I just about died laughing when we stopped tonight to take a picture of this château and noticed that the windows were all fogged up in the car seen in the bottom of the picture. I don't think I've ever seen French kids "parking" before...probably because they can't drive (unaccompanied anyways) until the age of 18, and it's fairly rare to get your own car anyways that early on.
Good for them though - how many kids can say they've made out in front of a deserted castle??
A few months ago, Aimee** over at PutYourFlareOn introduced me to the concept of the Joliebox. What is this box that you speak of, you ask? Apparently it's a concept called Birchbox started in the US by two Harvard students, and it has now been adopted by a French company under the name of Joliebox.
Le principe est simple - each month, they send you a cute little box containing 5-6 beauty products. Sometimes they're new products that have just been released and other times they're old favorites (Burts Bees chapstick ou L'Occitane hand cream). The sizes vary too, but they are usually bigger than sample sizes - ie more like travel size cosmetics, which is great if you are on the road a lot like I am. They also sometimes give whole sizes too - last month I got a gigantic tube of cocoa butter lotion and this month I got several full-size products including a foundation, a shower gel and a red nail polish. You can also set your preferences for certain things - for example, perfumes often make me sneeze, so I checked that I would rather have facial products instead of perfumes.
Mostly though I just enjoy the fun of being able to try out so many new beauty products, especially since make-up is usually so costly in France. Which reminds me, I didn't mention the price - it's 10€ a month including shipping. They have one month, three month, six month or year-long subscriptions. C got me a 12mo for Christmas and it has been awesome - it's like the gift that keeps on giving all year long. I'm not sure if there are too many guys out there who read my blog, but hey, if you're stuck for a Valentine's day gift, this could be a good one! They are also rolling out a JoliMonsieur edition next month. :)
**Also, just wanted to give a little plug for Aimee's cute tea house in the 13th - if you haven't been yet, check it out, she makes the best desserts! It's also a great place to buy yarn for you knitters out there.
I wasn't originally planning on writing about this topic at all,
because 1) I don't have kids and 2) It just seemed like another one of
those "X country does Y thing better" books. But then I saw an interview
with the author on the Today Show, and it kind of irked me. They
filmed her in Paris, wearing a beret of course. She talks about how
French parents have a well-defined "box" of rules, but that there is
freedom inside that box. They show her kids eating broccoli and she of
course takes credit for this - whereas my first thought was whatever
lady - that ain't thanks to you, that's thanks to the French school
lunch system. Kids here learn to eat a wide variety of foods from a very
young age. And then she shows up live on the Today Show (again with the damn beret!) to expound on her previous statements.
As an interesting side note - in the US, this book is called "Bringing Up Bébé", whereas in the UK, it's called "French Children Don't Throw Food".
I find it really interesting that they felt the need to change the name
for the British market. But then again, ever since I moved to France,
all I have heard from the Brits is how well-behaved French children
are.
I've always wondered where that myth comes from. I mean, sure
maybe the French children of 50 years ago were meant to be seen and not
heard, but in my experience, after living in France for coming up on 9
years now, that is definitely not the case. I've taught in the French
school system and been around plenty of children in Fab's family and now
in C's family, and frankly, I don't understand what the big fuss is
about. The kids just seem like normal kids. Sometimes they're good and
sweet and sometimes they scream, whine and throw fits.
And
hey, if all French kids are so perfect, why would M6 need to have a
SuperNanny show? It was extremely popular, and ran for six years - and
would probably still be on today if the SuperNanny hadn't passed away in
2010. I watched some of them, and man, did some of those kids need an
attitude adjustment.
I also found it extremely ironic that she said that French
parents insisted their children always say "Hello" to others, as a way
to pull them out of their self-centeredness and remind them that others
have needs too. This literally made me laugh out loud. If that were
indeed the case, they would also be reminding their kids to hold the
doors for others, to not stand in the middle of the
sidewalk/doorway/escalators and to not stare. But none of that happens -
France is not a "Put yourself in someone else's shoes" society. And
before anyone starts on me for criticizing France, it's not a criticism,
it's the way people are raised here. If anything, they are teaching
their kids to say "Hello" because it's a cultural expectation and you're
setting yourself up for a lifetime of non-service if you don't start
every sentence with "Bonjour".
She also brings up the example of a child interrupting a parent.
