Finally, the summer heat has arrived in Provence, driving everyone inside or to the beach or pool.
Luckily, our Maison du village (house in the town) has stone walls over three feet thick. Our maison’s wall butts up against the neighbor’s maison’s wall creating a six foot thick stone wall. Insulation at its finest: Cool interior in the summer, holds heat in during the winter.
Our home is a mere four hundred years old, and yes, old locks in France have keys like this.
The bakeries and pastries shop gift wrap their goods. Each item bought, whether a baguette, pain au chocolate, or croissant, is wrapped in light paper, then the ends on the paper or twisted or, if you buy a cake or other pastries, the light paper is used but instead of the ends twisted they tie a box up with a ribbon or string. Then, you can carry the package of baked goods from the loop that the shopkeepers make when they tie up the packages.
Do what the French do in France: Your bread only goes on your plate if a small plate is offered. Otherwise, and in most cases, it goes on the table, in the left corner of your plate above the fork.
Also, instead of biting into a piece of bread, the French tear a piece into bitesize pieces and eat it that way. Otherwise, it is considered rude.
Tips for dining at a restaurant are included.
You do not need to leave a tip, but you can leave a coin to be friendly, and it is not considered rude if you do not.
Recently, at the brocante, a friend remarked how impressed she was by the variety of French linens and lace available. She asked if it was always like this or just the luck of the draw at this particular brocante.
I have said it many times, and I’ll keep on saying it: If France took out the linen, lace, dishtowels, and bedsheets and spread them out one by one, they could cover all of France and have a massive slumber party.
Linens are plentiful.
Please let me know if you ever need a thousand old nightshirts, monogrammed bed sheets, dish towels, napkins, lace, nightgowns, pantaloons, or tablecloths, and I’ll have them to you within a blink.
I would love to fulfill that bet as long as I didn’t have to pay for it.
The French say babies come from cabbages, just like the Americans say babies come from the stork. When Chelsea was born, I said she was as big as a cabbage (ten pounds), and I wished the stork had delivered her to me.
In France, the French celebrate their ‘name-day.’ Every day of the year, a saint is remembered. If your name or middle name is the same as a saint (or a name that has something to do with a saint), then your family and friends give you a gift and say happy feast day. It is as if each French person has two birthdays. The word for the ‘name-day’ is: “Le jour de fête”.
A list of saints’ names for each day can be found here.
We do not do this in our Franco/American household, as I can barely keep track of the day of the week. Numbers and I are not dancing partners. Plus, Chelsea and Corey are not on the Saints Day list.
When I first arrived in France, I asked my French Husband if I could have October 2nd as my feast day. It is the feast day of the Guardian Angels, and I like angels. Corey was missing from the list. He said, “No, it doesn’t work like this.” That was the beginning of what I call my French Husband getting “French in my face.”
Playing cards:
V (valet)
D (dame)
R (roi)
Instead of:
J
Q
K
And if that was not enough, the French keyboard is different from the American keyboard. For instance, the A is where the Q is.
It was those little things that tripped me.
Some Facts About France:
Their favorite sport is soccer, which is called football.
Team sports are not played in school, nor are there cheerleaders or school proms.
Did you know that a French author penned Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty?
The Eiffel Tower is as tall as a seventy-story building. Zane and Mat climbed to the top when they visited me years ago when I lived in Paris. I didn’t climb to the top that day as I was seven months pregnant with the ten-building—my ten-pound cabbage.
Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is owned by the French government and is said to be the most valuable painting in the world. It was bought by French King Francis I in 1519.
In France, the Mona Lisa is called La Joconde.
Did you know the Mona Lisa painting hung in King Francis I’s bathroom?
Did you know that Mona Lisa has no eyebrows? The reason she does not is Leonardo forgot or ran out of paint. It is because it was fashionable in Florence to shave your eyebrows off. It wasn’t due to overplucking them.
There are some 40,000 châteaux in France.
I want one.
Nîmes is the birthplace of blue jeans. Levi Strauss imported the famous fabric to California to make rugged work trousers for gold diggers. Denim is another way of saying “de Nîmes.”
The French consume wine with most meals. Soft drinks are not had with dinner.
The end….. unless you have something you want to know about France or the French. I’ll try to answer your questions in the comment section.
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