Today we are living one year in France. It is one year ago that we packed our stuff and moved to this beautifull country.

The first days after our move were absolutely horrible! Stuff in our house was broken, our furniture was still in storage and we were very tired. However after the first weeks life started to become better and better. We understood more and more where we could find our things, and started to understand a little bit of the French we also started to become more adjusted.

Over the last year I have come to know the French a little bit and these are some things I found:

• The French are not arogant: The French I’ve met aren’t arogant and selfish. Once you start a conversation you discover they are actually very open people interested in others.
• The French do not just work 30 hours a week: The people I’ve met all work very hard and is many cases easily double the 30 hours.
• The French do not strike all the time: Opposite to what we thought I have not experienced a lot of strikes this last year. There were some but none every significant enought to really produce any problem.
• The French do love their food and cuisine.
• The French do have a lot of respect for someone trying to speak their language.
• The French do sometimes have big burocratic processes 
• The French do have a difference understanding of personal space

France is changing

The books I read on France told me that most people sympathize with the people who go on strike. However  I experienced the opposite when talking to people. The most clear signal i got on this subject was the poster I saw at the station after one of the strikes saying: “stop la greve”.
 

I am changing:

I don’t know its because of life or France. But spending a year in a country who’s language I didn’t speak upon arrival has changed me. I am more flexible and care less about details that seem trivial now. A lot of the things I used to do turned out to be culturally determined so some I’ve kept and others I’ve let go. 

You don’t need any specific skills when you move to France just flexibility, France will change the rest of you

As with most language mistakes they have to do with sex. Not that I talk about that all the time, but the French just have a lot of words that deal with the subject. Let me just share my recent mistakes with you. 

Monte

During lunch we were talking about motor bikes. One of my colleagues might buy one in the future. I wanted to ask him to show it to me (us) when he does. So I said: tu vas nous monter?. this caused a lot of laughter. Apparently the verb monter  means to mount (for example a horse) and also has a sexual meaning (to mount someone… ahum). I should have said: Tu vas nous montrer? this means: to show. 

Coulliette

Again at work. One time I wanted to tell my colleagues where I would put the key to my cabinet for emergencies. I wanted to say that I would put it in the dresser under my desk which would have been “caisson” or perhaps “buffet” (I am far from a French language expert). However I said: “Couilliette” which means I would put the key in the little testicle.

So if you are looking for my key you know where to look for it .

In any case I can assure you that I have moved it  

P.S.

As always remember that in my experience the French really appreciate any effort you make to learn French. So please do not let this post discourage you from doing so.

When I get to one of these zebra crossing without ligths I approach it as a Dutch zebra crossing. In the Netherlands pedestrians have the right of way by law. So in NL you touch the zebracrossing and cars stop (usually). However in France you have to be a little bit more persistant.

I step onto the zebra crossing. Then I make eye contact with the approaching car and kind of start crossing. Cars always stop for me somehow, much to the amazement of French people. I don know if this is the Duch way, but it works for me.So if you drive a car in the Paris area… I will be looking you in the eye!

 We opened our bottle of champagne at midnight and turned to the view of paris full expectation. Then…. NOTHING (well, almost nothing). We didn’t expect fireworks like in the Netherlands. In the Netherlands this year 65 million euro was spent on fireworks , nothing here.

Then we went back home and went out to say happy new year to your neighbors (also a custom in the Netherlands). When we knocked the door at the first house they we very surprised but we were invited in. We brought “oliebollen”  and “appelflappen” which were happily received.

However when we came in and started wishing everyone happy new year something happened. In France it is customer to give the “bisou” here which is a kiss on each cheek. We have also experienced this with social gathering where you meet people the first time.

However to our surprise men kiss eachother as well for importen events like new year’s. It is custom here to “fair le bis” amongst men here with close friends and for example next relatives. This was nothing extremely new here for me because I had seen it happen before. So I “fair la bise” with all the men present in the room. But you can imagine that to someone not accustomed to living here this is a real “new concept of a French kiss”.

Google has a service called streetview. This is a feature of google maps that allows you to lookat streets as though you were driving there. Their coverage is increasing all the time. This morning I discovered that they have added the streets of Paris (not greater Paris yet). So you can now wander through the streets of Paris as though you were there. See for yourself below, the brownish building is where I work. Or hit this link to see it directly on google maps.

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