About

I am developer and smallholder living at Le Mesnil Garnier. This is situated in the beautiful French countryside between Gavray and Villedieu-les-Poeles which in the department of the Manche, Lower Normandy(Basse Normandie). We have converted an old boulangerie into an office and photographic studio.

We have plenty of opportunities to visit historic sites in Normandy such as Mont Saint Michel and the D-Day landing beaches. We are also not far from Bayeux where the famous Bayeux tapestry is kept.

I mostly build internet business applications using Microsoft technologies; ASP.NET with Javascript, SQL Server, VB.NET, C# and Microsoft Azure. These applications focus on extracting data, putting it into a database, and then presenting it to the user in various graphical and other formats. I have also built Window Service Applications, and carried out database tuning exercises.

I am also interested in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), especially developing organic ranking strategies. I keep trying to branch out into other stuff such as WordPress and Google technologies such as Maps and the App Engine.

In previous lives I have worked for Ashridge Management College, EASAMS ltd and Capgemini UK plc, as a computer programmer and Internet Application Developer. I tended to specialise in analysis and building the business process side of corporate and eCommerce websites. This involved integration with relational databases, and back-end processing systems.

I read the technical on-line press avidly. I am interested in what social media might do for small business’s including my own, particularly in the Manche. I tweet as @ehewett, and can be found on LinkedIn and Facebook as well.

My wife (Ray Clancy) and I are registered as Profession Liberal in France. Siret: 50363800013. Between us we have a variety of skills, and our registration covers IT Consultancy, Journalism, Writing and Photography.

We live in an old farm-house close to Gavray. We have a vegetable garden, fruit garden, 3 sheep + 4 lambs , 5 ducks, about 10 chickens, 2 dogs and a cat. I am quite a keen photographer as is my wife. She does quite a bit of studio work as well as out-door stuff, where as I prefer the out-doors especially close-encounters (macro) photography.

You can also find us on Google Places

Just to be clear the views and ideas in this blog are my own. Feel free use what you want but note they are provided without any warranty or guarantee.