French Windows

When Sunday trading was debated in the British parliament in 1993 one of the arguments was that we must ‘get in line with Europe’. Anyone who has lived on the continent will know how blatantly untrue this appeal was. Fortunately, the late Ray Powell MP fought against the proposals. The local boulangerie will be open but everything else is closed. Sunday in France is still considered as a family day. Driving through villages on a Sunday could make you believe that they are uninhabited – they are so quiet. People often visit their parents or grandparents and have a meal with their wider family. One of my students agreed to organize a ‘cousinade’. It was a word I had never come across. She was inviting all her cousins to a weekend get-together. I think that is an excellent idea and one that British people could copy.

You don’t have to speak to someone for long before you are being asked what your star sign is. Astrology, palm reading, tarot cards are part of French culture. Fliers are put into your letterbox advertising clairvoyants and people phone offering to tell you your future. It is a big business. Call centres in North Africa try to get people hooked by telling them what they want to hear while charging premium rates for the service. Interestingly, although black cats are considered as goods symbols that will bring luck in the UK, they are seems representatives of the Devil in France!

When we first arrived, we used the hypermarket 10 minutes from our house. At every visit we were asked if we had a ‘carte de fidelité’ so eventually we signed up for one. Practically all of our shopping was done there. Suddenly, we realized that all of our points had disappeared. When we asked, we found that if you don’t exchange them for a free gift you lose them at the end of the year! It’s written in the small print, ‘Le compte est valable jusqu’au 31 décembre de l’année en cours; tout compte non débité à cette date est perdu par le client’. It’s a really mean policy because Christmas is traditionally a time of heavy spending, then comes a week of skiing, and ‘hey presto’ all your points are taken back!The next year, I was determined to get a free gift. After 25 years of marriage our teaspoons had progressively disappeared from our cutlery drawer. I needed 350 points to get six new ones. I even went and bought things with double points just to get to the total. The big day came. I went to Customer Service and asked for the gift I had set my heart on. “Sorry there are none left”. I was not expecting that! “Won’t you be getting some more in stock?” I asked. “No, once the things on display in the cabinet are gone, that’s it.” For my 350 points, I could have a teddy bear, a flannel for a baby or some scented wooden discs to keep away moths. As I had no toddler, baby, nor moths I was at a loss. In the end, I found a bottle of organic red wine was all that I could have – to drown my sorrows with, I suppose! Reading the small print is vital to life in France. I was astonished to find that not only does a small French supermarket chain take back your points but also the biggest international supermarket does as well. I was not expecting that!

Don’t expect to find a large range of British or European goods and brands in French supermarkets. In one small corner shop in the UK, I could buy cheeses from 11 different countries. In France 95% of the produce is French. You will have to search hard for a piece of Cheddar or a Californian wine. Jordan’s cereals seem to have found a niche. Don’t expect to find fruits and vegetables out of season. ‘Cash back’ doesn’t exist, and woe betide you if you dare to buy 11 items and take them through a ‘10 item only’ till. Keep your till receipt and learn to argue until you get receive a refund on faulty goods.

 Every day 29 people commit suicide, 10,400 a year, twice as many as in the UK and three times the rate of Spain and Italy. Failed suicides number 200,000. Suicide prevention schemes were first put in place in the UK in 1950, but it wasn’t until 2000 that France took active measures to reduce this level of deaths. Farmers seem to be the worst hit in both countries. In the UK one farmer a week decides to end his own life while in France it is one every day according to official figures.  Someone put up white crosses in his village centre to remember French farmers who had taken their own life in the past year and erected 600 memorials. For French Farmers suicide is the third in line as a reason for death behind cancer and heart disease. Farmers, the majority being males, are 20% more likely to commit suicide than the rest of the population.

If we ask why there are so many desperate people, it is hard to find one answer. People cite the fact that many work for big nationalized companies for life. Times change and new skills are required, which threaten the older workers. In the UK it is far easier to change your job if you don’t like it anymore. In France, if you are ‘lucky’ enough to get a government job, or a rare CDI (permanent contract) then you would be stupid to leave that job with all of its perks and a good pension.  Also people need a CDI in order to get a mortgage, rent an apartment or a loan for a car for example. However, if it is boring, not fulfilling or your colleagues bully you (12% of people say they have been bullied at work), do you risk leaving, when unemployment is at 24%, or stay and get more and more depressed and possibly suicidal?

