An American in Provence

Leap Day.
Don't have much interesting to say today, just wanted to reflect on where I have been for previous Leap Days.
2008: Working in France, married, owning an apartment
2004: Virginia, in graduate school, debating whether I wanted to stay in PhD Program or leave to be with said Frenchman.
2000: In England, on a semester exchange program. Was dating an Englishman. Apparently it is tradition in England (and other countries) that Leap Day is a day that woman can ask men to marry him. Had no intention of asking him to marry me.
1996: Wow. Long time ago. Let's see- Junior in High School. Wanted to go to the Naval Academy and be in the Navy for the rest of my life.

2012: Most likely still in France, hopefully with said Frenchie and some little tadpoles.

The song "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" by Edith Piaf was one of the first French songs I learned. It was WAY BACK in 2004, when I was auditing the French 101 class during my PhD program. The previous semester I had audited the Latin 101 course, until I met a certain Frenchman. Our teacher, an American graduate student getting her Master's and who was engaged to a Frenchman from Paris, played French songs for us and we could read the lyrics and try to figure out what was being said. I liked the song. So much so, that I wanted to use it for our wedding song. Alain thought I was nuts and that if we played it, all the French would think that we were strange. I just liked the final lines:
"Car ma vie, car ma joie,
Aujourd'hui
Ca commence avec toi!"
Because my life, because my joy,
Today
It begins with you.



Anyway, we ended up using a different song, "Man of the World" by Marc Cohen.

We watched "La Mome" or La Vie en Rose for English speakers, with Marion Cottilard a few months ago. I found it hard to follow. We couldn't even get the french subtitles. I found the language hard to follow, and the film kept jumping around- she is old, she is young, she is dying, what?
Also, I was disturbingly reminded of my grandmother. Not that my grandmother was disturbing mind you, but the portrayal of Edith Piaf reminded me of her- facial expressions, hair, make-up, clothes, movements.

Anyway, congrats to Marion Cottilard for winning the Oscar. I was a little surprised when I realized that she was in Taxi and A Very Long Engagement, as I totally did not recognize her when I saw La Mome.

It has finally happened. I am in desperate need of clothes. And I am not just saying this in the average woman way.
I don't really like shopping for clothes.
But now I really need to do something about this.
My pair of black ankle-boots that I wear to work: one zipper handle came off, so I currently have a paper clip looped through.
My sweaters: due to some recent unfortunate laundry incidents, I have about two usable sweaters. The rest are either: shrunken, impossibly wrinkled, covered in unremovable fuzz, or stained.
My pants: I have three pairs- one khaki one that Alain says does not look good on me. One grey one that is functional. One black velvety pair that is covered in the unremovable fuzz.
(I do have other pairs, but since I have yay! lost weight, they look like clown pants.)
My jeans: Ripped. One in the derriere and one in the leg from when I was throwing out the trash and it got caught on a nail on the trash can. Sigh.

I should have bought clothes during the semi-annual sales, but I wanted to wait and see what everyone else at my work was wearing.
But now that I am starting to be unpresentable, I think I need to get moving.
(Oh yeah, and the black velvety covered in white fuzz pants also need to be hemmed.)
Yay for every other Friday off!

One thing I don't really understand about the French is their insistence on still displaying prices in Francs. It's over people! They aren't coming back! Move on!!

It was about six years ago now that all of Europe switched to Euros. Yet (some) people still continue to convert prices mentally into Francs. They do it for comparison purposes. A baguette used to be 3 Francs, now it is 0.70€ which works out to 4.50F! Oh my god! Those darn European politicians who promised that prices wouldn't increase after switching to the common currency should be burned at the stake!
The problem is that they have a number fixed in their mind from a long time ago, so when they do the comparisons now, they aren't taking into account natural inflation.

Most of the people who do this are older French, but not exclusively. I think stores and paychecks should just stop showing the corresponding price in Francs. It would force people to finally make the switch, instead of forever converting from Euros to Francs to Wibbles to Doohickies.

