I was born in France countryside and did my entire education over there. My mum is French but my Dad english.
I went to study in London when I was 18 and ended up staying there until I was 24. I’ve travelled many times back and forth, so I have a good idea of what is a french thing to do, and what is not.
These are the bits of me that makes me French (i.e. stand out when in England), as well as bits I like about France:
We have very dark and racist humour. A lot of jokes about many ethnicities, but especially about black people. France is known for being quite racist (but I don’t consider myself racist at all), but many of us just like to joke about it. I’ve noticed that when I’ve told some hilarious french jokes to my very good english friends, and they let me know it was not ok at all to say that.
How happy I am to see the choice of cheese in the supermarket. In England the main choice if cheddar, and different variation of it and is also quite expensive.
How happy I am to be able to buy bread from a boulangerie (baker), and that the baguette is croustillante (crunchy) like it should be.
How happy I am to find my favorite viennoiserie (Paris-Brest, éclair au chocolat, financiers, St Honoré, meringue, etc.)
Really, from the three points above, how happy I am to finally return to good food. I’ve been living in Spain for a few months, and I am surprised about the lack of choice of cheese, or other delicacies I thought they’d have.
Everybody loving your accent, I have to say I didn’t think it was true when I left home at first, I thought people were exaggerating, but no, they’re not.
Having to deal with other intolerant french people on social media is horrible. A lot of us seem to be quite close-minded, or at least just complaining all the time (I like to think I didn’t inherit this from my mom, but a calm english attitude from my dad).
Good healthcare, schools and universities are free.
The hassle when you have to do any paperwork with the government. Banks are never open, same for government buildings.
Having to plan to make sure you have food on Sundays, because everything is closed.
Travelling through your country and seeing pretty much every landscape you can imagine, except a desert. You can find canyons (Gorge du Verdon, Gorge du Tarn, etc.), mountains (Alps, Jura), volcano chains (Massif Central), beaches (Côte d’Azur, Côte Atlantique), a massive sand dune (Dune du Pilat).
Incredible history wherever you go (pretty much any city is at least a 1000 years old), and despite the Parisians, Paris is a beautiful place.
The language hasn’t evolved that much over the centuries, which I think is pretty amazing. You could understand somebody speaking french in the 1600s almost without any problems.
After leaving France I started despising french people a bit, because I realised how annoying we are compare to other nationalities.
But every time I come back, I’m older, and my mind changes back to the love I had. Every time I come back, I miss it and love it more and more.
One final thing, as you may have noticed in the answers, we are proud people.
Comments
Post a Comment