Motor City to Montmartre

I’ve been living in France for over 5 years and there are some parts of the culture that I have adopted completely and others that I may never adopt.

This morning I had breakfast at home before taking the plane this morning (I’m going to Halifax, England for a few days for business).  I had my usual: bowl of cereal with milk, glass of orange juice. Although there are some people who surely eat something similar, the vast majority I have seen tend to have some variation that includes a hot drink and some kind of bread or pastry.  So, it could be hot tea with a “tartine” (a slice of bread with butter or jam or something); or hot chocolate and a croissant (it took me forever to be able to pronounce this word somewhat correctly); or maybe a bowl (or big mug of coffee) and some “brioche”(a sweet bread).

Of course on the weekend, I do like a heartier breakfast; a couple fried eggs and toast; omelette and hash browns; pancakes and eggs, etc.  But eggs in the morning to a French person it is definitely a foreign concept.  They can’t imagine having it themselves, for them eggs are reserved for lunch or dinner.  It would be like an American having spaghetti and meatballs for breakfast, it just isn’t done (except maybe in college eating leftovers in the morning because the milk in the fridge is spoiled).

Most French people find it amusing that Americans and British eat such heavy breakfasts and many of them hold the misconception that we eat those big breakfasts every day of the week.

One of the things I really miss about living in the states is being able to go out to a restaurant for breakfast.  Everytime I go back to the US on vacation I hit my favorite breakfast spots. In France, restaurants don’t really do breakfast.  If you don’t have breakfast at home, then you would usually just grab a pastry from the Boulangerie (bakery) or a coffee in a café. The closest you get to an American breakfast in France is in hotels that cater to travelers.  Then they may have a breakfast buffet which will usually include scrambled eggs, bacon and/or sausage.  But it jsut isn’t the same as getting a ham and cheese omelette with hash browns and wheat toast…mmmm…

On the bright side, I am on my way to England for a few days so maybe I’ll have a “full English breakfast” tomorrow morning. It won’t be the same as Dean’s Café or Gus’ Coney Island, but it’ll have to do for now.

-Jeff

I just turned 34 years old (Happy Birthday to me) and just had a basketball game on Sunday.  France has an absolutely incredible amateur sports system.  In the US you usually have the chance to play sports in high school (sometimes only if you are really good and make the team) and then in college if you are one of the best.  Otherwise you are pretty much relegated to rec leagues.

 In France for just about every sport you can compete at a variety of levels.  In most sports they have multiple leagues at the Departmental level (about the size of a county in the US), the Regional level (there are 21 regions in continental France), and the National level (this doesn’t mean THE national team, but just that you would compete against teams spread out all across France).

 I play in D3 (or Departmental 3) which is not the lowest, there is D4 below and “Loisirs” (which is usually a non-competitive team without a real league structure). So there is still D2, and D1 above us at the Departmental level and then the next step above D1 would be R3 (Regional 3).  So our entire rankings of leagues looks like:

• Pro A (top professional league in France)
• Pro B (semi-pro)
• N1
• N2
• N3
• R1
• R2
• R3
• D1
• D2
• D3
• D4
• Loisir

At the end of every season the top teams in each division move up to the next division above and the bottom teams move down. This happens at the professional level in France as well.  For example in soccer there is the Ligue 1 (the number one professional league in France) and Ligue 2 (semi-pro).  The bottom couple teams in Ligue 1 drop down to Ligue 2 every year, which can be devastating to the club.  Wouldn’t it be interesting if the Detroit Lions had to drop out of the NFL if they underperform year after year?  Maybe the team ownership and management would try to do a better job if that was the case!

I really appreciate that I am able to find a very competitive league to play in with a formal structure and paid referees for every match.  By the way, my team is currently in 1st place and we have a good chance of moving to D2 next season!

Yes, in France young kids often have school on Saturday mornings.  It varies a bit depending on the area of France you are in and if it is public or private school but traditionally in elementary school there is no school on Wednesday but school most Saturday mornings.

 I think the traditional logic was that this would give the kids a break in the middle of the week so it wouldn’t be so intense for them.  But with so many families nowadays where both parents work, the system seems to be very outdated and in need of a revision. If both parents are working then they have to find and pay for extra day care on Wednesdays and then after not seeing their kids that much during the week the kids go to school on Saturday mornings.  Plus, if you want to go away for the weekend you can’t leave until noon on Saturday!  How annoying is that?  And anyways, in most cases, the kids don’t have a relaxing Wednesday, the days are just as long. 

 When we were living in Port Marly (western suburbs of Paris) the kids were on a 4 day week (no school on Wed or Sat) but they had to make the school year longer to make up for the lost time. I don’t think they are making a real conscious evaluation for the best system, they are just sticking with it for cultural reasons. 

 It is a little annoyance, but overall we are very pleased with the French education system.  “La Maternelle”, which is for ages 3-5 is basically public pre-school through Kindergarten and is an excellent environment for kids to ease their way into the school system.  School is only mandatory from ages 6-16 but most families take advantage of “La Maternelle”.

So, now it is Saturday afternoon, the kids are home from school and the sun is shining, so I am going to get off the computer and take the kids (and our dog Vegas) out for a walk.

 Bon Week-end!