Importance of Associations for integration

Culture
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I’m not sure this is the right category to start this thread but I’m sure someone will move it if not!

This is really for people new to living in France or who are struggling to integrate into French life, or are feeling isolated so the rest of you, please forgive me if it’s not appropriate to you.

We’ve become increasingly aware over the years that Anglophones, especially retired ones, can have difficulty in integrating into their local village/town society. We’ve come to the conclusion that some of this is because they are not aware of the importance of Associations in French social life. They don’t exist in the UK in the kind of form they are in France and hence either people don’t know about them or they are wary of them, not knowing what they are or how they function.

Associations, for those who don’t know, are an important structure in France and are supported by the local Mairie, to a greater or lesser extent depending on the Mairie. They are created to provide facilities/activities/interest groups of various sorts and have official recognition. In the case of our commune, the Mairie actively supports them to the point of giving grants to get them going.

Younger people moving to France, especially with children, are likely to be very aware of Associations, since these are the organisations that provide after school activities for children, mainly, but not entirely, sports-based in my experience so far.

However, there are usually lots of ones covering activities for adults, from former combattants groups, through support of the elderly, to photographic clubs, dance groups, choirs…you name it! They are all the sorts of things that exist in other countries but not all under one structure umbrella (so easy to find out what exists). It is also fairly straightforward to create one if your interests aren’t covered. The Mairie will support/ publicise it.

What prompted this post is that we had a stand for our French/English conversation group a week ago in our village Forum des Associations and yesterday at the local bigger town. Despite the fact that there are, apparently 100 British citizens in the village and this was the time when all Associations got together in the sports centres to show off their wares, I spotted not one Brit in the village one apart for the members of our little group who came to help on the stand. The same happened in the bigger one yesterday. We found one Australian who made it clear he wasn’t interested in us - fair enough - and that was it.

Just to say that, if you are new in France or not-so-new but haven’t been really aware of Associations, why not go to your local Mairie and ask for a list? Ours produces a nice booklet with descriptions and contact details in but I haven’t so far come across a Mairie that doesn’t have at least a list!

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What a great post @AngelaR , and so appropriate and not just for the new to France but also for the new to singular old age in France.

As you know, when I lost Fran I also lost a great daily network of visitors to look after her but who also interacted with me in conversation and jokes and even singing with a couple of them. She died at 2.45 on a Sunday morning and instantly, the visits stopped. Even that morning, nobody came, and nobody since. From 25 per week to zero in one fell swoop.

This partly explains my concern and support for Christine, one of the English ones who now has cancer, but I do worry, I’m sure without reason, that my interest is being misinterpreted. She is, at 65, very attractive, but I know her French husband and we are friends too so there is no way I would undermine that friendship.

You mention Ancien Combattants. This may be a local or regional thing but, although myself and a recently retired RAF officer were welcomed and lauded with open arms by the then leader of the local AC, a request by the 2 of us to join was denied, presumably because of our not serving in the French forces. I must say that this decision did not come from the local organistion, their head here was very upset about it, but from the centre.

But apart from that we, Fran and I, were welcomed everywhere. This came to an end several years ago due to Fran’s illness.

So now, I suspect that I have bouts of depression and loneliness, I say suspect because it isn’t obvious. Although I thought, when I no longer had to be here for visitors, I would be off early enough in the day to catch my elderly French friends in the coffee shops, and to an extent I have, but at the same time I have grown lax and only go now if it is one of my 2 shopping days. I have the dogs of course and I walk them everyday, and they help.

Before Fran’s illness we used to go to the local The Dansants, and then to those of other villages a little further afield. I am not a great dancer so we would shuffle around apart from the up tempo ones where we proved our expert jiving technique, but jiving is personal, I can’t do it with everyone but with both my wives there was no holding back. So I did intend to start again by myself but haven’t plucked up the courage yet.

There is also something called Jeunesse d’Antan, The Young of Yesteryear or Le Club du Troisieme Age, and I have been promising myself to check them out. But haven’t yet.

So, thank you for your post, it may well be the catalyst to get me off my bum watching endless Netflix and YT rubbish. I shall be avidly reading all the posters outside the Mairie and in the shop windows tomorrow. :smiley:

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Thank you for your post @David_Spardo . You are obviously very aware of your local Associations and have engaged with them in the past, but it does show that, when circumstances change we perhaps need to look again at what might be appropriate now.

It’s incredibly early days for you without Fran so I imagine it will take a lot of time (and determination) to get back gradually into a new sort of social activity. Obviously I don’t know about dancing in your area, but our Mairie has an Association that teaches, sort-of, dance in various forms and what I’m impressed by are the number of dances of the line-dance form, that are done without partners so there are quite a few people on their own who engage with that.

Does your Mairie have a list of Associations? Here they keep changing where people start new ones, so a list of what is current might be handy. Our maire-adjoint responsible for “cohesion sociale” is very active so if you have one of those it might be worth asking him/her too.

