What a wonderful read - the part about the elderly members of the community being valued and respected was surprisingly moving. It was so lovely to read a description of the precious knowledge that a person who’s lived in a place all their lives can impart to new, younger residents. And I also had to smile at your lesson in Bonjour-ing: we sail to France every summer, spending about 2-3 months traversing Brittany, the Vendee and Charente regions in our sailing boat. My French is rusty but enthusiastic, and I learnt early on to Bonjour everyone I made eye contact with. I love it!
Sailing through Brittany, Vendée and Charente every summer with rusty but enthusiastic French sounds like an absolutely wonderful way to know France and I love that the bonjour lesson arrived early and stuck. It works on boats too, I assume? So glad this resonated. 😊
Oui! And because the French are a nation of sailors, we have always found our reception to be very warm and welcoming. If it weren't for Brexit, I'd move there in a heartbeat.
I love what you are doing. ❤️ 24 years ago my husband and I relocated to France. When I am in the states, I find myself saying the same things that you are saying. “In France, we leave our eggs in the pantry - they haven’t been bleached and had their protective covering destroyed” “In France, the oldest member of our village is the most respected.” I’m so glad you are posting your journey! Bisous.
The egg explanation and the elder explanation being the two things you keep returning to says everything about what France actually is underneath the surface. So wonderful. Twenty-four years in and still an evangelist for it. Love it!
Yes, and rebonjour ! 😉 I can’t imagine any life better than in my tiny village. Here you are three years in and you have discovered that “savoir vivre” the French cultivate. I am looking forward to seeing your years unfold. 🤸♀️
Our place in France is right next to the village church and the bells chime the hour not once but twice. Also, at 7am, noon, and 7pm, the bells chime longer for the Angelus 🙏
I love this, Jacqui. Sounds like your day is very well punctuated and I love that for you. The Angelus at noon is a sound I want to be hearing for the rest of my life. 💛
Our home’s in the UK and that's where our children and grandchildren live so I want to be near them. We used to go there more when the children were young.
I feel grateful now if I can go and visit once and a while.
My husband visits more frequently than I do because he's also the ‘maintenance man’ and chief gardener.
We're not far from the pyrenées, in a small and quiet hamlet. We can see the snow topped mountains in the distance, glistening. It’s so incredibly tranquil that the buzz of a bee flying by or the sound of crickets or grasshoppers chirping in the grass at night cause one to sit up and pay attention!
It feels like being transported to another world! It really is God’s country!
That sounds like such ordinary, everyday perfection that my shoulders dropped and I found myself smiling just reading it. I want my days to be punctuated by church bells and apéro and endless bonjours.
You have given me a, previously unknown, urgency to move to France. It sounds like my ideal place to live. What a beautiful read, thank you for sharing. 💕
What an amazing life you’ve stepped into. I’m looking forward starting my retirement adventure somewhere in France this coming fall. Your writing bring such clarity, beauty and love for your new home❤️
This fall! You are so close to your own version of all of this. So glad the writing is useful for the approach and I hope France delivers everything you're imagining and then some. 💛
Oh, I love this so much! That’s what I’ve been living since….forever. So sad that you weren’t able to experience this in your former environment. Happy you found this French sense of community in your village. And yes, even in bigger cities children, of maternelle and école primaire age say good bye to their teacher when they leave school in the afternoon. Au revoir maîtresse. 😊
The au revoir maîtresse being universal across the school system is such good news! It means the lesson is structural, not regional. So glad you confirmed it and so glad this resonated even from the inside of a life that's always known it. 🌻
I love your posts, especially the ones about inside side France and the “us et coutumes” of everyday life. I have been living here for such a long time that I don’t “see” many of them any more. Rediscovering through someone’s eyes that is new to all these things is so refreshing!
This is so good! You've perfectly described my visits to my French husband's family, down to the church bell that rings on the hour. And I still wouldn't know what to serve for l'apero!
Thank you, Barbara! The apéro question has a very forgiving answer - olives, something thin-sliced, something to drink, done. France will not judge the simplicity and neither will your husband's family I promise. 😄
Love your articles!!! I've been trying to adopt the French way of living, as you described. It's really hard when you're used to stress and rushing, and I'm from Hungary.