She says that Americans think that there is nothing that they can do
about a child interrupting and so they just have to live with it. Um
hello? (or should that be Bonjour?). I grew up with my mother telling
me all the time to stop interrupting and wait until her conversation was
done. This lady just seems like her parenting skills weren't that
great to start off with. She says however that a French parent will
take the time to gently explain the child needs to wait. I don't know
about you guys, but this has not been my experience at all. I've mainly
seen the kids saying "Maman. Maman. Maman. Mamaaaaannnnn" with
increasing urgency, all the while the parent is ignoring them until the
explode and say "Come on Quentin, stop being so annoying, can't you see
that I'm talking?". And then the kid sulks away, pouting.
Which brings me to the whole yelling factor. That is one of the
biggest differences I have noticed in child-adult interactions here. So
much of it seems to be adults yelling at the children and belittling
them into submission. Not that I think the kids suffer from it, just
that it is not seen as necessarily a bad thing to call a child stupid or
tell them they asked a dumb question.
In fact, I found
this whole idea of "French parents are calm" so ridiculous that I posted
it on twitter. Here are some of the answers I got back:
ChezLoulou: Oh r-e-a-l-l-y? Then why is that I hear French parents yelling at their kids all the time? Ella: Lol! She should spend a weekend at MF's family's house and she'd write a whole other book! Where is she getting her facts? Ashley: ugh. Read lots of things about that book. Sound like a complete over generalization of one population. yuck. AnnMah: Ha ha. I think this is the newest "X parenting is superior." But that it's French, does make me laugh.
KarenLeBillon: French aren't perfect, but DO have gr8 approach to #kidsfood. See amazing French school menus! bit.ly/xrcoDm
There were a few detractors however: TheBoldSoul: I think they do it less than American parents, frankly. And the French little ones ARE generally better behaved in public Ednacz: I think they do it less than American parents, frankly. And the French little ones ARE generally better behaved in public
So that leads me to believe that there are both well-behaved and
misbehaved kids here, just as there are in every other country in the
world. But I thought I'd put together a little quiz to see what the rest
of you think:
Update - It's also crazy that she has removed her past books from her website, including the one on infidelity. According to a commenter below, she also asked Marie Claire to remove her article on how she gave her husband a threesome for his 40th birthday. And we're supposed to take parenting advice from this lady??
I wanted to give a little bit of publicity for a great organic store C & I came across a few months ago. It's called Bio C' Bon, and they have twelve different locations in the Paris metro area (and one in Aix too).
Once a month or so, when I know I won't be traveling for several days, we head over there and pick up one of their "paniers bio". For a while now, I'd been wanting to sign up for one of these with one of the local Amaps, but they always seemed so inflexible - ie either you needed to pick it up on a certain day at a certain time, or it was hard to cancel if you were going out of town. It just didn't seem to ever work out with my travel schedule, plus it'd be a lot for C to eat the weeks I was gone.
Whereas with Bio C' Bon, the paniers are available every day of the week at any of their locations. The selection of fruits and vegetables changes every Tuesday, and I also find their prices a lot more reasonable than with the weekly ones (10€ for a minimum of 4kg).
This week's panier had three leeks, a big head of lettuce, 5 zucchinis, 8 carrots, 8 potatoes, 5 pears, 3 big apples and 10 clementines. I don't know what you guys think, but that seems like a great deal to me for organic fruits and veggies - I think even cheaper than what I would pay at the local marché. Plus it's been fun for us to hunt around together for recipes to use everything up.
What's great with this store too is that if ever there's something you don't like, you can substitute it for something else (in this case, we substituted 3 gigantic oranges for the clementines). Or a different time, I needed extra leeks for a recipe I was making, so they let me swap the onions for a few more leeks. The employees are all very friendly and you can tell they actually care about what they're doing - which as we all know can be rare here.
In addition to the panier, they are also a regular organic grocery store, with other produce, meats, dairy products and all kinds of dry goods. I've taken to buying quinoa and other grains in bulk there because the prices are so good. They also have a pretty good range of gluten-free and other specialty products, but those are a bit pricier.
Update: In case anyone was wondering what we did with our panier:
1 apple, 2 pears and the clementines were all afternoon snacks
The lettuce ended up being a dinner salad for us for 5 meals
5 of the potatoes and 3 of the carrots were roasted with a whole chicken
I made chicken broth with the carcass and then used that plus the rest of the potatoes & the 3 leeks to make a soup.
