How can I be more "French"?

[hangingoutattheendofmywick]

So this morning I did an Ocado shop and stumbled across the world foods department. There is a French section and I was immediately transported to my holidays when I was young at Keycamp in France. I basically ordered a shed load of French delights and as I'm currently really down in the dumps and life is a bit shite I've decided to BE more French.

Other than learning the language again (I've lost it since GCSE) and eating / drinking all my French delights I'm wondering what I can do to make my life a bit more French. Any ideas?

I'm looking for :
Music
Literature
Recipes
Drinks
General ways of living.

Ta!

MamanOfThree - packed lunches (not a picnic lunch, a packed lunch) most definitely exist at my DD's school in Paris.

our bins are emptied everyday - Unimaginable! Where is this hygienic paradise?

Has anyone mentioned soirees? They're fun.

Is it me or French bashing is really becoming a British National Sport? It's sad indeed because I used to worship British culture and -supposedly?-openmindedness as opposed to my fellowmen. However, since I've moved here I've sometimes got the uncomfortable feeling that some people (and incidently some media) are obsessed with French and I don't get the whole point of it, specially the whole patronizing tone when discussing issues in France.

I also happen to have an English sister-in-law that I just adore, being really close to her. She's been living in France for 25 years now and yes, sometimes she may have found and still find things difficult there but she netherveless considers France as her second country.

Also, it seems there's here some mixed-up between feelings towards specific in-law and French in general. No one can tell if he/she will get on better with an English or wathever nationality MIL.

Myo, French-bashing is as old as the Norman invasion, as is Anglais-bashing in France!

Both nationalities take unwarranted pride in our cynicism and over-estimate our talent for satire

Surely it's just envy... Plus there are a good number of things That make little sense viewed from an English standpoint, like the pharmaceutical industry.
But the French just love to take potshots back, like our penchant (see what I did there) for boiled food.
Vive la difference! :)

Heading to France in less than two weeks and cannot wait. Adore driving through the whole of France to get to the south. They know how to signpost a place.
My long-suffering DH would tell you that I tend to bang on about moving to France after a glass or two of 'rouja' and I'm never quite joking.

This has reminded me of my cousin who went to stay with a family when she was 12. She was dreadfully homesick and cried and cried until the mother told her to bend over thd bed and shoved a paracetamol up her bum! She stopped crying after that. Still keeps Intouch with the family to this day.

If you come across a kind of stripy black and white painted arrangement spanning the road from pavement to pavement ignore it - probably some kind of art installation.

Foreigners love such road art and will stand gazing at it, becoming confused or irate when it is crossed by cars.

I am just loving this thread, anyone recommend at good blogs/websites to help me get my fix until I go in August? Am spending a fortune on French magazines . . .

merry

each and

Yes strange those are the peanut crisps! Casino or Super-U's own brand are yummy too.

And those bacon-flavoured bugle things at your same link are another of my favourites!

There are two new flavours of croustilles - tomate et mozzarella, and parika, and they are so delicious. I have to make sure I'm not the only one eating them when I open a bag, or I'd eat the lot.

And yes, Myosotisbleu, I agree with you re the French bashing. All the tired and stupid old clichés have made an appearance, smelly, hairy, cowards, etc. I wish people would work from real information rather than just crap information.

Oh, and another thing, while I'm ranting here, I wish people wouldn't characterise all of Paris by the Avenue Montaigne, 6e/7e/8e arrdt, Neuilly people. Actually not that much of Paris is the all-black-wearing, coffee drinking, hyper-thin cliché. Most of us aren't at all.

If you're a sailor, motor into an anchorage at 5 knots to the spot you want, chuck out your anchor and 40 metres of chain, ignore the position of any other boats and the fact that you're on the ferry track, hop in your dinghy and go straight ashore. Be bemused when all the boats around you have moved when you get back.

Whenever we went to France as a kid I would beg my mum for every flavour of apericube. Except those rank tomato articles which belong in the bin.

In Spain I favoured in a jar banderillos.

I am the queen of prepackaged snacks and I have the (monster munch branded) tshirt.

Pay for your shopping by cheque.

Eat lots of sliced ham.

frequent your pharmacie regularly

Keep your Carte Vitale on you at all times

Drive especially badly in the summer

When driving, do not stop at zebra crossings. Weave in and out of traffic on motorways, and definitely dont bother looking for traffic coming up behind you at speed in the lane youve just weaved into without indicating. This is even more important the further south you go.

I was an au pair in France aeons ago. I'm Scottish so hoped to bond with my family by bumping up the 'Auld Alliance'. The father said, 'Ah yes Scotland, the country where the crows fly upside down to avoid looking at the misery'. I came back home considerably thinner, tanned and very fussy about hair removal. They were especially delighted to say, 'We taught derxa to smoke'.

Cardi Thanks so much for the link (it really made my day) dh and I were in tears of laughter

allalone If I flirted back I reckon he'd have me on my back behind the counter FGS!!! It is a little difficult because I only eat white meat at Christmas Now if he and dh batted both ways

Strangelookingparasite This thread (which is about how to be french) is brilliant we all love the french and they all love us "vive le difference!"