Expat Life in the South of France

This is the season - but don’t wait too long.  When you come round a bend and are confronted by fields of lavender as far as your eye can see - its one of those deliciously heart-stopping - I-didn’t-know-it-could-be that-beautiful moments. Here are some pictures which we took a few years ago in the Luberon around Gordes and Roussillion, and the Abbaye de Sennaque, an old medieval monastery in the middle of lavender fields. We are going back next month with some visitors.

Lavender field in Provence

Abbaye de Senaque

I have been coming across more and more English words which have become part of the French language, to the extent that some French don’t even realise that the words are originally English!  All of us who live here could give several examples, the most common being weekend, okay, hamburger, business, stop (try telling them that’s English) rap, etc. However one anecdote really made me laugh. An English speaking friend went into a computer shop and wanting Windows XP, asked for Fenêtres XP, to the complete confusion of the salesman. (No madame, it’s called Windows, not Fenêtres!)

Recently there was a news item in the English language press, which made the rounds in France as well.  It was a study of the eating and sleeping habits of different nationalities and how it affected their weight and longevity.  It seems that the French spend more time eating and sleeping than almost any other nationality (they sleep an average of 9 hours a day),  yet are among the least obese and pretty much at the top of the longevity table.   I figured that living in France, I might have a good chance to get on the same bandwagon - after all sleeping 9 hours every night is not a problem at all, and like the French, I too love my food. Unfortunately, unlike the French the kilos keep piling on - I’ll let you know about the longevity part later!

At a ladies only birthday lunch earlier this week,  our hostess had the idea of going around the table of 11, mostly expat residents, to ask about embarrassing faux pas trying to make ourselves understood , or trying to understand the French.  Two really funny ones had us all in stitches.

One was that of a new arrival who had just moved into her apartment and who luckily, had extremely helpful French neighbours.  One of them rushed in one day, in a state of panic and asked for some “scotch,” whereupon Anne rushed to the cabinet, brought out a bottle of scotch and handed it to the neighbour.  The neighbour was horrified. She wanted cello  tape, which the French for some reason insist on calling “Scotch!”

Another was of a couple shopping in the supermarket, when the wife wandered off and the tall husband was approached by a little old French lady who pointed to the top shelf and said something in French, whereupon the husband replied in French, “No thank you, Madame, not today!”  The French lady insisted, by which time his wife had returned and explained that what the lady wanted was a product from off the top shelf which she couldn’t reach!