10 things - I Love about France
In no particular order
1) The food - too easy that one. Back 'home' we don't have Rillettes, Cassoulet, Raclette, Tartiflette and Pain Bagnat .. the first few comfort foods that come to mind .. squillions of times much better than baked beans on toast.
2) The drink - Not just wine, but also the beer. There's a brewing tradition in Flandres which produces some of the best beers i've ever tasted. The Real Ale Society would go bonkers over some of the stuff. Belgium has a huge influence here - Leffe (my all time fave), Affligem (very nice too), Hoegarden .. dark beers too : C'hti & Jenlain .. the abuse of alchohol is bad for the health ;@)
3) French women - hot stuff ... 'Nuff said
4) The architecture - Another one that's too easy. In England every thing pretty much dates back to the Georgian and Victorian periods and so is very 'square', almost lego like. Here it's just, pffft, fantasy gone wild on a riot. Angels all over the place, little intricate details here and there, placed almost unobtrusively. Walk around looking at your shoes and you'll miss all of it.
5) Driving - I love driving. On the motorway, going down south at night. there's nobody on the roads. Driving flat out, with your favorite C.D's all lined up in the rack, trying to arrive in the Med before dawn .... getting there for sunrise ... unbeatable.
6) The People - Yes. It's true, french people really are O.K. They breathe, eat, take a dump like the rest of us. They are very generous and are very willing to help ... as long as you make an effort to speak the lingo.
7) 14th of July - The parade on the Champs Elysées. I'm no militarist by any means (although i came this close to joining the R.A.F). It's a great spectacle. It beats the Trooping of the colour hands down .. shame we've still got ChiChi though ..
8) The countryside - If i left home right now, in one direction i can hit farmland, rural areas within 10 minutes. redneck country (s'cuse me). If i drive for an hour, i hit desolate plains. When i drive south (again) we see huge mountains surging up in the distance. It's this continual change of scenery and paysage that i absolutely go nuts about.
9) The diversity - Of the accents and cultures; Breton, Basque, Mediteranean .. there are so many cultural identities, each one sadly seeming to be more and more lost in the miasma of a more 'normalised' and 'standardised' France.
10) la joie de vivre
1) The food - too easy that one. Back 'home' we don't have Rillettes, Cassoulet, Raclette, Tartiflette and Pain Bagnat .. the first few comfort foods that come to mind .. squillions of times much better than baked beans on toast.
2) The drink - Not just wine, but also the beer. There's a brewing tradition in Flandres which produces some of the best beers i've ever tasted. The Real Ale Society would go bonkers over some of the stuff. Belgium has a huge influence here - Leffe (my all time fave), Affligem (very nice too), Hoegarden .. dark beers too : C'hti & Jenlain .. the abuse of alchohol is bad for the health ;@)
3) French women - hot stuff ... 'Nuff said
4) The architecture - Another one that's too easy. In England every thing pretty much dates back to the Georgian and Victorian periods and so is very 'square', almost lego like. Here it's just, pffft, fantasy gone wild on a riot. Angels all over the place, little intricate details here and there, placed almost unobtrusively. Walk around looking at your shoes and you'll miss all of it.
5) Driving - I love driving. On the motorway, going down south at night. there's nobody on the roads. Driving flat out, with your favorite C.D's all lined up in the rack, trying to arrive in the Med before dawn .... getting there for sunrise ... unbeatable.
6) The People - Yes. It's true, french people really are O.K. They breathe, eat, take a dump like the rest of us. They are very generous and are very willing to help ... as long as you make an effort to speak the lingo.
7) 14th of July - The parade on the Champs Elysées. I'm no militarist by any means (although i came this close to joining the R.A.F). It's a great spectacle. It beats the Trooping of the colour hands down .. shame we've still got ChiChi though ..
8) The countryside - If i left home right now, in one direction i can hit farmland, rural areas within 10 minutes. redneck country (s'cuse me). If i drive for an hour, i hit desolate plains. When i drive south (again) we see huge mountains surging up in the distance. It's this continual change of scenery and paysage that i absolutely go nuts about.
9) The diversity - Of the accents and cultures; Breton, Basque, Mediteranean .. there are so many cultural identities, each one sadly seeming to be more and more lost in the miasma of a more 'normalised' and 'standardised' France.
10) la joie de vivre
posted by Damiel | 12:30 AM
5 Comments:
you forgot the amusement factor of the natives - you have to admit that they are vey very funny - even if they don't always mean to be. chirac just has to open his mouth and can't stop laughing
Bwouahahha - we'll all be making that sound when Sarko gets in.
:p
So,
When do you and Idole come to enjoy the #1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10 then ?
PS : it's right to say that Chirac has a huge comical talent :-))
Vive la France, vive la République
well .. i'd say vivre le red wine and the good bouffe especially
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