Category Archives: French customs

France, French customs

How to Look French

2 Comments
Print pagePDF pageEmail page

Since I’ve started writing this blog, I’ve heard so many discussions and read so many posts about the French look that I decided to write my monthly guest post on the subject for My French Life, the Australian-based online magazine & global community of French & francophiles.

How to Look French

They learn when they’re very young of course. Even our bi-cultural children, strongly influenced in their early years by our ‘foreign’ tastes in matters of clothing and comportment, turn out looking French in the end!

I can still remember being on a secluded beach one day in Australia with my 20-year old daughter, born and bred in France. She had just spent six months studying at the University of Queensland. A long way off, we could see a group of three people.

“They’re French,” she said.

“How do you know?”

“I can just tell.”

And when they came closer, her guess proved right of course. Two of them were French.

Continue reading

 

 

France, French customs

La Fete de la Musique

26 Comments
Print pagePDF pageEmail page

The music festival celebrated in France on the 21st June, which corresponds to the summer solstice in Europe, was created by French culture minister, Jack Lang, in 1982. It’s also celebrated in other parts of the world where it is known as World Music Day. Until we came to live in the Palais Royal seven years ago, we mainly went to local manifestations. Now we have one literally on our doorstep. Unfortunately, it is a little loud for my liking. Loud booming music from a stage down the other end of the gardens began this morning at 9 am, vying with the percussion tools of the workers renovating the balcony next door.

When I looked out the window later in the morning, however, I was surprised to see some large white objects around the newly cleaned up fountain. I took a photo and tweeted it. Mary Kay from Out and About in Paris (who’s been taking us to the Paris races recently) tweeted back “They’re 40 pianos! For the big concert this afternoon! “Play me I’m yours”. I plan to be there.” I am a little embarrassed to say I knew nothing about it! I checked it out though and phoned Brainy Pianist to check that he knew about it.  Mary Kay informed me that it was on from 4 pm to 7 pm. That was around lunchtime.

Until  4 o’clock, I had booming music interspersed with percussion tools, rain, occasional sonatas and concertos, rain, percussion tools and booming music. The percussion tools then went home for the day. The first three pianos were unveiled and the booming music disappeared. The sky gradually cleared and the sun came out intermittently. All the other pianos were uncovered and the music began for real!

Mary Kay dropped by around 5 and we both took lots of photos from the balcony. At 7 pm, however, they brought the booming music back which somewhat silenced the pianos. What a wonderful initiative! More information on Mary Kay’s blog: http://outandaboutinparis.blogspot.fr/2012/06/play-me-im-yours-40-street-pianos-in.html

Art, French customs, Paris, Sightseeing, Travelling

Roland Garros 2012 – Back in Paris with a “Grand Slam”! – Père Lachaise Cemetary and Brocante – Travelling Alone. Solo Travel. What you need to know.

6 Comments
Print pagePDF pageEmail page

From before the Paris sky turned dull and gloomy, Mary Kay from Out and About in Paris describes her Roland Garros tennis experience, Kathy Stanford from Femmes Franchophiles goes to the Père Lachaise Cemetary and gets swooped on, and Johanna Castro from Zigazag Magazine, whose aim is to “champion voyages of discovery to dream places and quiet spaces. Helping you to “Live for the moment, Love adventure and Do something awesome” gives helpful tips to people travelling solo.

Roland Garros 2012 – Back in Paris with a “Grand Slam”!

by Mary Kay from Out and About in Paris

Stephane and I live within walking distance of Roland Garros, the home of the French Open. His favorite sport, aside from soccer, is tennis. Yet, there we were, fresh off the plane in Paris, without any tickets for the tournament. Standing forlornly outside the stadium on opening day, we wondered what had happened. Read more

Père Lachaise Cemetery and Brocante

by Kathy Stanford from Femmes Francophiles

Being the ‘season’ for brocantes I visited the Père Lachaise brocante nearby to the cemetery of the same name. I was actually filling in time until the cemetery opened. It opens later on weekends. Brocantes are where individuals and dealers sell second hand and antique goods. You can buy everything from crockery and glassware to furniture to knick knacks. It was a funny moment when I tried to disengage myself from discussion with a dealer who was keen to shout me coffee at the local café. He was amazed that an Australian would learn French and come to France. Read more.

