An American in Provence

It has taken me a long time of listening to French speakers, but I have finally gained the ability to hear whether someone is speaking with an accent or not. Alain is pretty accent-less. When I first arrived, he would ask me when we saw someone on TV from Belgium or something "Do you hear how he has an accent?" What, are you kidding? I can barely distinguish one WORD from another, much less whether they have an accent. Seriously, I couldn't tell a Senegalese from a Parisienne. It all sounded like a mish mash of mush mouth. Now I can tell that they speak vaguely different. Why is it that all Southern accents get made fun of? You could be Siberian and speak with a Southern Siberian accent and the Northern Siberians would make fun of you. Here in the South the tendency is to really emphasize the last letters of words. For example: petite (small). Puh-teet. But here, they emphasize the final E- puh-tee-tuh. Baguette becomes bah-ge-tuh. I suppose I am developing this trait, not because of any lingering southern loyalties but because of a) hearing it around me and b) having learned french in school, you know how it is written. And I think Americans usually will pronounce, or try to at least, all letters.
Speaking in French, I have a really hard time with the r sound. Like quatre (4) ca-tre and trois (3) t-wa. The worst is giving our phone number over the phone- it ends in 33- trente trois. Many times the person on the other side thinks I am saying 43- quarante trois. No! Twa Twa!
At least I don't say neuf (9) like noof anymore. It rhymes with snuff.
I can't really hear my accent when I am speaking of course, but hate hearing myself on recordings. Our answering machine is me speaking in English. Whenever I hear Americans or English people speaking French, I cringe in embarassment. I don't sound like THAT do I? Short answer- yeah, you do.
No surprise that people often ask me if I am English. I suppose all anglophones sound similar in French. At least English is considered one of the cute foreign accents, not trashy or low-class.

To everyone at my previous post, I miss you guys!

The above cartoon for kids to color, cut out, and fold into a cube shape. Then the cube is to be placed in the center of the table for reminding. Oh what fun!
It basically says (top right, clockwise) The good manners at the table: Have good manners when you eat. Wipe your face in order to eat cleanly. Talk quietly. Don't forget to say please and thank you. Close your mouth after each bite. Here is what people do when they have good manners.
Then the following pictures: Don't forget to say please and thank you. Wipe your mouth. Chew with your mouth closed.

There are a few differences between US and French etiquette when it comes to table manners.

First of all, the french leave both wrists resting on the table while eating, usually with silverware in each hand. It was explained to me that this was to make sure no under-table hanky-panky goes on, but I don't know if this is true or not.

Secondly, they eat in the traditional European manner, knife in right hand, fork in left, not the old switcheroo that Americans do.

I have not really caught on to these two customs. I usually will put my left hand in my lap and switch the silverware after cutting.

It is also considered impolite to cut your salad. You are instead supposed to fold it and then eat it. I still cut my salad and gasp! even my spaghetti.

Often bread will be used to sop up any remaining juices and sauce. To signal that they are done eating, they will cross their knife and fork on their plates, rather than leaving them side by side as American do.

At the end of the meal, the hostess will gather all the plates together and pile them up before taking them into the kitchen. This means that any remaining food on your plate will be embarrassingly scraped off onto the top plate. So try not to leave any food on your plate.

Some other points from Wikipedia-

The salt and pepper are always passed together.
Remember to always say please and thank you - s'il vous plait and merci
It is considered good manners to finish everything on your plate.
Do not put ice in your wine. At restaurants, wine is served at the temperature at which it is meant to be enjoyed.