I feel you, Mira! The stress and rushing are so deeply ingrained that the slower pace feels almost suspicious at first. I know that feeling exactly. It does shift, slowly and then suddenly. Keep going! 🙌
Bonjour, you are living my dream. My friends have just moved from Australia last December, after bought a home France at a very reasonable price compared to here. They are loving their village and have made new friends already. We attempted to buy and live there too.
The friends going first and reporting back well is often how these things start - a proof of concept that makes the leap feel possible. I hope yours comes! 💛
Well, you have convinced me to move back to France.
We were there on the tail end of 2020 for my husband's job, so our petite experience was somewhat stunted with closures (we got a second confinement) and social distancing. Thankfully, Les Puces opened the last weekend we were there, so I dragged my 3 year old under the guise of a pain au chocolate. Your post takes me back to the simplicity of those days!
A second confinement landing in your petite France experience is genuinely terrible timing and you deserve a full unencumbered version of it. Come back. The puces will be there and so will the pain au chocolat...and the bread 🥖🥐
Is bonjour regional like 'ehhh bonjour' or ahhh bonjour? Thinking of a trip and my pigeon french might be on the receiving end of a tea pot if I don't listen carefully
Ha! One confident bonjour delivered with eye contact and a smile will carry you a very long way - France cares enormously about the attempt and very little about the accent. Go with confidence! 😄
Annual training for fighting the system by simply not being available to it - France has been running this program for decades and the results speak for themselves. 😊
What a wonderful read - the part about the elderly members of the community being valued and respected was surprisingly moving. It was so lovely to read a description of the precious knowledge that a person who’s lived in a place all their lives can impart to new, younger residents. And I also had to smile at your lesson in Bonjour-ing: we sail to France every summer, spending about 2-3 months traversing Brittany, the Vendee and Charente regions in our sailing boat. My French is rusty but enthusiastic, and I learnt early on to Bonjour everyone I made eye contact with. I love it!
Sailing through Brittany, Vendée and Charente every summer with rusty but enthusiastic French sounds like an absolutely wonderful way to know France and I love that the bonjour lesson arrived early and stuck. It works on boats too, I assume? So glad this resonated. 😊
Oui! And because the French are a nation of sailors, we have always found our reception to be very warm and welcoming. If it weren't for Brexit, I'd move there in a heartbeat.
Bonne bonjour-ing!
Your sailing adventures sound epic btw
Thank you so much. Days afloat are both epic and terrifying, joyous and frustrating, but always, always memorable!
I love what you are doing. ❤️ 24 years ago my husband and I relocated to France. When I am in the states, I find myself saying the same things that you are saying. “In France, we leave our eggs in the pantry - they haven’t been bleached and had their protective covering destroyed” “In France, the oldest member of our village is the most respected.” I’m so glad you are posting your journey! Bisous.
The egg explanation and the elder explanation being the two things you keep returning to says everything about what France actually is underneath the surface. So wonderful. Twenty-four years in and still an evangelist for it. Love it!
Yes, and rebonjour ! 😉 I can’t imagine any life better than in my tiny village. Here you are three years in and you have discovered that “savoir vivre” the French cultivate. I am looking forward to seeing your years unfold. 🤸♀️
Our place in France is right next to the village church and the bells chime the hour not once but twice. Also, at 7am, noon, and 7pm, the bells chime longer for the Angelus 🙏
I love this, Jacqui. Sounds like your day is very well punctuated and I love that for you. The Angelus at noon is a sound I want to be hearing for the rest of my life. 💛
Sadly we don't live there all year round.
Our home’s in the UK and that's where our children and grandchildren live so I want to be near them. We used to go there more when the children were young.
I feel grateful now if I can go and visit once and a while.
My husband visits more frequently than I do because he's also the ‘maintenance man’ and chief gardener.
We're not far from the pyrenées, in a small and quiet hamlet. We can see the snow topped mountains in the distance, glistening. It’s so incredibly tranquil that the buzz of a bee flying by or the sound of crickets or grasshoppers chirping in the grass at night cause one to sit up and pay attention!
It feels like being transported to another world! It really is God’s country!
