As you’ve probably guessed by now, I’m an Englishman living in France.

I have been here for a total of 9 years now, the last 6 of which have been in Paris.

I don’t think ill ever go back to live in the UK, unless, or course, France declares war on the UK…but I don’t think this is going to happen

There are hundreds of reasons why I have chosen to live in France, but I would say that the most important are:

1. The French way of life. Difficult to explain but it goes from the coffee and croissant in the morning, to the 3-hour Sunday lunches which encourage vigorous conversation (in the UK people just tend to eat to fill their stomachs and don’t see it as a social event), to the “we’ll get round to it at some point, there are more important things in life” attitude. Basically, I think that French people seem to be able to appreciate the finer things in life a lot more than the Brits do. In France people concentrate on living, whereas in the UK, people seem to spend an awful lot of time in looking over their shoulder to see how other people are living.
2. French food. I don’t need to say anymore here, but there is one dish that the French still haven’t mastered – see below.
3. Geography and climate. France has it all: mountains, beaches, green valleys, arid landscapes, luscious rolling scenery, and windswept valleys. The weather is great towards the South but even when it’s cold it’s a nice crisp, cold. England, on the other hand, has hills, green grass and rain.
4. The language. French is a great language full of its own little idiosyncrasies and gesturing.
5. Being different. Perhaps the fact that I am not French (and have the accent to show for it) means that it is slightly easier for me to strike up conversations with French people as they are always slightly intrigued to talk to a foreigner who can speak their language (i.e. a language that isn’t all-dominating English)

There are a few things that I don’t like so much about France, things that make me miss the UK. Here are 5 of them:

1. Cricket. I don’t even bother trying to explain the rules to French people who often annoy me by saying “Oh, it’s a bit like baseball”. I just say that you have to be born with it to appreciate it.
2. Terrible-quality TV adverts. Only in France can you watch a 1hr 30 minute film and during this get served about 40minutes of cheap, cartoon-like, unintelligent adverts
3. Fried breakfasts. The first thing I do when I get back to the UK is go to a greasy spoon café and have a full English breakfast with all the necessary trimmings. You just don’t find that kind of thing in France.
4. Tea. Sorry but the French just don’t get tea.
5. Honking horns. If a French driver finds himself stationary for more than 4 seconds (I have timed it many a time) he will honk his horn. It does not matter where he is or why he thinks he is stationary. He will honk, and he will continue honking until he can move forward. This can sometimes take hours.

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This entry was posted on Mardi, décembre 5, 2006 at 8:46 pm . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.