France is much bigger than England, yet the coast is just 20 miles away, if you live in Kent. Our Gallic friends have a culture that’s far more focused on walking and good food (although it also produces some of the most cruel foods on earth (pate de foie gras, for instance which is still legal to sell in England, although illegal to produce). But overall, there’s lots to love including the beautiful language. Here are inspirational resources to check out:
Putumayo is a world music label, and offers lovely downloadable albums from the best compilations of artists. Check out their vintage French songs (once you discover this label, you’ll likely not listen to much else!)
French women are renowned for looking after their skin, and so why not do what they do and use what they use? Although in England we have lots of expensive French beauty brands, in fact French women tend to look good because they love themselves, practice self-care, and drink lots of water. They also spend more on good beauty brands, and use less of them.
Balade en Provence is a lovely company that makes beautiful bars and solid night creams, sold with cheap fast chipping. Everything is vegan and free from palm oil, in zero waste packaging. Avoid aromatherapy essential oils for pregnancy/nursing (and medical conditions like epilepsy and asthma. Avoid rosemary & citrus oils for high blood pressure. Avoid shea butter for latex allergies.
Likewise, people are often mystified why ‘French women don’t get fat’. But it’s common sense. French women eat three proper meals a day (no snacks), drink lots of water, only drink wine with meals and tend to walk everywhere. They don’t subscribe to expensive sweaty gyms, and they only have the odd French fries or muffin (one woman in London said she was appalled that women here eat muffins the size of New York City).
It also has to be said there is a little (possibly sexist) attitude in France. Women believe they should look good not just for themselves, but for their man (or woman). So whereas here the media focuses on ‘eating what you want because you love yourself’ (even if it gives you a coronary), in France, women keep slim because they take pride in their figures and practice more self-discipline than ‘all-you-can-eat’ cultures in the UK and USA. Not to say whether this is right or wrong but that’s the French culture, and likely to stay so.
Most children at school learn French as their first language. But did you know that experts say this is one of the worst languages for a child to learn at a young age (if not a mother tongue) because it’s actually very difficult? People often wonder why people in England are so rubbish at languages. It may because schools are obsessed with teaching children the difficult languages like French, German and Mandarin Chinese. In fact, the easiest language for an English child to learn is Norwegian, due to similar verbs and sentence structures.
Music Break: Le Chant Des Sirènes
One thing the French do well is write songs. Our boy bands nearly always have nothing on the talented singer/songwriters abroad. This band (now disbanded) was founded by two friends who went on the equivalent of our talent shows (like ‘The Voice’) and went on to have several hits – here’s one of them. Very nice. Tres-bien!
