My friend thinks she's French

[CleghornLeghorn]

I have this friend, i've known her on and off for years, one of those let's do lunch once a year types.

Anyway, we decided that we'd do lunch yesterday as both our calendars aligned. She turned up and i shit you not, speaking with some mental half French half English accent. I just sort of went with it as it was so bizarre I had no idea what the hell to say to it. She even made reference to drinking wine with lunch ''like they do at home, you know in Paris'' ... it was the oddest thing.

Anyway, after the most bizarre lunch of my life, I called a mutual friend and apparently this has gone on for the past 8 months - she pretends to be French. She has even at one point shaved her eyebrows off and drawn them back in like Edith Piaf, she wears bateau neckline striped tops and cycles around town with baguettes in her basket.

At least she's got over her ''I'm Claire from Steps phase though'' - would you go NC? this is mental.

Ooh la la!

I would like to hear more about the adventures of La Claire from Le steps.

Hope this doesn’t disappear like the other thread which may very well have been fictional but was shaping up to be quite entertaining.

This is very common in people who are escaping mentally from trauma and depression. Literally leaving their self at home and adopting a new, protective personality to face the world with. I have bipolar and this is something I do when I’m very unwell.

I’m jealous of her ability to be her maddest self without shame. If I had her courage, I’d dress in mid-Victorian clothes every day.

Anyone else reading this and wondering if it's a Ricky Gervais-esque piss take of trans ideology or should I get off Mumsnet for the night? 👀

Either way, it's pretty damn funny. The baguette really made it for me 👏🏻

Next person to mention Hilaria Baldwin has to buy everyone a drink.
Perhaps absinthe.

She sounds my sort of friend.

I tell my children that My family are French (they obviously know full well they’re not), and often converse with them in my fluent French (I know a few words, but do a lot of shrugging). It started when we were in France on holiday, and I managed to get a shop assistant to understand when I asked where the toilet was. I got a bit above myself 🏆

My children are 21 and 23, it’s just a weird family thing. I’d love to wear Breton tops, and cycle with baguettes in my basket, but I’d look like a deckchair, and I have no balance so still need stabilisers. Tres chic, non?

I need to hear more about Claire from Steps

Hilaria is correct-it is Hilaria Baldwin (ridiculously)

"I'd look like a deckchair" 🤣🤣🤣

@CleghornLeghorn you now have to polish up your fluent French, and ask to meet her for coffee (café) and then just speak to her in French the whole time. You could probably come out with random rubbish, but speak.French.only

Or a brain tumour

I speak Italian to one of my dogs. Neither of us are technically Italian.

I like your friend, please buy her a croissant from moi. 😁

This is literally the plot of last weeks Atlanta episode, have you just copied it from here and changed some details? She even carries a baguette with her

www.gq.com/story/atlanta-season-3-stefani-robinson-interview-van-zazie-beetz-tarrare/amp

Gosh, this sounds like an old friend of mine, but these symptoms were actually part of a psychosis diagnosis for her.

Oh Your friend sounds amazing! I suspect she is deeply unhappy/mentally ill. Keep in contact with her. I love having quirky people in my life!

The first time I heard my French DP genuinely use 'oh la la' it look me a good 10 mins to recover. 😂

I’m not being awful but that’s how some of the patients on the mental health unit I used to work would talk like. One was convinced she was Chris Martin from Coldplay’s wife.🤷🏻‍♀️

Aww that made me smile 🥰

Not sure which is sadder; it being true and everyone on here is pissing themselves laughing at someone who basically isn't quite right at the minute, or OP making up a pretty weak story , possibly based on a a TV show, for some Internet attention.

My mother started using Australian phrases like the Op shop, for the charity shop .. daft bat

Agree.

@Obviouspretzel I feel the same. Sudden personality changes/ speaking with a new accent can be dementia, brain tumour, head injury, psychosis, PTSD, stroke symptoms to name a few. Hilarious huh...

This. Oh, please this!

I wouldn't NC for this but tbh I'd understand if you did. Your friend sounds as though she's living in la la land. She should get checked out by a neurologist. If she's always been normal (whatever that may be) and she's now living a fantasy life she needs to be assessed. Maybe it's psychiatric (Hilaria Balwin comes to mind...) but maybe it's neurological, either way she needs to get help.

I know a guy like that. He’s a Liverpool supporter and speaks in a Liverpudlian accent. Except he’s not from Liverpool at all, born and raised in Gateshead.

It's the elephant in the room. First time we met him - he’s the partner of a school mum - we assumed he was from Liverpool. But as the night went on, we realised he’s just a Liverpoolphile and has taken on this persona for whatever reasons. No one says anything to his face but it’s all very peculiar. Especially their holidays to the mother city.

Isnt it like when you spend a lot of time with scousers, or geordies, and you develop a lilt? Has she picked up a special interest in France and started to take on traits?

No other concerns? She sounds glorious to me.