

In it, Annette recalls some aspects of her childhood and adolescence, her early French education, the family traditions she experienced. She takes us to some areas of old Paris, and lets us share her love for Brittany and the sea.