Travelling Alone. Solo Travel. What you Need to Know.

by Johanna Castro from Zigzag Magazine

Must Know tips for Travelling Solo

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics the fastest-growing household type in Australia is ‘lone-person households’ which are anticipated to grow to about three million by 2031.

With that in mind tour companies and hotels will be wanting to attract this new demographic, so do your research before you pay a hefty single supplement. Read more

 

France, French customs, Loire Valley, Uncategorized

Small Town Fame

2 Comments
Print pagePDF pageEmail page

I’ve finally cleaned up the honeysuckle that’s been nagging me since we got to Closerie Falaiseau in Blois. It’s just beginning to flower and is a wonderful complement to the climbing roses on the stair rail. We’ve had our barbecue and eaten outside in the garden comfortably for the first time since we bought the house. Well, comfortably except for the mosquitos who adore me. We’re going for an after-dinner walk so that I can show Relationnel how I want our front courtyard/garden to look in the future.

It’s still light, despite the fact that it’s after nine thirty. We’re walking briskly along the road, not a car in sight. We go round the bend and a large dog rushes out behind a fence, barking madly. I dutifully say “T’es beau, t’es beau” as Relationnel has taught me.  It seems that telling dogs they are beautiful is two syllables is what you do in France to calm them down. I’m not sure it works but I have no comparison.

Suddenly, we hear frantic yapping and a tiny ball of fur comes hurtling down the open sloping garden opposite and onto the road. A man about our age appears  lumbering after the dog, telling it to come back, to no avail. He explains that it’s a pup, only 6 months old.

“Oh, so that’s its problem”, I say. Relationnel introduces us as his new neighbours.

“Then you’re the people who’ve bought the big house around the bend.”

“Yes, do you know Mr and Mrs Previous Owner?”

“No, I only moved here two years ago myself. I only know the neighbours on each side of the house and across the road.”

“We’re not living here permanently yet. Relationnel isn’t retiring for another two years”, I explain.

“Yes, you’re going to turn it into a gîte or a chambre d’hôte or something”, he says to Relationnel.

“That’s right.”

And turning to me, “And you’re Australian”.

My fame has gone before me.

Dieting, Food, France, French customs, Paris, Sightseeing, Wine

Can Bacon be a Vegetable? – Free Walking Tours given by Parisian Volunteers – Sipping on Saturday

2 Comments
Print pagePDF pageEmail page

Welcome to Wednesday’s other blogs! This week, Bread is Pain talks about the problems of weight gain and loss when living in France, while Kathy Stanford from Femmes Francophiles describes a novel way of getting to know Paris. Gwen Evans, guest posting on Like a Home in Paris, which features vacation apartment rentals in Paris, describes a wine tasting session in the capital. Thank you to my fellow bloggers!

Can Bacon be a Vegetable?

by Bread is Pain

“Mwah!  Look at me, I am a big sausage!”  I am walking through the room dramatically, landing hard on each of my feet.  “Watch out, my fat sausage tread might bring the house down!”

“Quoi?”  MB is amused but not sure why.

“What do you mean “quoi”,” I ask.  “I’m a sausage person…obviously.”

“I don’t know what this is, a “sausage person”.” Read more

Free Walking Tours given by Parisian Volunteers

by Kathy Stanford at Femmes Francophiles

Always looking for an opportunity to combine practising French and to visit parts of Paris that I have not previously seen in detail I decided to do a walking tour of Paris with ‘Parisien d’un jour – Paris Greeter‘.

Contact is made through their website specifying what language you want to do the tour in, availability and interests. The walks are provided free of charge by volunteers who are all Parisians passionate about their city. You can however make a donation to the association if you wish. Offers for various tours of 2 of 3 hours based on your interests are emailed to you and you choose which one you want. The group is limited to 6 people. Read more.

