Ahh, well.
The rural French in Brittany are a bit nervous because they think we are all beer-swilling wreckers who will do mad renovations and violate land boundaries while having noisy drunken parties. But when you speak to them a few times they go ‘Phew, these English are a bit mad but harmless!’.
It seems like in the 80s or some long ago time, there was a wave of naughty Brits, so people are a little bit reticent, but they are nice natured people, the rural Bretons, and very forgiving. What matters is the people, it seems, and if the Brits are nice and neighbourly, the French can be too. My neighbours are really nice, but there has been a history if Brits here in the impasse for decades; well-behaved Brits. The other English in the village are the same as me, they integrate but are happy to spend time with other English people.
Integrating is an interesting one, there are some Brits who have been here for decades who take advantage of the big English community and English-speaking services to avoid interaction with the French altogether, and live in their little isolated castles, and have tendency to think that they are lords and it is easier for them not to integrate, and there are many who despite the expat community, integrate really well, not all Brits like the expat community, some prefer the French and to speak French, and those who prefer the French or a mixture, seem to have a happier life, less restricted.
I would say that there are too many non-integrated and non-French speaking Brits in the region, and the shop people tend to assume that you won’t speak French if you are English, so they try their English but that can be a temptation to me and others to not speak French, which I resist and politely speak in French.
I like a mixture of the cultures, I love Fest Noz and French events, I love the French outlook on life, I am not here to just be with British people and speak English and to turn parts of France into a little England, but to integrate and live life. I have English friends and French friends. But my French still needs some work, however, I will never be one to speak loudly in English to the French.
I saw a couple in a supermarket in Normandy last year, they approached the manager and said ‘Have you got any waste bread for our chickens’ loudly in English. He shook his head in confusion, and they walked off saying ‘He probably didn’t understand us’. All the English families I worked for in Normandy spoke good French, and there was a lovely bi-lingual church, hymns and prayers, sermons and talks in French and English. Wonderful.