Ma Vie in France

image by Nick Youngson, see photo credits at bottom of page I’ve recently rediscovered a fluffy French reality show called ‘Les reines du shopping’ (The Queens of Shopping). The premise is simple: 5 women are given a theme, a budget, and have to find an outfit in 3 hours that fits the theme. They then have to model their ensemble in front of the show’s other contestants and receive a grade. One thought struck me while watching the other day. ‘Why is it,’ I thought to myself, ‘that these women are so opinionated on the clothing of one another?' Of course part of this is the premise of the show. But for one single outfit you can hear everything from ‘Wow, that looks stunning on her. I love it!’ or ‘No, Chantal, that doesn’t fit you at all.’ I noticed this because it echoed with things I have heard in real life. A clothing store clerk, for example, once said to me when suggesting a dress to try "Now, this dress is more ‘flashy’ than what you normally wear, but it w...

No blog on France is complete without at least one post about food, and I'm surprised it's taken me so long to write one! But as I started to think about all of the different things there are to say about food in France (and there are many) I realized that it's just as important to discuss how people talk about food as it is to describe the food itself. So how do French people talk about food? Below I'll give a examples of language relating to food that I think are important to help understand the French mentality and experience of eating. Food is an experience: je prends mon déjeuner For starters, in France food isn't just something you consume, it's an experience. There is a certain time, place, and way that you eat. The language reflects this, as it's seen more appropriate and polite sounding in French to say 'I take my lunch' (Je prends mon déjeuner) rather than 'I eat my lunch', sounding a little more vulgar or just rep...