Sipping on Saturday: French Wine Tasting class with Preston Mohr

by Gwen Evans guest posting on Like Home in Paris

If you are like most American visitors to Paris, one of the big pluses is being able to sample wonderful French wines at very reasonable prices.  The downside of that is that it can quite confusing and intimidating when faced with so many choices — many of which are unfamiliar to us from the States.  Add to that the fact that a lot of the wine labels have very little if any helpful information, and it’s a bit of a gamble when you are at the store. In my 20 plus trips to Paris I have tried (mostly at random) lots and lots of different wines, both red and white, and have never really had a bad bottle; for between 4 and 10 euros you can get some amazingly good wine. Even the equivalent of “2 buck chuck” here is a whole lot better than the stuff back home. Read more.

 

France, French customs, Loire Valley, Paris, Travelling

Chateau de Chambord – Metro Maze in Paris – The Presidential Debate

2 Comments
Print pagePDF pageEmail page

Already Wednesday again! All those public holidays in May make the time just disappear! This week, we have a description of Chambord castle (just next to me in Blois) by Mary Kay from Out and About in Paris, a great new phone App for the metro along with some lovely photos by Petite Paris of B&B fame and a very pertinent description of the French pre-election debate between the two final candidates, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande by Finding Noon still worth reading even though we now know that François Hollande is the winner.

Château de Chambord – the largest castle in the Loire Valley

By Mary Kay from Out and About in Paris

While visiting the Loire Valley, I was reminded of how justifiably proud the French are of their rich cultural heritage and how this sentiment is passed down from one generation to the next. After overhearing some parents explain to their children that Francois I built Château de Chambord as a royal hunting lodge in which he only spent a mere 72 days during his 32 year reign, I teased Stéphane about his country’s lack of opulent castles. His immediate response was that while the Swiss may not have any extravagant châteaux, they also didn’t incur staggering debts. Sensible, but not quite so romantic… Read more

Metro Maze in Paris

by Petite Paris

Bonjour or bonsoir friends; depending on where you are in the world 🙂

We have just been sent a link to a new iphone app on the Metros in Paris and just wanted to share it with you as a bit of a helpful resource for your pending, upcoming, (one day soon hopefully) trip to Paris 😀

Its from Kemtro and its the only one that gives the exact location of all the entrances and exits of all the metro stations and it works offline – no roaming needed! (and we all know how expensive roaming can be). Read more

The Debate

by Finding Noon 

It is still the Presidential elections in France and last night was the great debate, which I didn’t find so great, but I did find rather fun to watch. French political debates are very different from my memories of US Presidential debates. Instead of standing officially at lecterns, each candidate is comfortably seated, with their notes. They face each other, not the voters, which helps tensions rise and makes for some great tv moments. As does the fact that the candidates do not have a set time limit for each answer. From an anglo-saxon perspective, this is not a debate, but a moderated argument, that turns into an intellectual free for all. Read more

French customs, Loire Valley

The Weather Vane and the Nightingale

11 Comments
Print pagePDF pageEmail page

Mr and Mrs Previous Owner came to visit this morning on their way back from voting and I learnt some interesting facts about the weather vane on the top of the garage. We were talking about the aspect of the house, which Relationnel was convinced was south-facing. It seems it actually faces south-east. Mrs Previous Owner pointed out that you can tell from the weather vane. Relationnel was not convinced because he thought it only indicated the direction of the wind as it doesn’t have an N on it.

We then learnt that Mr P.O., a locksmith by trade, made the weather vane himself. It bears two symbols – a key for Mr P.O. and a feather for Mrs P.O., who was a secretary. And there is a cross indicating the cardinal points. According to Mr P.O., in mediaeval times, the landowners didn’t want the peasants to learn how to read and write, so didn’t use letters on signs and weather vanes. Instead of saying “east wind” and “‘north wind”they talked about “low wind” and “high wind”. Not too sure how much of this is just hearsay though …

They also indicated the best market to go to. We went to the main market in Blois yesterday. It was very attractive and the people were friendly but we were horrified at the prices which are even higher than those on Rue Montorgueil in Paris and we thought they were bad! It seems there are two markets on the outskirts of Blois in the high-rise areas where there are a lot of North Africans, that are much more reasonably priced. We’ve already noticed in the past that the “hallal” butchers sell very tasty lamb for half the price you pay at a regular butcher’s. So next time,  we’ll  be going there.

