I live in rural France. I have a neighbour who I've got on well with for years. I go to his house once a week for an art class. We have the same sense of humour, have always got on very well. I look after his cat when he goes away. I let him borrow my car for two weeks when he crashed his.
Two weeks ago I had my house painted. I used the same painter as he'd used. I paid 650 (three-storey house). He paid a grand (two-storey house). I negotiated. This as just a bit of back story.
Anyway, the painters (originally from the travelling community, settled in France with French-registered business - this becomes relevant later on) painted my house bright yellow (I'd asked for ochre). It's so bright, you need sunglasses to fucking look at it. I started panicking and they said: "Don't worry, when we put the second coat on, the colour will darken). OK.
Next day, the boss turned up and said he wanted paying. What about the second coat? No, no, no it was a "monocouche". A single coat. I started arguing with him. He wouldn't budge, so I went to get my neighbour for help. I thought I was being taken advantage of as a woman living on her own. The neighbour ended up agreeing with the painters. I paid. The boss guy said: "Thank you, pretty blonde" and my neighbour thought this was hilarious. That's the back story. I just accept that I have to live in an eyesore until I can afford to have in painted again.
Right.
Last week, I was in supermarket and there was a MASSIVE fight between a man (from the travelling community) and the manager of the supermarket. This was at the checkout. The manager was screaming. SCREAMING. And the customer was just standing there. The manager then POKED him in the face. Hard.
I decided to step in. I said: "Excuse me, sir. But, you just physically assaulted a customer". He then went mental at me and said if I didn't like it I could "go home too". I understood that he meant "go back to UK". When I asked for clarification, he said "go back to your house" and I could go and see the police if I wanted. So, I did. And I made a complaint to the headquarters and I got a written apology (of sorts - it said I'd misinterpreted what he'd said - but even if he'd told me to "go back to your house", it's still not great!).
Anyway, I mentioned this on FB later that day, I was pretty shaken. Especially because I'd noticed one of the dads at the school where my daughter goes really laughing when the guy told me to go home. I'm bilingual but have an English accent. It was obvious what the manager meant, he just back-tracked pretty well.
God, this is long...
Anyway, my neighbour commented on the FB post that he found this surprising because I was someone who "didn't like "gypsies" and treated them badly". He later said, "You told me that you saw some English people at the bank shouting in English and you didn't like it. I wonder why you didn't call the gendarmes on them?"
So, he's taken offence. Or thinks I'm a xenophobe or racist or something. It wasn't an anti-French post. It was an "I'm so cross at the guy in the supermarket" post.
I'm not very good at intervening when I see things. I get a weird adrenaline rush and I usually cry. So, it took a lot of courage for me to do. I see a lot of English people around here not speaking French and I don't think I would dare say anything to them. But, this was someone being prodded in the face. It's different.
I took the post down and wrote to him privately asking what was up. No response although he'd seen the message. I waited and then said "Yo! Are we still friends?" and he replied, "I guess so".
I'm just upset and feeling vulnerable. He's my only sodding neighbour here. WWYD? I want to be strong and just get over it, but I feel like he's really misunderstood me!