French parisian born and raised also trying to survive in France

Introduce yourselves...
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Born and raised parisian in 1984, I left Paris in 2013 to start a new life on the Opale Coast (Baie de Somme exactly).

I always find interesting and funny, sometimes uncomfortably true, to read all these anglo-saxons trying to survive our own country and thinking we have less challenge than them. Well except the language, we still also have sometimes hard times. But overall, I won’t be the typical stupid frenchie complaining about everything, because I love my country and their people. Sometimes I hate them like you all, but there are still more ups than downs.

Anyway, if you need a local born and raised point of view I am da man. If any mountainbiker, fatbiker or road cyclist located between Baie de Somme and Le Touquet, drop me msg. I’ll be really happy to get a british or american lesson.

I am here to maintain my English, because in rural Picardie, it is not easy, and also to meet international people living here. They have a different way of thinking that I tend to like.

Salut les anglais !

Max

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Hello and welcome to the Forum.

It will be interesting to read things… from your point of view…:upside_down_face::thinking::relaxed:

Could you please amend your Registration Page to give Full Name … as per our T&C… cheers :grin:

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Hi Maxime … I see you are enjoying a number of threads on this forum… that’s great.

However, could you please put your full name… Maxime (First Name) I can understand… but SRN seems a little unlikely for a Last Name … :thinking:

If you simply type your correct First and Last Name on this thread, I can correct your Registration Page for you… :relaxed::relaxed::relaxed:

Cheers

Stella

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first cultural shock between french and anglo-saxon Stella :slight_smile:

I tend to “hide” my real identity on internet. Not because I have things to hide, but because, well in France recruiters do search a lot of information through Google. And you surely know that french people value the cult of privacy :slight_smile:

But this place is an anglo-saxon “enclave”, so I am not accepted here, just tolerated :smile: I’ll follow the rules

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We welcome all comers, without discrimination… provided they obey the rules of the forum.

I am intrigued by your comment about “recruiters”… makes me wonder who is looking for recruits and why ?? :thinking::zipper_mouth_face:

However, if you keep personal information in your Posts to a bare minimum… I do not think you have anything to worry about.

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Hello Maxime
Welcome to SF, I can assure you that you will be accepted and not just tolerated.
There are lots of different people here, with lots of opinions and we like to hear from and debate with others on all sorts of subjects. It’s also a good site for asking advice.
I have many French friends ( mainly ex- Parisiens) and we have some really good evenings where we discuss almost every subject, of course while having good food and wine.
It will be good to see your viewpoint here, congratulations on your English, if my written French was as good I would be very happy :slight_smile:

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La plupart de mes amis français sont nés et ont vécu à Paris, certains ont travaillé et vécu dans d’autres départements. Je vis dans la campagne profonde et mes amis français trouvent que parfois la vie ici n’est pas facile. Certains habitants considèrent les parisiens avec suspicion, même ceux qui ont vécu ici depuis de nombreuses années. Mes amis disent que si vous n’êtes pas né localement, vous serez toujours un étranger :thinking:

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Stella I was just kidding !

As for recruiters, in France the laws are protecting the workers and not companies, so when you hire a new employee, there is always a risk. Because it can become really difficult to separate from that person. So to avoid any risk, recruiters now try to google every single person, it is a kind of “intelligence recruiting investigation” kind of process.

It is not necessarily personal informations, it is rather posts like jokes or things that imply a more judgemental point of view.

French can be very judgmental, but hate being judged …search the logic :wink:

@ Ann Coe
Merci, j’essaie de ne pas trop perdre mon anglais, mais ce n’est pas facile, je vis dans la France profonde ! Et oui c’est vrai que les français des campagnes ont tendance à ne pas être accueillants ou avenants comme peuvent l’être les anglais ou américains. Aussi bien avec les parisiens que d’autres étrangers. Une fois que vous l’avez compris, vous agissez différemment, il faut un peu de temps.

Avec le recul, je trouve que les français sont mieux accueillis aux USA et en Grande-Bretagne durant les premières interactions sociales que l’inverse. Il faut du temps aux français, un peu trop parfois…

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“… si vous n’êtes pas né localement vous serez toujours étranger”

À message for Maxime, à propos du message précédent d’Ann Coe, dont un fragment au-dessus…

I think this issue of always being a stranger has to be the case: it’s a matter of atavism, a very powerfully experienced sense of place and of belonging to that place, which is probably eradicable, and is implicitly challenged by others who don’t evidence the subtle marks that are carried by members ‘of that ilk’. In my experience these are often linguistic markers, accent and idiom, but also socio-cultural markers like food preferences etc. I can always recognise a Brummie by her vowels, and a touch of reluctant melancholy that tinges every utterance, however positive or cheerful. Her age or racial provenance makes no difference. If Birmingham has made her, she will never shake her heritage off. I never have my own.

Being a stranger doesn’t equate to being in any sense unwelcome. On the contrary it more often evokes an impulse to hospitality, a friendly curiosity, and an appetite for contrast-and-compare discussion. Strangers are very often granted much latitude over breaches of convention or customary behaviour, even very extreme ones.

It’s a token of how strangers can be integrated into host communities while remaining ‘outsiders’ that they have a certain honorable salience which endures as “our local Frenchies” or “les Sourdevalaïs anglais”, sometimes with a touch of affectionately teasing humour about their odd habits or recalcitrant and obstinate blind-spots.

With every fibre of my decrepit and ever-waning being I welcome and cherish your presence amongst us, Maxime. You shall be cosseted, biffed, congratulated and blackguarded in equal measure. I invite you, I urge you, to open your trap and to spout nonsense, with a spiteful Gallic twist if you have a care to. Take the piss, twist the knife, trowel on the bullshit, you are one of us, we already love your froggy self to bits… :grimacing::innocent:

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Peter it took me about 30 minutes to translate some words and expressions you wrote that I never encountered, so just for the lesson of english, thank you very ze much Sir ! And thanks again for the warm welcoming, I really appreciate it. I hope I will achieve to make french people less annoying to all of you, except EDF and the fiscal tax administration, this is an impossible mission…

Now following your last sentence, can we talk about sex ?

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Sexe grenouille ou autrement, Maxime ? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Parles-tu grenouille, le langage liquid des frogs? Il n’existe qu’ un seul vocable, “ribbit”, soit-il le grenouille francais ou d’outre mer.

Si tu me parlerais en grenouille, par exemple ribbit… ribbit… ribbit, ribbit, rrrrrrribit, je vais bien attraper ton sens :yellow_heart::yellow_heart::purple_heart::green_heart::heartpulse::heart::heart::boom:

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Hahahaha !

You posted message after midnight can indicate you were sipping a glass or maybe plenty of glasses of Château Montrachet.

There are different liquid frogs languages, which one is yours ? Basque, breton, occitan, parisian, alsacien ?

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Hic ! Touché hic ribbit hic… hoquet hic

Normandie, Sourdevalais hic