Stories Collected While Living in France

French la Vie

Gateway

Noticable details when coming home to France after being in California:

Iron gates, lanterns, stone walls, overgrown garden…

Lavender fields in bloom, the neighbor's six chicken outside of my bedroom window.

Sticky Cat sleeping on the window ledge.

Church bells.

 

Plane trees in france

 

Colorful stucco walls,

Plane trees shading the courtyards,

Bastille Day approaching,

Hundreds of tourists wearing shorts, and walking around licking ice-cream cones.

Which reminds me that I should of had a milkshake while back home.

 

Iclosed window

 

Windows with shutters that speak of another era,

Stick shift cars,

Jack hammers instead of nails pounding,

Women showing cleveage at the grocery store.

Daylight way pass ten in the evening.

No mosquitoes.

 

 

Eiffel-tower iconic

Iconic symbols…

Golden Gate far away.

Replaced by the beret, the baguette and the Tour de France.

 

  Istreet with steps

 

Streets straight up with steps,

Walking more without even trying,

Narrow streets, and narrower parking lots.

Did I ever walk in California (other than hiking…)

I know I have walked more in the last forty eight hours than I ever did back home.

 

Gibassier in oilve oil

Olive oil.

Missing the burrito.

Loving the Provencal fare.

 

French antiques at the brocante

… the brocante

calls, begs, teases, haunts…

Gotta open that little online shop of mine.

But first I have to say learn to speak French again!

 

 

 

Comments

16 responses to “”

  1. jend’isère

    Rebonjour. Now was here a rehello post when you went to US?

    Reply
  2. Merisi in Vienna

    There are moments when one steps into one’s own life as if it where somebody else’s. I can imagine you feeling a bit disoriented.
    I always spent my summers elsewhere (not so anymore since I moved to Vienna): as a child with my grandparents in Salzburg, later traveling from Rome or DC to Austria, for weeks at a time. I remember coming back I oftentimes had to open more than one cupboard to find the water glasses again.
    My kids like to tease my when I mutter something like “got that at Safeway’s” – when I mean the “Spar” here. Or I find myself expecting to be “home” and then realize I am in Vienna and not in DC anymore. Bi-Continental disorder. 😉

    Reply
  3. Zosia

    When I spent the two previous weeks in Canada after being in Poland for 4 months it felt weird. I was staying with my friend in my old neighbourhood. I was walking the same streets, shopped in the same stores, was running errands in local banks and offices. The only difference was I did not go home at night to my place, but to my friend’s house. I was not a tourist, but I was not the permanent resident there either….very very strange feeling.

    Reply
  4. Gina

    It’s the church bells I miss most of all.

    Reply
  5. Sharon Penney-Morrison

    I would have missed the beautiful appointments that surround you as well. Calif. is beautiful in it’s own way and I love the flowers everywhere so full and overflowing in the pots.
    I love old vs. new in most everything.
    Can’t wait to see what treasures you place in your shop.

    Reply
  6. Rhonda P.

    What an incredible year you have had already! Put your feet up and relax at home, unless you are going to the brocante…then you can start up again.

    Reply
  7. Cheryl ~ Casual Cottage Chic

    No mention of your children…how are they and did Sacha return home with you?

    Reply
  8. Jean(ne) P in MN

    It is a lot more than the decalage horaire. So many sensations to relearn, even old habits. Maybe time to start new habits. Always a time to appreciate both worlds.

    Reply
  9. jeni

    Welcome home, safe, sound, and Happy!

    Reply
  10. Marilyn

    Welcome home! I hope the French language returns quickly. Yes, there is alot of walking when in France. Will you be home for awhile? How is Sacha transitioning back home?

    Reply
  11. Lily

    I would love to go on a vacation to France, but my hubby has something against it. He says he does not speak french, it frightens him to go into a country he does not know the language. So I am happy that you show us here your France.
    Any suggestions for dealing with this fear of my hubby?

    Reply
  12. denise

    WELCOME HOME! Bestest,Denise

    Reply
  13. Lieselotte

    Welcome back to good old Europe, Corey ! Bienvenue chez toi !

    Reply
  14. Tamra/The Gilded Barn

    As someone who has always lived in California, what a wonderful comparison. I miss France so much, your description took me back.
    Merci!

    Reply
  15. Kathie B

    Oh Lily… please, Please, PLEASE reassure your husband that my Farmboy Husband doesn’t speak a word of French either, yet managed beautifully this May in both Paris (where he did a lot of sightseeing on his own while I was at a conference), as well as with me around Paris and on a side-trip to a certain village in Provence 🙂
    Further, he had no difficulty buying food at small markets and at boulangeries and patisseries (bread-bakeries and pastry-shops) in Paris — just pointed at what he wanted and held up the number of fingers to indicate how many; although the coins are a bit too numerous, Euro currency is easy to learn, in some ways more so than American!
    Rest assured that enough folks in France speak some English so that if you just greet them with a cheery “Bonjour” or “Bonsoir,” they can tell you’re an Anglophone who’s trying to be nice, so they’ll be as helpful as they can.
    Go for it!

    Reply
  16. Kathie B

    P.S. One thing that made Farmboy Husband feel confident in Paris was that, before we left, I’d ordered a few paperback guidebooks for him to study on the plane and in our hotel room.
    His favorite book turned out to be pocket-sized “Knopf Mapguides Paris: The City in Section-By-Section Maps.” available on Amazon inter alia, with 10 fold-out maps of different areas of town. He studied it assiduously, which then gave him greater confidence every time he ventured out. It also helps in Paris that one can orient oneself in terms of the Seine River.

    Reply

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