Yes, life in France is different. Some differences in life are good, some are annoying, some just make you want to scream. I know over time that some of the differences will fade into normal, I experienced this in Ecuador. Over the year I lived there, many of the things that initially were strange or hard to accept, became normal and commonplace for me. And now as time has faded, only the most unusual or pleasing stand out in my mind. I am glad that a friend and I made a list of "top ways to know you are in Ecuador." So, I will attempt to capture some of the newness and things that strike me at the beginning of our time here. Maybe even allowing me to reflect back on it as the year passes.
Driving: Never having learned to drive a manual, that was the first task to tackle for me. While mastering that I encountered many things that perhaps made it even more difficult. Many of the roads surrounding the area we live are particularly windy and narrow. Many, many places when you encounter a car, either you or the oncoming vehicle must pull off the edge and stop, you will even see areas in the ditch that area a result of this. The roundabouts, or rotary, as our TomTom calls them actually have made driving the manual a bit easier and if we miss a turn, we can count on a roundabout to help us navigate back to our turn.
There are many one-lane bridges and underpasses, one we use each morning, where we can't even see oncoming cars, so we honk and pray that no one is approaching. Not sure why there isn't a mirror at this spot as mirrors are very common due to the narrow, windy roads and houses commonly having walls and tall hedges. Which reminds me of another difference, in the US we commonly can see the house in neighborhoods all down the street, and over into the neighbors backyard. Here they go out of their way to black any view of they house from neighbors, passersby, you can literally live next to house and not know what they look like or never see the neighbors. I have finally seen that we live next to an older couple, I know this only because I saw the wife on the second story patio.
Parking...yes, you can almost park anywhere, unless the authorities are present, and it's common to temporarily park and put on your hazards; is the easiest way to accomplish an errand, unless you can walk rather than drive somewhere. Cars are small here, so spaces are small too, and it's normal to fold in your mirrors to fit a tight spot. Love the parking garages we have used that have a lighted system of green and red for letting you know whether each spot is vacant or full. We need that in the States, or maybe we have it and I've never experienced it.
Groceries/Food:
Food seems more expensive in general(although it's sometimes hard to compare with the difference in packaging and measurement, I have to remind myself that a K is over 2 lbs). As a result we are choosing to eat less meat(which seems to be most expensive), and make use of other sources of protein, beans and cheese since it is in such abundance here! SO many kinds too. A complete aisle with various kinds, one side almost entirely yogurts and puddings(they are really popular). A whole aisle of small packages of cookies, but little in the way of salty snacks, and when you do find them, they are these tiny bags. You know how our grocery has hundreds of kinds of cereal, it's like that with cheese and cookies here, but not much cereal.
Some general observances about the grocery. The carts have 4 wheels that all rotate, which makes it really hard to control them, so I have taken not to wear well-tractioned shoes to control the cart! The store also seems to have a really strong meat/fish odor. At checkout you are expected to handle the task of bagging your things. The counter descends and you have a pileup of groceries when the checker is done.
Some foods we have had a hard time finding
Peanut Butter: Nutella is really, really popular here, but it's so chock full of sugar and little protein. For sure, it's super yummy, but we need something a bit more substantial for making sandwiches.
Baking soda I finally found, but was using baking powder which comes in these small packets, kind of like yeast, but only holds a couple teaspoons.
Hot breakfast cereal is also something we don't see often. Oatmeal comes in smaller packages, but we have discovered that we like rice, couscous, and polenta for breakfast even more than cold cereal! I was even able to find what is basically Cream of Wheat and Cream of Rice hot cereal, near the flour and baking items.
Greetings:
I love the politeness of the French. They greet people upon entering a shop, room, and again upon leaving. Some, but not all use the European kiss, mostly one on each cheek here. Lots of please, thank you, thank you very much can be heard as well.
The two-hour lunch break: It's great for the girls to have a break from the all-French they have at school. We pick them up and head home for lunch. Many students stay at school, and the smaller shops close for lunch. Don't expect to run errands during this time. One of the bakeries in town even closes till 4 in the afternoon. The other one stays open, they of course get the lunch crowd for business.
Those are just some observances that I have noticed so far, I'll have to update as time goes on.
