The French Are "Rude" and I've Never Felt More at Home
Six lessons moving to France has taught me that 30 years in American couldn't.
I remember when I looked at my former husband and thought, “If I stay here in California, I’ll never get to live in France, and this isn’t where my life ends.”
About six months later I found myself in a chateau just outside Bordeaux, tears streaming down my face, realizing that my life was about to change drastically.
Was I really going to give everything up for a country I didn’t really know, but kept finding myself called towards?
Turns out, I would not return to my home in California.
There are many more details to this story, mostly personal, that I don’t necessarily feel like sharing on the internet. In fact, I don’t ever really share these personal details online, but for some reason Substack feels like a safe space (is it the paywall?). So if you’re reading this, bonjour, merci for being here.
Fast forward, about a year and a half later and I sit writing this in my tiny little apartment in the Marais.
Could I have predicted where I’d be? Maybe? That said, there are many things I couldn’t have predicted. For example, tomorrow I have a photoshoot with a national publication to document life here in my 40 square meter apartment — a stark contrast to the 160,000+ acre cattle ranch I called home for a decade.
Since moving to France, I have discovered many new perspectives, laughed at the mostly accurate stereotypes, and eaten my way through the city. There is an idealization of France, and I thought I’d share my two cents of what the “je ne sais quoi” actually is…
6 Lessons From Life in France
Everything is a big deal.
In France, the simplest of tasks are indeed: a big deal.
In America, I notice we have a certain numbness to the every day. We wake up, pack a lunch, get a to-go coffee, go to work. But the French do things differently.
A cup of coffee? It’s intentional, it’s savored, it’s a moment. It’s sipped from a cup outside a cafe (usually with a cigarette). Does it mean work begins at 9? That less gets done? Oui. But nonetheless, everything is…a big deal.
I don’t even know how to describe this in more detail outside of the fact that literally everything is a big deal.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to A Breath of French Air to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.