French Foibles

After our five and a half weeks touring France, we have noticed a few things about the French way of life. Here are my observations.

1. The French people love their...















Every day, the first thing French people think when they get out of bed, is, 'oh, I must go to the boulangerie and buy my baguette', and that is what we did whilst we were there. You have to buy a baguette, or two, every single day, it is obligatory, and walk home with it in your hand, no bag needed, a little square of paper around the middle is suffice. And you have to eat it all in one day, and woe betide you leave it until the next day, as it will be too hard to eat, so you will have to go out and buy another one.

2. French people love their...














I think every French person has a dog. Dogs are a constant companion to the French person. They join them everywhere, almost without exception. We have seen dogs in handbags, in prams, on scooters, in cars, in restaurants, at the table in McDonalds, and in shops, even the most high class boutiques. It would obviously be rude to leave a French dog at home, as they would be too lonely without their owners. And the French doggy must be kept warm at all times, preferably in an 'oh la la' stylish diamond encrusted jacket and matching booties. And, heaven forbid you must be so rude to your precious pooch as to clean up their doggy mess, that would be a grave insult, best to just leave it there, for the New Zealanders to step in.

3. French people love their...




The French people must be a nation of very ill people, or maybe very healthy people (?) I have not worked out which yet. On every corner in France you will find a pharmacy. There are signs for phamacies, but we never once did we spot a sign for a doctor's surgery. We have seen so many pharmacies this holiday, sometimes up to three on the same road, that we invented the 'Spot the pharmacy' game which we play, which involves, a. spotting a pharmacy (not hard to do) then, b. shouting out in your loudest voice, 'pharmacy'. To be honest, you don't even have to spot one, you can pretty much shout out pharmacy anytime, and there would be one there.

4. French people love their...





Everybody smokes in France. The shop assistants walk outside and have a smoke in between customers and then stub it out and come back in when you walk in the shop, which makes you feel kind of bad for interrupting their break. And it would be nice to sit outside a restaurant, and enjoy the fresh air, but there isn't any.

Did nobody tell them?

Did their pharmacist not tell them?

Love
Est xxx

PS. I wanted to post to post a photograph to accompany this blog, of a typical French person holding a baguette, whilst smoking a cigarette and walking their dog in a pharmacy......but I didn't know which one to choose from.