Pillows and bread: Life in France so far

Pillows and bread: Life in France so far

It has been almost one week since we arrived in France and I am not sure where to begin. I guess I will begin with our 30 hour journey here. Good god it was long and the person in front of me on our flight to London was a complete space hog. It was as if he needed more room than anyone else in the plane, which made it difficult to do anything. However, I would like to take this time to express how much I enjoyed the British Airways instructional video for flying information. Of all the people who have traveled internationally not a soul has mentioned these delightful videos. When we fly to France it was the same video only it had French subtitles. They were great for the chessy entertainment it provided. When we finally arrived in Valence we walked around for a while and ate at a Kebab restaurant. We went to bed around 7pm to wake up at 3:30 in the morning. Needless to say it has taken a while to adjust to the time change.

For me, France is different and the same in many ways. It is different in obvious ways such as language. I wish I would have taken a more intensive French class before we left. I am very frustrated by my inability to communicate. I can understand some of what is going on around me but I mostly get by reading peoples' body language. Alas, I didn't take a class and Spanish comes out of my mouth before I even have time to think in French. I have decided to find a tutor or class or something to help me with this situation. I also have been relying on Patrick a lot to help get me around and I thank him for being the main French speaker at this time.

For the most part Valence looks like any modern city in the States except that it has incredibly old buildings where ever you go. It is a little weird to walk around and see Ford cars parked in front of buildings from the time of Napolean. There is a lot of graffiti and trash in the city so it is like walking around New York in some ways. The amount of graffiti surprised me especially since most of it looks like crap. When I find artistic graffiti I will take a photo of it and post it, we will see if I find anything worth capturing via photo.

Yes, French bread is amazing as is cheap French wine. However, the French pillow sucks, big time! Also they have no jalapenos!

I will write more later this week. Topics I will cover: French parking, moving to a new country and what you should bring (in addition to pillows) and odd people I see around Valence.

Until I write you all again.
Love,
Molly