What is France like? (Outside of Paris)

[BunsSweet]

I've only ever visited Paris and I've enjoyed my trips there. But people always talk about "the South of France" and I wonder what's it actually like over there? How different is it? Is life there less fast paced?

I'm curious if there's any interesting language quirks

It's more socially conservative

With regard to language, I notice the change in accents. The southern /provencal accent has a real twang to it eg “demain” de-maa is pronounced de-meng-g. There are minority languages in Provence and the south west, but not widely spoken. See photo from chat gpt

Language wise I can tell you from the Italian side that a lot of people speak French there but it’s not something I’ve noticed the other way round - we were skiing just in to Italy earlier in the year and there was a mixture of both languages in shops etc whereas I’ve never seen that happen in France despite staying close to the Italian border in France lots of times (that’s not to say it doesn’t of course!)

Thank you for telling me!

France is vast and there's a lot of variation in the general ambience depending on where you are. The south is VERY hot in the summer. I was in Marseille last August and the heat was intense.

I'm going against the grain in saying that I struggle with the attitude to food and also the availability (I'm veggie and this is tricky outside of the cities). I also prefer eating on the move not sitting down for 3 hours and they don't really do street food as such.

I really like Lyon and lovely market towns like Uzes. The Alps are also lovely in the summer.

I think there are lots of 'rules' in France which you're only told when you've broken them 😆

@Y2ker you’re right about the rules! Even if you find out what they are it’s completely impossible to tell which ones are absolutely fine to break and no one takes any notice of vs the ones everyone MUST follow at ALL times.

It's beautiful once you get beyond the north-east although that has some beautiful areas as well. It's a much larger country than the UK. Just use Google maps street view and plop yourself down in the Dordogne, Massif Central, Jura, the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Loire, Burgundy... the list just goes on.

It's perplexing! We went to a spa hotel and the number of random rules was bewildering.

I’m from Belgium - French is our second language but there are differences from the French spoken in France - mainly in vocabulary and pronunciation due to the Dutch influence. DH is French Canadian and some vowels and pronunciation differ significantly and Canadian French has adopted vocabulary from Indigenous languages. However we can all understand each other in French!

We often drive to and around the French Alps during summer on holiday. It's a really varied country. A lot of the little villages are very tumbledown and rustic, but absolutely beautiful. And just so much space compared to here. Still lots of untouched countryside with lots of the wildflowers and wildlife which have vanished here.

We go to the "poorer" part of the Soith most years - Beziers, Narbonne, Perpignan, Sete, Nimes etc.. we love it. It is quite Spanish influenced and quite rough and tumble but outgoing and friendly. There are lots of local traditions and festivals and people are very proud of their local area. The food is very fish and seafood heavy as well as a lot of North African food as well as mpre traditional French food. There are ots of beaches and traditional seaside holiday resorts that the French flock to in the summer. I like it a lot more than the more touristy and prisrine areas of the Cote D'Azur.

France is one of my favourite places to be.

Lovely, in the south the weather is warmer, life is similarly paced to the U.K. outside of London. I personally like the west coast when driving as it’s not as far - La Rochelle is a lovely place to take a holiday for a week

@Parker231 although I speak French well, I’m British and not bilingual. Several times people have asked if I’m Belgian or wished me “Bon retour en Belgique.” I take it as a complement!

language isn’t an issue if you have decent french, it’s no different to an English speaking person understanding a Manchester accent, occasionally there’s a local word but you can work it out. English is widely spoken in tourist areas but don’t rely on it completely, you’ll find, especially if you are road tripping, outside of major population centres hospitality businesses may not speak English, make sure you learn the basics to order food and ask general directions, then check into hotels, buy tickets, the sort of things you need for a holiday. I found even at the tourist attractions not all staff understand two adults, two children - luckily I speak decent french!

Where my family comes from, the village is very quiet and isolated but with a very strong community spirit, and they embrace everyone who comes as part of the community. Every year they have the fete of the village where they close the roads and invite everyone to come for a big outdoor lunch with live music. At about 4pm people call on their neighbours for “un petit pastis”, and people’s dogs roam free and go and visit at their friends’ houses also. There is hunting in the region so in the autumn your dog has to wear a bell and you need a high vis if you go walking.

Unfortunately the influx of second homes has lead to an already small village becoming emptier. The nearest supermarket, and the food market is a 40 min drive away, and the village it is in is not huge either so newspapers tend to be a day late etc. The school is also about 40 minutes away. There aren’t any jobs unless you work in agriculture or seasonal tourism, so most people leave after school. This means the village has a very aged population.

My husband is French and he says down south it’s a different accent. More sing song like the Italien language sounds. He also says the southerners are all crazy and hot headed 🤣
We live near the Swiss border in a very touristy region, he always says to watch out for the cars with number plates from the south as they won’t stop at the crossings!

Another fan of Avignon and the surrounding areas. It's just so beautiful. We visit friends in the Lot region each year - and each year, I think "Why don't we live here?"

I love how France has such a planned and structured focus on amenities and leisure as being an important part of life. Makes it very easy to be there with kids.

Just remembered this film. It’s about the differences between the north and the south. Really funny. Bienvenue chez les ch’tis. Or Welcome to the Sticks.

My mum always said the French in the south pronounce maintenant as mainten-aannngg (elongated). My mum was also told when she holidayed in France as a teenager by her French au pair friends (her mum’s au pairs in London) that Marseilles was a rough sailor town/city, her friends were from posh Montpellier. My Calais friend says they’re more casual, they have a different dialect. My Calais friend (lives in London) thinks the Parisians are snobs. In SW France where parents had holiday home (in between La Rochelle and Bordeaux) they hate the Germans and are typical laid back country people, however in our town when we went to the tabac/bar for a drink and spoke French there, they were openly rude to us, so much so that we just left. Ditto at the local train station, the woman working there deliberately gave us the wrong time for the Bordeaux morning train so we missed it. At Bordeaux station they were very helpful. Most people were very nice though. They also had their own Charentais dialect.