I shredded 3 of the zucchinis and 3 of the carrots for a veggie risotto that were served with the chicken legs from the previous night.
The two remaining zucchinis and carrots were diced and used with the left-over chicken bits to make a pasta dish.
The last three pears were used for a poached pear dessert
The remaining two apples were used for an apple crisp
So with all of the leftovers, it ended up being enough for a week's worth of lunches and dinners. It's actually pretty economical when you think about it - everything else we needed (rice, olive oil, flour, etc), we already had on hand at home, so the only thing we needed to purchase was the chicken and a bag of onions, making a total of 15€ a week for the two of us. Pas trop mal for Paris, huh?
Okay, here are the answers- how did you all do? Did you make the 60% mark? (9 or more correct)
Overall, I thought the questions were pretty basic and not too bad - ie if you have general knowledge of France, you should be able to pass the test without too much worry. The rest of the sample tests were also along these same lines, so hopefully this will reassure those of you who plan on applying soon. Plus I'm sure someone will come out with a study guide soon enough too.
1) Who constructed Versailles?
Napoleon
Louis XIV
Louis-Philippe
2) Who do you associate with the Arc de Triomphe?
Napoleon
General Charles de Gaulle
Julius Cesar
3) Gothic cathedrals were built during which historical period?
The Middle Ages
The French Revolution
Ancient history
4) When were the castles of the Loire built?
The 20th century
The Renaissance
The French Revolution
5) Before it was destroyed, what was the Bastille?
A hotel
A prison
A theater
6) When did the Hundred Years’ War take place?
In the Middle Ages
Under Louis XIV
In 1914
7) The battle of Verdun occurred during which war?
The Algerian War
WWI
WWII
8) The Eiffel Tower was built :
For the World’s Fair in 1889
To attract tourists
To install a television antenna
9) The Paris Mosque was inaugurated:
Before the French Revolution
Between WWI and WWII
Last year
10) When did WWI take place?
Between 1914 and 1918
Between 1946 and 1962
Between 1720 and 1723
11) The religious wars in the 16th century were between:
Catholics and Protestants
Christians and Muslims
Public and private schools
12) General de Gaulle’s speech calling for French resistance happened:
In the context of WWII
In the context of the war against the English
During the events of May 1968
13) Which of these three men was not president?
Valéry Giscard d’Estaing
François Mitterrand
Victor Hugo
14) The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen is associated with what
event?
The liberation of Paris
The French Revolution
The creation of Europe
15) Joan of Arc lived during which historical period?
Thanks so much to everyone for sharing their comments and opinions on Thursday's post, Ii really enjoyed reading them. No wonder this is such a hot topic, both in France and around the world.
Here is one of the sample citizenship tests Le Figaro published earlier in the week,
and thankfully they don't look much more complicated than the American one. Apparently the goal is that the
candidates should have (if I remember right), the history and cultural
knowledge of a French fifth grader. Right now they are saying the test
will contain 10 multiple choice questions, with a score of 6/10 or
higher necessary to pass. Let's see how you do - I'll post the answers
tomorrow!
1) Who constructed Versailles?
Napoleon
Louis XIV
Louis-Philippe
2) Who do you associate with the Arc de Triomphe?
Napoleon
General Charles de Gaulle
Julius Cesar
3) Gothic cathedrals were built during which historical period?
The Middle Ages
The French Revolution
Ancient history
4) When were the castles of the Loire built?
The 20th century
The Renaissance
The French Revolution
5) Before it was destroyed, what was the Bastille?
A hotel
A prison
A theater
6) When did the Hundred Years’ War take place?
In the Middle Ages
Under Louis XIV
In 1914
7) The battle of Verdun occurred during which war?
The Algerian War
WWI
WWII
8) The Eiffel Tower was built :
For the World’s Fair in 1889
To attract tourists
To install a television antenna
9) The Paris Mosque was inaugurated:
Before the French Revolution
Between WWI and WWII
Last year
10) When did WWI take place?
Between 1914 and 1918
Between 1946 and 1962
Between 1720 and 1723
11) The religious wars in the 16th century were between:
Catholics and Protestants
Christians and Muslims
Public and private schools
12) General de Gaulle’s speech calling for French resistance happened:
In the context of WWII
In the context of the war against the English
During the events of May 1968
13) Which of these three men was not president?