I also asked them about the delinquent birds. At 2 o’clock in the morning, you can hear birds outside our bedroom window chirping away like nothing on earth. They don’t bother me, but I think it’s very strange. When we got back from The Shaker in Amboise on Friday night (our very first social outing since we got the keys to the house) where we met up with a group of Anglophones and Anglophiles who meet there regularly (first Friday of the month), you would have thought it was broad daylight. It turns out they’re rossignols (nightingales). If you click here, you can here what they sound like – it’s definitely them! I’d recognise them anywhere.

The other thing that Mr and Mrs Previous Owner helped us with is the safe. When it was explained to me initially, I thought I understood but when I tried to use it when I was locking up the house for the first time on my own, all I did was make it freeze up completely. I couldn’t even get it open. When Relationnel came, he was afraid I’d somehow put another combination on it but you’ll be pleased to hear that it’s working again and I can now leave all my rubies and diamonds safely behind and things might stop disappearing and reappearing!

Amboise from The Shaker on L'Ile d'Or, just before a storm

 

Food, France, French customs, Paris

Best Brocantes and Flea Markets in Paris – Tea, wine or cocktails – National Garlic Day

2 Comments
Print pagePDF pageEmail page

It’s Wednesday again and I’ve found you some more great posts from other people’s blogs, starting with Vingt Paris Magazine giving us the best brocantes and flea markets in Paris, followed by Girls’ Guide to Paris with suggestions of places to have your favourite beverage, and a very interesting description of National Garlic day by Llamalady from Blog in France.

Best Brocantes and Flea Markets of Paris

by Anne at VINGT Paris Magazine, devoted to the 20 arrondissements of Paris and helping you get the most out of the city.

We were so pleased with Meg Gagnard‘s roundup of the best vintage clothing shops in Paris, we invited her back to share some insider secrets of Paris’s flea markets and brocantes -the best places to find vintage goods and antiques around the city. The list is a mix of trinket and furniture shops, as well as where to go to find out about weekly neighborhood brocantes. Thanks, Meg! Read more …

Tea, wine, or cocktails

by Girls Guide to Paris, an all-encompassing online guide to Paris

Here is an assortment of places where you can lounge and enjoy your favorite beverage, often with some excellent food as a bonus. Note: The term wine bar can be a little confusing in Paris. All wine bars feature wine, of course, but the bar part is a little more flexible. Some have a counter and tables, and you can show up anytime for a glass of wine and a snack. Others resemble restaurants more than actual bars. In many cases, reserving in advance is imperative. Some are cavistes (retail wineshops), which is good to know if you need a bottle to go. Read more …

National Garlic Day

by Llamalady from Blog in France who blogs about her life in rural France where, amongst other activities, she raises llamas and alpacas

Today, believe it or not, is National Garlic Day. And since garlic is irrevocably linked in most people’s minds with France, well, I had to blog about it.

Garlic, Allium Sativum, is originally from Asia. China is still the world’s biggest garlic grower, producing more than 12 million tonnes of it a year! Garlic is something of a wonder plant, because not only does it have the blood cleansing properties most of us know about it, it’s also anti-bacterial. Surgeons who ran out of anti-septic during the First World War would use garlic instead. Read more …

 

France, French customs

Voting for a New President

6 Comments
Print pagePDF pageEmail page

As I explained in Battling with French Administration, I have only  started voting relatively recently and this is only my second French presidential election. The first time, we were here for both rounds. Of course, it would be much easier if they adopted the preferential voting system in France, but having the two rounds is all part of the strategy and I don’t think any of the politicians would agree to eliminating the second one! This time, however, we will be in Blois the second time around. Black Cat will be away on both occasions.

So how do we go about voting? First, I’ll describe the normal voting system. When you become eligible to vote, you have to register with your local town hall. It’s wherever you’re registered on 1st January that counts. We are registered in the 1st arrondissement. Even when they move (provided they don’t go too far away), most people prefer to keep their original voting office rather than spend hours waiting around in queues to change it.

