Being in France

There's something really great about being in France and it can be quite difficult to figure out why because in lots of ways it's not so different to being in Southern England. The countryside is certainly quite similar especially in Normandy and Brittany, although further East, on the other side of Paris, I think it's even better. The culture in not so different and in fact many parts of the North West are even closer to the UK, possibly just because of the proximity.

I think one of the key things that makes it so good is the language. I love the fact that you can overhear lots of conversations and never have a clue what they are about. I love the fact that you see signs everywhere that you don't really fully understand. And I love the way you feel detached from the general activity. But at the same time as all this you can blend in and can understand just enough that that you never feel fully detached.

The fact that the French seem to have a different attitude to cars is interesting to me. They don't seem to generally attach the same status value to them that we do in the UK and are happy to drive around in cheap little hatchbacks crammed full of stuff when clearly a bigger car would make much more sense. Prestige German cars although very common in the UK are a rarity in France, and sports cars are even rarer. When I last took my SLK to France it regularly attracted an audience whenever I lowered or raised the roof - it wouldn't get a second look here.

Towns and villages are generally much cleaner and prettier than they are here and it's rare to see any rubbish. I really don't understand why they are so much better at this than us. But I did see quite a few people around actually picking up cigarette ends and throwing them in bins - that alone makes a big difference.

French plumbing is a scream. The fact that some of it works at all is a miracle and in our experience it rarely works in the way that it aught to. We've stayed in some really nice places only to find that the plumbing is right out of the dark ages and totally out of character with the rest of the place.

A big contributing factor as to why the towns and villages look so much nicer seems to be that homes, new ones especially, are much more individual than they are over here. In some places, and even on a new development, there are so many different variations that you're never aware that there are two the same.

It's just strange to me that somewhere that is superficially so similar the UK can actually seem to be so different and exciting. Maybe it's simply just the lack of British people :-)