Valéry Giscard d’Estaing
François Mitterrand
Victor Hugo
14) The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen is associated with what
event?
The liberation of Paris
The French Revolution
The creation of Europe
15) Joan of Arc lived during which historical period?
There's been all kinds of hubbub on FB and twitter lately about the new rules for applying for French citizenship, including the history test that future candidates will have to take starting in July 2012.
I understand that these new rules scare people, but on the other hand, I sort of think it's normal that someone getting French citizenship should have a decent level of French and have at least some notion of France's past. We'd expect exactly the same back home for someone wanting to become American, so I'm really confused why Americans here think those rules shouldn't apply to them in France too.
I have to agree with the new decree that "becoming French is not merely an administrative step - it's a decision that requires a lot of thought". My mother recently became a Finnish citizen, and I actually don't really agree with it. She was only able to get it because my grandmother had to give her citizenship up years ago in order to become American. So they had a short window where those people could get it back, and so could their children. But my mother has never lived in Finland. Sure, we go there every few years and we celebrate Finnish holidays, but she knows very little about what is actually going on in Finland at this moment. Yet last week she was able to take her new passport and vote in the Finnish presidential election. Doesn't really seem right to me.
But then again, this is a topic I'm very passionate about. Some of you might remember a huge post I did a few years back on my old blog about the differences between French and American immigration policies. Unfortunately I can't find it now though, so I'll try to sum it up here.
Basically, during the high days of immigration (usually timed after major wars = loss of much of the country's young men), there were two ways of going about bringing these people in. One was the Anglo way of accepting their immigrants with open arms, letting them keep their own culture and language and turning it all into one big melting pot.
The French however had already gone through this. They had already spent several hundred years trying to integrate various regions of people to unite France as one. This meant breaking them all of their habits, their culture, their language, etc, until they all ate, spoke and breathed French. Much of this can be credited to Jules Ferry, who made school mandatory and free for all children. He realized that this was the only way they could take all of these immigrant children and literally make them French.
The effects of this can still be seen today in the French school system,
ie their use of rote learning and "the teacher is always right". All of those kids grew up thinking there was only one right answer to anything (leaving no room for critical thinking) and to fear their superiors - en gros, he was grooming an army of fonctionnaires. Haven't we all ran into a fonctionnaire who just shrugged in the face of an inane rule? It's highly likely that they were just doing what they were told and had never actually thought about whether or not it made sense. It's what they're bred to do.
This method actually worked very into the late 60's/early 70's. Up until that point, immigrants were forced to integrate into French society, living amongst the français de souche. But all of the sudden there was a huge influx of Maghrébins looking for work and the government decided it was a good idea to stick them all in high rises outside of the city. This was where they went wrong - these immigrants were no longer forced to adapt to French life. Instead, they congregated amongst themselves in these cités, continuing to speak their own language and guard their culture. In return, the French population blamed them for it and criticized them for their so-called "refusal" to integrate. And the fight has been going on ever since.
I can't help feel bad for the young people who live there - they are usually born and raised in France, yet because they have foreign names & a different skin color, they get told to go "home". Oftentimes these kids have never even been to their parents' country of origin and many don't even speak the language. Can you imagine how that would feel? No wonder they rise up and riot every once in a while, just to make their voice heard.
Anyways, now I'm getting off-track - but all of this is why the discussion of French identity and what it means to be French is such a hot topic, especially with the Americanization of the world that seems to be taking place (even in France). I get why they are fighting to avoid that and to maintain their identity. Look at what it even means to be American? Besides some general notions of "freedom", it actually doesn't mean anything at all.
I remember back to my early days in France, which is really the first time I was exposed to Americans who had grown up outside of the midwest. I remember being shocked when talking about how different our childhoods had been - our Scandinavian traditions versus a friend who'd grown up in an Italian-American family in NYC versus another friend who had grown up with Chinese traditions in California. There was zero consistency between the three, yet we were all American. And yes, that cultural diversity is also one of the great things about our country, but France's strong identity also makes France what it is, and I support their efforts to not dilute it.
I was planning on publishing one of the sample tests here, but I've been long-winded as usual, so I'll have to put it in another post. Stay tuned!
