My guess is that many of us have been in the following situation, especially around the holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day—or maybe all three! You’re at the dinner table with members of your family, many of whom you haven’t seen in a while. Everyone is looking forward to a meal that has been in preparation for hours, plus hearing all the news from your siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles. When there’s a lull in the conversation, someone tries to be helpful and asks for opinions about the latest election, the role of the Church, or why a certain relative chose not to join you that evening. There’s a spontaneous intake of breath, sideways glances, a cough, and a sudden interest in those glasses of wine on the table. It seems that this isn’t unique to the US. According to a survey that was highlighted in our local newspaper, awkward discussions can happen during the fêtes in France as well.

Continue reading “Don’t mention it”

Bill and I don’t have any children but our friends and neighbors do so we still get some exposure to the behavior of young people here. Our friend, Larry, sent us a link to a story that was in the Huff Post with the title of “5 Key Differences Between Parenting In The U.S. And France”. Author Marie Holmes refers to an Instagram story by American moms Annabel and Dale who noted some differences about how children are brought up here from what they were used to in the US. Their observations matched ours and we had even written about one of the standouts—4 course school lunches—in a blog post years ago. Let’s see what else they found to be different.

Continue reading “French kids”

Ben, the editor of the online newspaper The Local France tells the funny story of his first visit to a doctor in this country. He had gone in with a sore throat but soon found himself naked, on all-fours on the floor, scrambling to collect the coins that had fallen out of his trouser pockets and rolled under the doctor’s desk. Knowledge, or lack of in this case, was the problem since Ben had not yet perfected his language skills (“take off your shirt” doesn’t mean “take off everything”) and he didn’t know that practitioners might give you an overall exam even if your ailment seems limited to one spot in your body. Accompanying this story was an article with several points on how to feel more at home in France.

Continue reading “Does this make me look French?”