Today, the hunting season is starting. It is a big thing in rural France, and hunters have been preparing this opening day for weeks. It also means you may want to wear bright colours when you go for a walk, and you need to talk loudly.
The father of a little girl in Jean-Baptiste’s class loves hunting and was talking about it two weeks ago. Who knows, we may get to eat some game in the coming weeks?
French people are very unhappy about the government’s changes to retirement age. They went on strike just over two weeks ago, and are calling for more demonstrations today. This time, the school is closed, so Jean-Baptiste is staying with us.
On Sunday afternoon, we went for a walk by the River Trieux which flows near our home.
Well, I am not preaching, nor leading the service, so that’s one thing less to do, but I will be leading the Bible study in Rostrenen on Friday afternoon. Rostrenen is a town 45km south of Guingamp, where there is no Evangelical witness. There is a Bible study there once a month in the house f one of our members. That will keep me busy. But tomorrow will be off, so I’ll get started on Thursday.
In her book “Watching the English”, Kate Fox describes British greeting protocol in the following way:
As it is, our introductions and greetings tend to be uncomfortable, clumsy and inelegant. Among established friends, there is less awkwardness, although we are often still not quite sure what to do with our hands, or whether to hug or kiss.
We often feel the same here. French people are usually less awkward, and know what to do whether shake hands or kiss. Men shake hands with men, give la bise to ladies (when they know them already of course). Ladies give la bise to each other, and will shake a man’s hand if it is the first time they meet. Of course their are exceptions, and many subtleties. You have to be a native to know them all.
The best way to know what to do is to follow the flow and to let the others take the initiative.
Today, Jean-Baptiste was invited to have a snack at a friend’s house after school. We call this snack “goûter”. We were invited to come along. So, we arrived. I shook the husband’s hand, gave la bise to the mum (I hesitated at first, but we’ve met a couple of times already, and she clearly was going to). Esther gave la bise to both. Everything was fine. The husband left for work, so again, we shook hands and Esther gave la bise.
Everything was going well until we had to leave. What were we supposed to do? Do la bise, or just say thank you and go? The two little girls came to do la bise. But what about the mum? We opted for the very British, awkward kind of greeting, not knowing too much what to do. I suppose we should have done la bise, but who knows?
That’s what happen when you adapt to a new culture, learning new ways of doing things. The most embarrassing is that I am a Frenchman, and that I should know.