I’ve decided Thursdays will be my days to write about our France preparations and share anything practical we’ve learned. Updates this week: We bought our plane tickets — whoo hoo! And we’ve been piling up a stack of books about France and French culture.
One thing I’ve read is that snacking is not really done in France, and that meals are a bigger deal than they are here — at some fast-food restaurants there are even cloth napkins! Also, apparently it’s custom to eat with a knife in your right hand and a fork in your left. I tried it tonight and I need practice. : )
photo via The Nature of Order
Plane Tickets:
We were terrified when we saw how much tickets were on the airline sites and even at places like Orbitz and Travelocity (remember, we have to multiply everything by 8 people). But then we tried Kayak.com. From what I can tell, they don’t actually sell tickets, but they showed us where to find the bargain prices. We ended up finding tickets for a flight on Air Canada and bought them through a site called Airfare.com. I feel great about the price we paid and I’m excited to fly Air Canada. I’ve never flown with them before, but they were voted Best Airline in North America, so I expect great things.
We will by flying from Denver to Montreal, then overnight from Montreal to Paris. We leave on February 1st.
Another note: we bought one-way tickets, but we noticed that for some flights/dates roundtrip tickets were cheaper than one way options. So in some cases, it might be wise to buy a roundtrip ticket and then just not use the return flight.
Books About France:
All I wanted for Christmas was books about France and Ben Blair happily obliged. He ordered a bunch of books to include in our France Kits and we have been devouring them. Much of what we found is focused on Paris — especially the kid options — which is fine with me. I adore Paris! I’ll list what we have so far, but I hope you’ll add any other titles you’d recommend in the comments.
Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong
This is where I read about how eating is viewed in France. Also in this book: Did you know that stores in France can only hold sales/markdowns twice a year at designated times? It’s a 300 year old tradition that’s run by the police. So interesting!
The Discovery of France
Graham Robb biked around the entire country and researched as he went. I haven’t started this one yet, but I can’t wait.
Parisians
This is also by Graham Robb. What a great writer! This volume is full of historical short stories about Paris. I love it.
DK France – Eyewitness Travel Guides
This is a practical travel guide. It’s packed with so much information. Fun to browse.
Daytrips France
This is another practical one. It describes 48 things places you can visit within a day’s travel from Paris. Makes me want to start exploring asap.
A Year in Provence
My brother-in-law, Mark, gave us this as soon as he heard we were thinking about moving. It will make you want to buy a house in the South of France.
This is Paris
I’ve posted about these wonderful books by M. Lasek before and was glad to have an excuse to add the Paris one to our collection.
Adele & Simon
This was recommended by several readers and I can see why. It’s so charming! Adele and Simon spend the afternoon touring around Paris after school and silly Simon drops something everywhere they go.
Paris Hide-and-Seek
Ben Blair bought this one for the kids when he visited our home-to-be in France a few weeks ago. Adorable. It’s like a Where’s Waldo but the little characters are hiding all around the city. I could only find a link to this on the UK Amazon site.
What else would you recommend? I especially love books that talk about manners and culture.
Having grownup in France, hence the name Genevieve, I love hearing what stands out to americans when visiting France. Embrace the differences and have fun!
I was also going to recommend “Me talk pretty some day” if you want to laugh. As for snacking the French do that well. For school age children, it’s common to have a mi morning one as well as after coming home from school, a chocolate croissant was my snack of choice :-)
oh wow! Gabrielle Congrats, i’ve been away from the computer for a long time (up heavel in the house but hopefully things are back on track now) especially since we are talking about going to france at the end of the year. We are just going for 6 to 8 weeks though – I was really quiet terrified of organising things but having read your story I’m getting really excited (thanks). If you can do it with 8 i could probably do it too ( we have 4 kids, one on the way and my mother is coming too)… Maybe we could come visit my uncle lives in Bayeaux not far .. we are trying to figure out a good way to house us while we explore France and hopefully little countries on the side. Car hire or train? what do you think?
I highly recommend: “Savoir Flair” and “French or Foe?”, both by Polly Platt, an expat who runs her own cultural acquisition business for anglophones. Also a great resource: “Culture Shock! France” provides practical insight into the culture and adjusting to it. There are also resources out there specifically for introducing children to new cultures. Even though it’s France, it is very different than the U.S. and as far as your children go, the education system is VERY, VERY different. How exciting! Best of luck to you and your family.
BTW- If you find that you have time to blog about the bureaucracy of moving to France, I would so much love to know which Visas you and your husband applied for. I have a Masters in French and my husband and I have been contemplating a move there as well, but have found just getting beyond the initial paperwork, should he keep his U.S. job, a bit daunting/confusing.
Kudos to you for making this happen! I love “Paris to the Moon” , “A Moveable Feast” and “Me Talk Pretty One Day”. “Paris, I Love You” is a great movie, and so is “A Little Romance”. That’s it off the top of my head, but there are so many choices! My mom and her family lived in Paris for 9 years, so I’ve grown up dreaming about “the city of lights”. I was able to do a study abroad in Paris and Nice years ago, and have also lived in Lille and Nancy, but I’d love to go back and live in France again!
I know you’re already here but if you haven’t already, read “Almost French” – it’s a riotously funny tale and so true! Although your situation is a bit different, given that you’re an American family and not a Franco-American one, I think you could still find the anecdotes amusing!
I will add another voice to the chorus for Paris to the Moon (*love that book*) — but Even better, though likely hard to find as it has long been out of print, is Houseboat on the Siene (author William Wharton, I think). It was the first in my personal ‘love affair with france’ series.
One of my favorite children’s books when I was a child and still today is Linnea in Monet’s Garden by Cristina Bjork. In this story, Linnea travels to Paris with her friend Mr. Bloom and visits Monet’s garden. You have hit on two of my other favorite books set in France — This is Paris by Sasek and Adele & Simon by McClintock. (Sasek is misspelled above.) Lovely list. I hope you’re enjoying an amazing adventure with your family!
Here is a list of wonderful picture books set in Europe:
http://delightfulchildrensbooks.com/2011/04/17/europe/
I hope your family enjoys your stay! France is incredible.
It’s going to sound stupid (and perhaps lately noted as I just stumbled upon this blog), but many of the etiquette notes you made are true in Canada as well. If you would ever like to practice your French upon return, we’d love to have you in Montreal! :)