Sundays in France

Bonjour tout le monde!

Today hasn't been a particularly exciting day of adventures, but just a regular old Sunday (full of laundry, cleaning, and getting ready for the week ahead). However, I thought I'd comment on a few interesting French Sunday habits... (and show you a picture of the laundry-carrying contraption I've created. It's quite nice not to have to lug laundry down the street on my shoulder, but I still haven't worked out how best to get this thing up and down my 5 flights of stairs...).

In the United States, if you are up early on a Sunday, you are probably going to church, or at least you see cars of people dressed up on their way to church. In France, although the majority of people would categorize themselves as Catholic (if anything), most people do not attend Church every Sunday, and usually just on major holidays. (There is also a large population of North Africans and Turkish in this area who are Muslim.) Instead, on Sunday mornings, there are tons of people up, bright and early, for the open-air markets located around the city. There is one (well, at least one that I know of) in Saint-Priest on Sunday mornings, there are huge "creation" markets along one of the quais or riverbanks in Lyon (I'm guessing kind of like a craft-fair, but with more professional looking crafts), and even larger open-air markets in La Croix-Rousse part of the Lyon. Everyone you see is carrying a big bag full of fresh produce and a baguette (or 2 or 3) under their arm.

This is probably because later in the day, the French have large Sunday meals. Some families continue the very French tradition of having 7 course meals, others I'm sure are a little less traditional. I have yet to experience this first hand, but hopefully I'll be invited some day to the more traditional Sunday feast by one of my new French pallies.

Between the big French meals and the mornings at the markets, you often see families going for bike rides, old men playing the bocci-ball like game boules, and hear screams from the local bars (or even from the apartments below mine) with people watching a football match (soccer games).

This is a little off the topic, but I've also decided that the French love Americans (or at least like us a whole lot more than we think they do). Maybe I've had such a positive experience because I genuinely try to speak, dress, and act French while I'm here... but there are always moments when I have to fess up to being American, and I always get the "Oh really!... I know so-and-so who is from Las Vegas... or my son-in-law is in New York studying finance... or I've always wanted to visit America... or I know some English" kind of response.

For example, today when I was at the laundromat, the woman who must own the shop asked me if I had set the temperature on the machine before inserting my money. Of course, I kind of looked at her funny while I was processing all the laundromat vocabulary in French, and so she looked at me like I was an idiot. I said, I'm sorry, I'm American, so I'm not sure I understand. And she immediately said, "Oh really! Well, my nephew just married a woman from Pittsburgh. I know some English. Let me try to explain." We got through with the washing machine conversation and she asked the particulars of why I am here. Everyone always asks, "Are you studying here?" And I respond, that no, I'm an English Assistant, which amazingly needs no further explanation. They ask how long I'm here for, if I'm here alone, do I teach younger children, etc. This woman asked all those questions and asked for my email address to give to her new American niece-in-law (named Liz), I guess so that we can be fellow-American-in-France kind of friends. The woman also told me that her husband owns the bar right next door and that she's often in their helping out, so if I ever needed anything I could come find her, or at the very least go in to swap bills out for change. Chouette!

Anywho- I hope you've enjoyed this little culture segment:) I'm off to spend the rest of the day making my own personal French feast (an omelet), video chatting with the fam, and getting ready for my first real day of being in a French elementary school:)

Stay tuned and reste cool:)