Advertisement

Living in France For Members

9 ways that living in France changes you

The Local France
The Local France - [email protected]
9 ways that living in France changes you
Daily bread becomes part of your routine in France - but else changes? Photo by Loic VENANCE / AFP

Moving countries always brings with it a bit of a culture shock, but after a while you adapt and change - from lunch to dossiers, tear gas to complaining, here are 9 ways that living in France affects you.

Advertisement

It's normal that your habits change in a different country - and that's before we even get into the weird things that happen to your English-speaking skills - but it's only when your attitude and mindset begins to change that you know you have truly settled. 

Naturally, the changes vary depending on where you come from, where you settle in France and the lifestyle that you adopt, but here's how we think people change after living here for a while.

You can hear the team from The Local talking about how life in France has changed them in the latest episode of Talking France. Download it here or listen on the link below.

 

1 Your bonjour reflex is such that you sometimes find yourself greeting ATMs and supermarket self-checkout machines

After an initial period of being nonplussed at how much time you are expected to spend greeting people, you're now fully into the spirit of beginning every interaction with a bonjour, from ordering in a café to entering an elevator.

EXPLAINED Why bonjour is the most sacred word in the French langauge?

When you return to your home country, people think you're weird because you insist on saying 'good morning' to everyone.

2 You can assemble a full dossier for any type of administrative appointment within 5 minutes

Bureaucracy is life in France and there is no point fighting it. Even once you've got through all your initial admin on moving to France there are still regular appointments and it is now second nature to create a 'dossier' of documents for each one. 

Advertisement

At home, you have an enormous file containing every single piece of paper you have received since arriving in France. If there was a fire, you would save this before rescuing pets/children/loved ones  

READ ALSO The vital vocab for French bureaucracy

3 You have internalised the French public holiday calendar and can make lightning fast calculations on every opportunity to faire le pont over the next 12 months

From initially being excited at all the random days off work that France offers, you now regard these as normal and correct and are genuinely outraged at the 'bad years' when too many public holidays fall on a Saturday or Sunday.

After spending your first couple of years as the only person in your workplace on days adjacent to public holidays, you have now embraced the French tradition of 'bridging' holidays and now maximise your holiday time like everyone else.  

4 You would no longer dream of having toast for dinner

You consider proper meals essential and are happy to have long conversations on the relative merits of fondue v racelette, beaufort v comté or flat peaches v round ones.

Lunchtime no longer consists of bolting a sandwich at your desk, or scoffing a cereal bar on the move, and you become really quite grumpy with anyone who tries to insist that you perform any tasks between 12noon and 2pm. 

5 But you might have a glass of wine

If you come from one of the hard-drinking countries like the UK or Australia you might also notice a change in your drinking habits.

In short, you have started sipping your wine instead of hurling it back like there's a shortage and are happy to make a single glass last all evening.

You also now genuinely see the point in spending more money on a good wine and making it last over several nights. Your friends back home wonder who you even are. 

Advertisement

6 You're on your feet a lot

One for Americans - but if you live in a city you're likely to be astonished at all the walking that you do, from wandering to the boulangerie or market to simply going for a stroll.

When American friends visit, blithely inform them that "it's not far, just a 30-minute walk" and amuse yourself at the look of horror on their faces. 

7 You're quite blasé about tear gas

 At first you might be a bit freaked out by France's numerous strikes and demos, which occasionally end in violence. But as time goes on this comes to seem simply part of the landscape and you learn to check whether there is any strike action that might affect your plans.

As for those sometimes dramatic images from the big cities that often make it onto the news - after a while you realise that a) it always look more dramatic in news photos b) it usually only affects a tiny area of the city and c) the French carry on as normal (even to the point of continuing drinks on a terrace as something burns in front of them).

 

You decide to go local and become distinctly blasé about that whiff of tear gas in the air (and you also know what tear gas smells like).

8 You're very happy in France, and show it by complaining

Nights out with your French friends involve complaining about the (excellent) French health system, the (generally excellent) public transport and the country's leaders (okay, they're not excellent but coming from a country that has had Donald Trump or Boris Johnson as a leader might give you a certain perspective).

You're happy to go along with the French complaining tradition and you save your more dorky opinions (Paris is beautiful, baguettes are great, and life in France is pretty good) for your fellow foreigners.  

READ ALSO 'In France we don't make small talk about the weather, we complain instead'

9 . . . and maybe this one is just for people of a certain age

You become extremely interested in your own health and don't hesitate to visit a doctor, even for comparatively minor ailments.

Advertisement

You regard having a fully stocked medicine cabinet as completely normal and a trip to the pharmacy to look at the new remedies counts as a genuine day out.

You still refuse to consider 'heavy legs' a genuine medical issue, however. Integration always has limits. 

Do you agree with these signs of being settled? What was the moment when you realised that France had changed you? Email us at [email protected]

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

CE Mills 2023/04/21 20:50
Truly a great article, and right on point! I was able to check all the boxes, except for ‘heavy legs,’ and when did I realize how much France had changed me, and how grateful I am for the changes? While reading this article, I knew that my days of being an ‘American tourist’in France were long-gone, and that I had honestly become a Francilienne! Thank you!
tom_440627 2022/08/21 09:39
I knew I had settled when I was able to get a fonctionnaire at the prefecture to help me get around not having “fiches de paie” by flirting. She suddenly had the idea that an attestation from my employer would suffice.
Anonymous 2022/08/17 18:28
@Lyon Nonsense.
Anonymous 2022/08/17 17:50
Interesting piece. I realise that I had some of these characteristics even before I moved to France; and now understand why I feel at home here and why I fit in so well. E.g. the well-stocked medicine cabinet and maximising holidays by “bridging”.
Anonymous 2022/08/17 17:16
Please kindly refrain from political talk. People of all political perspectives pay you money for your content. It's a lazy writer that has to make snarky political comments to make a point. Otherwise, your content is fab!

See Also