Back From the Furlough...

The Frenchman (pictured here sailing in the America's Cup prelims) told me to stop writing...or at least writing about him.

So, I concentrated on my other blogs, especially Starlet, about our mother-daughter adventures in Hollywood.  But, a stray email from another poor soul mistakenly choosing a Frenchman as her life partner...has brought me back.

Marrying a Frenchman mean s never having conversations about things like high school football...doesn''t exist there.  Baseball either.  They follow soccer (ugh!) and, frankly, have no other sport.  The "Tour de France" may be cool but how many bike races can you actually watch?  Who has the time?

In France, there are no typically American things like fraternities and sororities....in fact, so few people actually go to college and they are not at all the social/party/life changing experiences we have here.

Realize when you choose a Frenchman, you choose to be cut off.  Cut off from in-depth conversations because of language difficulties (huh?) and cut-off from shared memories...the cultures are really that different...

Comments

[Jacqui]

HA! So true... So true. The cultures are really THAT different.

[Eulalie]

False abut the sports. Rugby is the second biggest sport, then you also have all the other team sports which are loved in Europe : volley ball, handball, and since quite recently basket-ball, plus all the rest.

It's done differently here, we talk in cafés, always around food! ;-p

[celine]

False about lots of things. Are you sure you lived in France?

I was going to write many naughty things (kind of: if Frenchwomen are so fit, that's because they don't eat junk food all day ! I don't smoke, neither do all my friends, and we're all very fit).

But then I realized that your comments about the french way of life may be jokes, and that I was supposed to laugh at it.

So even though I'm french and my country is a way different from your description of it, I'm going to laugh!

[Ruth]

I married a German who was raised from 8 until 18 in France. So you could say I married a German Frenchman and I can echo this post very well. He was never into sports and many of our favorites here I have to explain to him. Baseball and American Football are completely foreign to him. But I wouldn't trade him for anyone else. He's the best match for me.

[kim]

Uhh, was the thing about so few french people going to college a joke?? If so, then please forgive me for not catching your humour:) but if not..you should really look up the statistics on that...education is supreme there...especially compared to ours in the US.

luckily i enjoy soccer and rugby...MUCH MUCH more than football or baseball..i mean don't get me wrong..i'm not choosing soccer or rugby over dancing with the stars...but you know..i'd watch a game, cuddled with my frenchman:)

[M]

I agree with the sports idea...but then I don't really watch or participate in many mainstream American sports so that was never a problem with me and my French boyfriend. Soccer (aka football) I can appreciate, although he isn't much of a sports fanatic either so it was never really an issue. What I really love about him is his ability to argue. I say one thing, he automatically plays devil's advocate and that sparks some intriguing debates. I love his views on American society. Dating a man from a different culture makes you look at your own upbringing and American ways in a completely different light, which can teach you a lot. He complains CONSTANTLY, or at least in my American mind, his negative comments about the weather, society, politics, etc. are complaints, but they also spark a great deal of discussion. I'm never bored with him, constantly amused and challenged by his observations, and these are things I value in a partner. We have learned so much from one another since we first met, and I appreciate every moment that I have been given with him. Perhaps in the end this is not due to him being French, but to him being a very special and valued person in my life, who has definitely made my experience a richer one.