Britain used to supply Europe with sugar from their sugarcane plantations in the West Indies. However, we blockaded French ports during the Napoleonic wars. By 1806 sugar was in short supply in France. Five years later Napoleon was shown loaves of sugar made from sugar beet. He ordered that several thousands of hectares be planted with this root crop and he paid to establish processing factories. By 1850 there were many sugar beet factories in North-East France and sugar was no longer just for the rich but was affordable to all. Today it is still seen as patriotic to use white sugar from beat in preference to brown cane sugar. Many people work in the industry and consumption is encouraged by giving each employee 120kg of free sugar each year. If they are married, they get another 10 kilos, and 10 kilos more for each child! A speciality of the north of France is ‘tarte au sucre’. Interestingly several of the recipes I looked at called for ‘cassonade’, which is demerara type of brown sugar. However, ‘brown’ sugar can be made from white sugar crystals by coating them in a thin layer of molasses. To check whether your brown sugar is the real thing, dip a spoonful in some hot water. If the colour disappears, then it is merely brown-coated white sugar. Sugar cubes come in different sizes. The larger ones are marked ‘4’. It is more polite to buy smaller ones for your guests. Some people might not want a large amount of sweetener and would like to have only half a cube, however that would mean that they must crack it in half on your table which is a messy business! Many drinks like mint tea and coffee from vending machines come ready sweetened even if you push the ‘No Sugar’ option.

A political commentator (Sirot) has observed that in other Northern European countries, strikes tend to follow failed negotiations. In France, strike action precedes negotiations and continues while they are taking place. (see UNIONS).

When we first arrived in France, we were constantly followed around shops by strange men. These solitary men in suits were suspicious. They did not carry shopping baskets like normal shoppers but lurked in the shadows sometimes fingering goods and pretending they were considering whether to buy something. I used to keep my watchful eye on them, ready to alert the store if I saw something suspect. Then the penny dropped that they were store detectives keeping an eye on us strangers speaking in unknown tongues. Even small businesses employ them. If you take a bag of shopping into a store you are expected to leave it by the till so you cannot slip something else inside your bag. I rebel against this especially when I have my work briefcase with me. If anyone stole it from an unwatched till, I would lose lots of things that cannot be replaced. Often in the smaller supermarkets there is no one at the till until you come to pay. I wonder what would happen if my goods were stolen, would I be reimbursed? In a small supermarket a store detective waited for me outside and wanted to see what was in my shopping bag, but I had the receipt from the previous shop, so I was OK. Once an English boy on a school exchange decided to be clever and to shoplift something to impress his mates. He was seen and prevented from leaving the store. The head teacher of the exchange school was not happy to be telephoned and to have to come and fetch him in ‘loco parentis’. The reputation of the English school was sullied. The boy narrowly escaped a night in the cells.

Everyone, young and old seems to have a sport that they practise. When I had to have a medical for a job, I was asked if I practised any sport. I said that I rode my bike! When I repeated the conversation at home it received an, ‘Oh, mother!’ from our then, teenage daughter. Sports are taken very seriously. You must wear the right gear and try to be the best at it. Playing sport for the fun of it doesn’t seem to be in the French psyche.

In the UK being a vegetarian, vegan or wanting gluten free foods is now catered for in most restaurants. France has passed a law that says that restaurants must provide a list of allergens. We were encouraged to see that Dominos Pizzas now offer a gluten free option in the UK, nevertheless their French branches do not do so at the time of writing. It is very difficult to find information on restaurant websites too. I once went to eat in an up-market restaurant and asked if they had any ‘plats sans gluten’. The waiter was nonplussed and blurted out, ‘the mashed potato has no gluten’ and left! Was I supposed to order mashed potato for starter, mashed potato for the main course and mashed potato for dessert? At one of my classes, students wanted to look at the language of recipes and cooking. I took along a recipe for Carrot, Leek and Potato Pie, which is one of my husband’s favourites. One lady read it and asked, “Where is the meat?” I said that it was vegetarian and delicious. She told us that her husband would have asked the same question if she served something like that at home. A meal is not a meal without meat in France!