Hi Steve, I’d had no idea about some of the things that I now find most of value in my life, when I’d first arrived. One thing I was lucky to have brought over (and oh did I look the clown schlepping it through the Paris metro, along with two big suitcases and a smaller suitcase to boot): my french horn. I’d had an idea that it might provide me with a way to integrate into the community. However, I’d had no real idea how that would work. Now, three years later, I find it the most valuable thing, and the other stuff I might need for comfort is acquirable in France. In fact, I’d stick out like a sore thumb if some of my stuff was NOT from France! If that makes sense.
And actually, my french horn instructor (lessons come free with membership in a town orchestra!) who is a professional musician, tells me my french horn, a 1952 Conn “Stagliano” which of course you needed to know, sounds like an American french horn! There’s actually a significant difference in sound and the way one plays a french horn, between American culture and French culture, on so many levels.
On another note, a couple (not going to name which country they were from), bought a place in a small hamlet here in France, only to immediately cut down the chestnut trees, stately old trees that happened to shed and “litter” the ground, inconveniently. It turns out that one of the oldest hamlet residents, French born, had been harvesting the chestnuts every year from these trees since childhood.
While it’s within our rights to bring anything and do anything within our own purviews, there are ripples and sometimes lasting ones.
So, I think my point is that there are nuances that one only discovers and that do become quite glaring (and were immediately discernible by French people), only after one has immersed oneself. So I would try, for that reason, to just watch and observe. See what you need, what is provided, what people do around you!
Best wishes! Such an adventure for you! Cheers.