So, I’m in France for the holidays. It’s my first time back home (and in France and in Europe) in two years. I’m taking as many pictures as possible to give you updates about things in France. While I already have lots of things to show you in store, I realized that I don’t have much “everyday life in France” stuff, so that’s what I’ll try to get you, although, yesterday at the farmer’s market I started to take a few pictures and I got to admit that it’s not always obvious, first to see those elements that are “natural” to me with a “blog for English speakers” eye, not mentioning the fact that people look at me funny when I starting take pictures of everyday things as I don’t look like a tourist and all that.
(on a side note, I decided to have Hana, my daughter, as a special guest here at times, because she rocks and you need to know. 😉 )
4 thoughts on “In France”
Hana is clearly a cutie pie!
You comment about how difficult it is for you to pick up on subjects that anglos will be curious about because they are so ordinary to you reinforces the point I often make that it is often better to have a guide when you are a tourist who is from a similar culture to you rather than a native of the culture you are visiting. Of course the guide has to be familiar with the culture, but they have far less trouble picking up on the intriguing differences.
Hana is the cutest little girl in the world… She’s also a wild animal… 🙂
I’m not sure about the guide thing though. In this very case, I haven’t really given it a thought first, also while the majority of the blog has an American readership, there are also many readers from all over the world. Also, here we’re talking about very specific (picture) subjects. When I used to live here and I had foreign guests, I knew exactly where to bring them and such, but then, in the case of the farmer’s market, I don’t have to decide what stall will be interesting to them, they’d be there deciding for themselves.
Now, when I compare me being a guide in my hometown, in my area in Japan and in Paris (where part of my job for a couple of years was to actually somewhat be a guide to American students), Paris was the easiest.
My hometown is indeed to “normal” to me, while Kagawa is still a bit foreign and will remain so for a few more years.
Paris was the right mix of familiarity (my country, my culture) and foreignness (not my region, not my local culture), I had to learn what was noteworthy or not, but also I could avoid some generalization and misinterpretation pitfalls my American counterparts would fall into at times.
What a darling! Cherish her–I know you do–they grow up so fast. Je suis déjà mamie.
Thanks. 🙂