When I first moved here, I would compare with the price in dollars, but after awhile (about four months) I stopped. It doesn't matter what the price would be in dollars. I get paid in Euros. We pay the mortgage in Euros. A tank of gas is so many Euros (so so many!). A trip to the grocery store is on average 30 euros. My reference is in Euros. Make the switch France.

To celebrate Valentine's Day and Alain's Birthday (Feb. 15th) we spent this weekend in Nîmes, a city about an hour and half from Marseille, to the northeast. Nîmes is quite well known for the tri-annual ferias (bullfights) that are held in the Roman Amphitheater (Arene). We left Saturday morning and arrived at our hotel a little before noon.


Wikipedia article about Nimes



We checked in, then walked the short distance into the centre ville, smack dab into Les Arenes. It was built in the 1st century AD, is 130 m by 100 m, and is described as being the "best preserved of all Roman amphitheaters." However, this isn't really true. It is the "best rebuilt". It was used for gladiator fighting, animal fighting, and prisoner execution, and could seat up to 22,000. After the collapse of Rome, it was used as a fortress, then as slum housing. In the 19th century the outer walls were still standing but the seating area was almost completely torn up. We ate lunch then went to visit it. We paid for the combined attraction ticket, which also included the Maison Carrée and the Tour Magne, for about ten euros. This included the audio guide. I always feel so stupid walking around with the audio guide pressed to my ear. I guess you learn a lot but it always takes forever. You listen to each main section, then you get "To learn more about the blah blah press 51. To learn about the ble ble ble press 52. To learn about the bloo bloo bloo press 53." Also learned that there are about 400 Roman Amphitheaters in the world. Wow. I would have guessed about 50, 100 max. Anyway, we spent a good two hours visiting the arena, then we walked to the Maison Carrée (or Square House). Once again, the guidebook lists this as the Roman world's best-preserved temple. It was built by Augustus's son-in-law Marcus Agrippa a long long time ago. Unfortunately, the exterior was covered in scaffolding, they are redoing the facade. We went inside, saw a 22 minute 3D film about the history of Nîmes and.. that was it. Went back outside.



From there we walked to the Jardin de la Fontaine. An underground spring was "harnessed" here in the 18th century (how do you "harness" a spring anyway?) and has been built into a very nice park with statues and fountains. We walked up the path to the Tour Magne, which is from 15 BC and is the earliest surviving Roman building in France. Unfortunately, we got there about 15 minutes too late, and it was closed. Supposedly it has great views out over the countryside. For anyone who visits Nîmes, I would suggest taking a nice picnic and visiting the park.


We walked back towards Les Arenes, and went into a cute little tea and coffee shop, called Tendance Saveurs, with one worker who was quite overwhelmed. We had some tea, some small navettes, then bought a specialty chocolate bar (nice, but perhaps not worth the 3.60€) and a cute bottle of mulled wine that I will save for next Christmas.




We asked the lady at the tea shop where would be a good place to eat, and she gave us instructions on how to get to a certain restaurant. Totally were not able to find it. Chez Paul, sorry, sure you would have been great. We went back to the hotel and rested a bit, then went out and followed our concierge's instructions to a place called Restaurant Nicolas. The food was okay, not too expensive. We got back to the hotel and went to sleep around 10:30. The next morning (Sunday) we woke up at 9, had breakfast in the hotel (which was surprisingly worth the 5€ each), and set out to explore again, this time the museums. The weather was overcast and cold. We first went to the Musée de Vieux Nîmes, which was free. Interesting fact that we learned- where does denim come from? It is material from Nîmes- de Nîmes. Get it? We learned about denim cloth, and saw more old maps of the city, pictures and drawings of the monuments, etc. Then we stumbled upon an exposition of mosaic reconstruction in an old Jesuit building- they had found a huge very well-preserved mosaic and had it on display. Then we went to the Musée Archéologique and Musée d'Histoire Naturelle (again free). Saw a bunch more old Roman carvings (hey, after awhile they get tiring) and some poor moth-bitten animals that had been taxidermied. We left around 1:30 and went to eat at Fast China Express before heading back to Marseille around 2:40.
It was a good weekend, and I am glad we went. I think two days was enough to see everything. I think my favorite is still Arles, then perhaps Nimes, then Avignon.
For more pictures from our trip to Nimes, please go to this album.