In about March, you receive an electoral card with the address of the polling station (usually a school) that you have to take along with you to vote, together with your ID. You hand them both over to the person sitting behind a table with all the ballot papers (bulletins de vote) in front of them. After they check your ID, they give you a little blue envelope and you take a copy of each ballot paper (10 this time because there were ten candidates) and go into the voting  booth (isoloir – love the name!), put your paper in the envelope and throw the others in the bin. Since we also receive the ballot papers by post, I prefer to select mine before I go. It’s a simple piece of white paper, about 10 cm x 15 cm with the name of the candidate printed in black ink.

Then you go to another table, with your envelope and ID. At our voting station, there are tables on either side of the see-through voting urn with a person at each table. One has the register with half the alphabet and the other has the rest. The person standing behind the urn reads out your name. After it’s located on the register, you sign and the urn keeper pulls back a lever so that you can drop your envelope in. When you have done so, he says in a stenorous voice, “A voté” (has voted). It’s all very formal. I was actually surprised they let me take photos but the urn keeper was very pedagogical, explaining everything to me in detail.

Now if you can’t physically go to your polling station on D-Day, the only solution is to find someone to represent you. They don’t have to be attached to your polling station (they just have to live in the same town), but they do have to go there to vote for you. You have to go along to the police station beforehand with the details of your proxy (full name, birth and place of date), your ID and your electoral card. You’re given a little bit of paper that says “récipisse à remettre au mandant” (receipt to be given to the proxy) that you hand over with your ID. A proxy can vote for one person living in France and one person living overseas.

So with Leonardo in Australia, Black Cat in Thailand and Forge Ahead in Madagascar, there’s only Thoughtful left.  He’s going to vote for Black Cat and Forge Ahead so Relationnel has found two work colleagues to vote for us. And they tell me they’ve simplified matters. We haven’t been to the police station yet …

France, French customs, Paris

The Romance of a Sale – Zen Things in Paris – Laines Locales Wool Festival at Prébenoît

4 Comments
Print pagePDF pageEmail page

I’m afraid I was so busy last week setting up house in Blois that I didn’t bring you my usual Wednesday’s other blogs post. But I’m back in Paris and my computer is up and working again. Thank you to the authors of this week’s posts: Petite Paris, an Australian-based independent bed & breakfast booking agent for anyone planning to travel to the romance capital of the world, on Zen things to do in Paris; Llamalady, an Irish llama and alpaca breeder living in the centre of France, who also runs a carp fishery and a holiday gite, reporting on a local wool festival; and Bread is Pain, an American living in the Rhone-Alps “slowly eating and drinking myself through the country”, talking about her love of sales.

Zen Things in Paris

from Petite Paris

When it comes to Paris, we already know the usual recommendations. We know the rule is Laduree for tea.  Pierre Herme for Macaroons. Coffee at Cafe de Flore. Or at Lipp Or at Deux Magots.  We know that a visit to the Louvre is a must see. Eiffel. Piere Lachaise. And we know all about the Batobus river boat tours. The Moulin Rouge. and the Opera. And these are all great, bien sûr… Read more.

Laines Locales Wool Festival at Prébenoît

by LLamalady from Blog in France

We are just back from a chilly and breezy but interesting morning at a wool festival. It was organised by Laines Locales of Limousin and was held at nearby Prébenoit Abbey. Had the weather been better we would have cycled there – it’s about 10 km away – but we’d have been blown backwards! Read more.

The Romance of a Sale

from Bread is Pain

I love sales.  Love them.  I will buy things that I don’t really find attractive or things that I absolutely do not need based solely on the fact that they are on sale.  As a dear friend of mine puts it “really, by not buying it you are losing money because it is such a good deal!”  (RIGHT?!)   This statement pretty much sums up my feelings when I see something marked down.  “Why look!  It’s a goose leash!  We don’t have a goose, I know, but one day we might and come on, honey, it’s 70% off!”  Read more.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...