That sounds like such ordinary, everyday perfection that my shoulders dropped and I found myself smiling just reading it. I want my days to be punctuated by church bells and apéro and endless bonjours.
That's everything I wanted this piece to do - make someone's shoulders drop. Truly the highest compliment. So glad it found you. 🌻
You have given me a, previously unknown, urgency to move to France. It sounds like my ideal place to live. What a beautiful read, thank you for sharing. 💕
If this gave you urgency you didn't know you had, France is already doing its work from a distance. So glad it resonated! 💕
What an amazing life you’ve stepped into. I’m looking forward starting my retirement adventure somewhere in France this coming fall. Your writing bring such clarity, beauty and love for your new home❤️
This fall! You are so close to your own version of all of this. So glad the writing is useful for the approach and I hope France delivers everything you're imagining and then some. 💛
Brought tears to my eyes, Kamille, your words going bone-deep.
Thank you for this, Nancy - truly. So glad it reached you somewhere real. 💛
Oh, I love this so much! That’s what I’ve been living since….forever. So sad that you weren’t able to experience this in your former environment. Happy you found this French sense of community in your village. And yes, even in bigger cities children, of maternelle and école primaire age say good bye to their teacher when they leave school in the afternoon. Au revoir maîtresse. 😊
The au revoir maîtresse being universal across the school system is such good news! It means the lesson is structural, not regional. So glad you confirmed it and so glad this resonated even from the inside of a life that's always known it. 🌻
I love your posts, especially the ones about inside side France and the “us et coutumes” of everyday life. I have been living here for such a long time that I don’t “see” many of them any more. Rediscovering through someone’s eyes that is new to all these things is so refreshing!
Just found you recently and enjoy your writing and perspective so much!
So glad you're here, Vanessa, and thank you for saying so!
This is so good! You've perfectly described my visits to my French husband's family, down to the church bell that rings on the hour. And I still wouldn't know what to serve for l'apero!
Thank you, Barbara! The apéro question has a very forgiving answer - olives, something thin-sliced, something to drink, done. France will not judge the simplicity and neither will your husband's family I promise. 😄
Love your articles!!! I've been trying to adopt the French way of living, as you described. It's really hard when you're used to stress and rushing, and I'm from Hungary.
I feel you, Mira! The stress and rushing are so deeply ingrained that the slower pace feels almost suspicious at first. I know that feeling exactly. It does shift, slowly and then suddenly. Keep going! 🙌
Thanks! Your articles are truly such an inspiration!!! Thank you for the work you put in them💞
Bonjour, you are living my dream. My friends have just moved from Australia last December, after bought a home France at a very reasonable price compared to here. They are loving their village and have made new friends already. We attempted to buy and live there too.
The friends going first and reporting back well is often how these things start - a proof of concept that makes the leap feel possible. I hope yours comes! 💛
Well, you have convinced me to move back to France.
We were there on the tail end of 2020 for my husband's job, so our petite experience was somewhat stunted with closures (we got a second confinement) and social distancing. Thankfully, Les Puces opened the last weekend we were there, so I dragged my 3 year old under the guise of a pain au chocolate. Your post takes me back to the simplicity of those days!
A second confinement landing in your petite France experience is genuinely terrible timing and you deserve a full unencumbered version of it. Come back. The puces will be there and so will the pain au chocolat...and the bread 🥖🥐
I'm enjoying your posts so much. You are so lucky to have landed in a place that fills your life with such interest and beauty.
Thank you Barbara! Lucky and also occasionally bewildered - but mostly lucky, yes. So glad you're enjoying them. 🌻
Is bonjour regional like 'ehhh bonjour' or ahhh bonjour? Thinking of a trip and my pigeon french might be on the receiving end of a tea pot if I don't listen carefully
Ha! One confident bonjour delivered with eye contact and a smile will carry you a very long way - France cares enormously about the attempt and very little about the accent. Go with confidence! 😄
Just 'Bonjour, Madame/Mademoiselle/Monsieur!' will do 😉
The full and correct answer. Jacqui has been paying attention. 😄
Les grandes vacances: the best way to keep ourselves trained for fighting the system, honestly.
Annual training for fighting the system by simply not being available to it - France has been running this program for decades and the results speak for themselves. 😊