I have a couple of widowed friends in the village and they have found enormous support and fun in the various groups they’re involved in, so fingers crossed you’ll find things that work for you :crossed_fingers: Do let us know how you get on with this! When horrible things happen, it’s often a big effort not to close down the hatches but it’s usually worth it in my experience so far (not being a naturally sociable person!)

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At every entrance to this commune currently there are big boards advertising the annual Forum des Associations where so many activities of everything you can imagine will be having a table to answer and sign up new adherents. You don’t have to be fluent in french to join any of them, just show willing and participate. My old commune used to charge €20/year and there is usually no limit to the activities you can sign up to.

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Absolutely! Our Forums were yesterday and the week before and we also went to another one, which sounds a bit more like your area’s arrangement. With this one you pay a one-off fee of 8 euros to the commune and then each association charges according to its needs eg for equipment or whatever.

Our more local Associations charge individually as needed with no overall fee to the commune so I assume each commune has its own variants.

Also, for most of them, you can join any time during the year, it’s just that it’s easier when they’re all together. Most of ours give a couple of free sessions at the beginning to see whether you like them or not, so you don’t have to sign up straight away.

I agree with you @shiba that you don’t have to be fluent in French - not by a VERY long way - but meeting every week with French people in this sort of environment helps the language skills enormously.

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Yes, I must admit I have not joined anything down here yet as I have been so busy with the house, getting a garden established andhelping with grandchildren. In my old commune I belonged to the village walkers and just recently was very sad to see my old walking companion had died and a week later, her husband - we had some laughs and she unfortunately suffered with wind and would fart whilst we walked not flinching, but I had to turn and have a guffaw or two.

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Great advice, @AngelaR !

We’ve just missed our Forum des Associations but we’ll be at next year’s.

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You can sign up any time, just go along when the activity is in session, thats what we used to do when we missed the main assembly.

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totally agree with @shiba there. We’ve joined things part way through the year with no problems at all (apart from the fact that the last one was a dance class and we each have two left feet and had to try to catch up but we got adopted as heir onlt Brits and nursed through…)

Does your Mairie have a list of Associatins you could peruse, @Porridge ?

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Hey, it has an app!!!

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My goodness, you’re lucky there @Porridge ! Our Mairie has the downloadable booklet on its website but quite a lot of other, reasonably big towns, have nothing on line at all. It’s call-in-and-ask or nothing :roll_eyes:

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I suspect it’s the pet project of someone at the Mairie :slight_smile: which I’m very happy about

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The only useful info I gained this morning was that Jeunesse d’Antan next meets towards the end of this month. I slightly know the secretary so perhaps the direct approach is best or, as suggested, the Mairie.

I did see one poster the other day about a coach trip including lunch to Arcachon, at an eye watering price. Not exactly what I am looking for.

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A very good post Angela. The fact that we were members of a local association stood us in good stead when we applied for naturalisation. In those days it was rather easier though. No language exam ! Our interviewer in the préfecture was interested to know what it was all about. And that gave her an opportunity to evaluate our language capabilities., which at that time were not brilliant, but not bad. I now belong to two associations and we have got to know more people through participating in various ways.

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Another thumbs-up from me for Angela’s post and advice.

Funnily enough I have always suspected joining the local associations would be an important way to get to know people should we ever make a permanent move.

But essentially none of the ones in the village hold much interest -as an atheist “Friends of the Chapel” might be a bit of a stretch, I’m not an ancient combattant, I’m too old to play football (and even were I younger I am useless at and have little interest in the game), the “Friendship Club” might be a possibility but card and board games aren’t really me either. I suspect I’m a bit old for the Youth Club, I don’t play an instrument so can’t join the Brass Band (and my musical ability rivals my ability to play football) - and so on.

Que faire?

Do villages generally mind people from further afoot joining, should any of the adjacent villages have something of interest.

And yes - before anyone points out that I’m a boring fart and that’s the main problem I totally agree - but my interests, such as they are (IT, computing, electronics and electronics repair, heavy metal, cars - a bit) so not make for much socialisation.

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Maybe the answer is to start one up!

Help for older people using IT combined with a sort of free repair shop? Even if your French wasn’t up to it, there might be other residents with a similar interest?

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Maybe not a bad idea - though any permanent move is still many years away. My retirement is within the current decade, but only just!

However I’d be a little concerned it could transgress a “no work” visa.

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Everything I’ve seen says you can’t undertake paid work, whereas this would contribute to the life of the commune.

I imagine @JaneJones will know chapter and verse (though whether an atheist would trust that … :rofl: )

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That is generally fine - the only exception I’ve found is our old-folks club which already has 100 members and can’t cope with any more! My partner goes to an art class in the next biggest town and lots of people go to neighbouring places for e.g. their community choirs. Our conversation group attracts people from places up to about 45 minutes away.