Thanks to Meredith's (Poppy Fields) post about the English Bookstores in Aix, I went today during my lunch break to Book In Bar. I walk in and oh my god! tons of books in English! Up until now I have been subsisting on the meager selection in Virgin Megastore, FNAC, and the city library (which I am now too lazy to go to on my days off and too cheap to pay the 25€ per year fee) as well as re-reading all the books I have several times. Thought about joining the Book Fountain, a book service like Netflix for 96€ per year. But considering how I would only read at maximum two books per month, it probably wouldn't be worth it.
But anyway, back to the point of this post.
Up until this point in My Life in France, I have been pretty used to NOT having contact with other Americans. There aren't too many in Marseille (or if there are, they must be in hiding). Occasionally there will be some tourists in summertime or when we go to visit other cities we come across some Americans. Up in Paris there is quite a large ex-pat community, including the Association of American Wives of Europeans. They get together for handicraft nights, book clubs, lecture series, to celebrate American holidays (4th of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc), and commiserate together about living in France. I am a member, but besides the bi-monthly newsletter, I don't really get out of it. I think if I was living in Paris I would be more involved.

There was a point, early on, where I would approach other Americans and talk to them- find out where they are from, what they are doing here, etc.
But now I don't feel that need.

So like I said, it is strange for me to now be in a town that has a lot of American students and to pass them in the streets. I don't feel like their experience has anything in common with mine. I feel, well, better than them in a way. They are just passing through. They don't have to deal with all of the things that I have had to deal with- medical insurance and carte de sejours (which I am still waiting on by the way, they are even slower than last year!) all the rigmarole of getting married here, buying an apartment, getting my driver's license. They aren't INVESTED in France. They don't care about the elections or what the education system will be like in ten years or retirement funds or anything.
So it is a strange feeling. Sometimes if I am with Alain I will switch over into speaking French to him when there are other native English speakers around. It isn't so that they don't understand me, nor to deny that I am American. Perhaps I don't want to be approached?
When I walked into the bookstore, I could hear that there were other Americans there. I don't know if they were students or not. I suppose it is judgemental of me- they could well have been working in Aix too, I don't know. Perhaps they are students who will end up finding a Frenchman and staying. I felt strangely shy. Perhaps it is because I am older than them, I don't know.
Do other ex-pats feel this way?

(Groundhog Day)

For a day.

So yesterday was my last day of work for the place that I started in March 2007. I start next Monday at my new position in Aix en Provence.
I am extremely grateful that they (my first job) took a chance on me, who had never worked before in France and only spoke French so-so. (and did miserably on my interview by the way). I had interviewed with at least 15 places and had sent out about a hundred resumes, looked for months.

The first few months back in the workforce were a huge adjustment- I hadn't worked for a private company before, and I find the French workplace different- less personal for one. Plus, I had spent over a year NOT working, so getting reused to the 8-6 workday took some time. To make it even better, I kept coming in late due to the SNCF strike(s) and had to take half a day off every other month or so to go to the Prefecture, or the Embassy, or whatever.
And now, I am moving on.

How did I spend my day of unemployment? Slept in until 6:30 (wow!) then went for doctor's appointments in the morning, did some errands and grocery shopping, watched Matrix: Reloaded and remembered those desperate months of sitting at home, surfing internet, wondering When am I ever going to find a job?!

So many expats say it is very difficult for them to find work in France. I quite agree. Take the high unemployment rate in the general French population, throw in a less than 100% perfect French speaker, some paperwork difficulties, special dispensations required for companies to higher non-French (they have to prove you are better than all the other French) and it equals: really hard to find a job as a foreigner. Many people told me that I am very lucky- that it ONLY took me 6 months to find a job. That I found a CDI (permanent position). Just have to not get discouraged and believe that the right thing will come along eventually.