Cebuana in France : February 2014

Sorry, it's been a while since my last entry. So much to do, so little time. I feel bad about not being able to write often however there are only twenty-four hours in a day and sometimes they just seem not to be enough. After our moving from Martinique around the second quarter of last year we haven't stopped having "things to do". When we got here in the metropolis we had to settle down and our flat badly needed some important renovations. Now we're settled and are almost done with the renovations so we got a little time to breathe and some time for me to write too!

I have been living in France since 2012 but we were in Martinique (a french island in the Caribbean) so it was a different experience. In this post I will be talking about living in a part of France in Europe, the France that most people know.

I saw a glimpse of the metropolis when I arrived in 2012. Just a glimpse because the next day after our arrival (I arrived in France with my husband) we had to take another flight to the Caribbean. This time it's a bit more than a glimpse. We landed in Paris on a hot summer day of August. My heavy heart from leaving our island paradise was lifted when I saw the "civilization" and the new things in it. We stayed on vacation for a little over a week in Senlis at my brother-in-law's flat, not so far from Paris. I loved the laid back environment of Senlis and Chantilly (the city next to Senlis) but I also loved the excitement when we visited Paris.

After the quick vacation, it's back to reality for us; we hit the road again for a long way to Brest, a city located in the northwestern part of France. This is wear my husband comes from and this is where our flat is, this is yet again another "home".

In Europe, the first thing that someone from a tropical place would find weird would most probably be seeing the sun at night during summer. Yes, for days I felt disoriented with time, it takes a while to get used to bright nights. After being lucky to have had a transition in Martinique after leaving the Philippines I got another luck with the seasonal transition too. We arrived on a summer so I was able to gradually feel the temperature as the seasons change. Since it's my first time living in a place with four seasons, each day brings me a surprise. I spent a very beautiful summer. I loved picking black berries and seashells and I loved walking in the parks too but sun bathing was one thing I didn't enjoy so much. The water in Europe remains too cold for me even on a summer. I didn't like going to the beach, staying under the sun and not being able to get into the water when it felt a little too hot.

Then came autumn. I find this season very beautiful too. I saw the leaves of the trees change colors, from green to yellow to gold and lastly to brown before the all eventually fell. One day we were on the road and I was awestruck! It was magical seeing a very colorful forest on a mountain and right on top was a line of windmills. It was one of the most beautiful views I have seen in my life so far. Then the wind started to feel a little chilly especially at dusk and the sunsets were no longer as late and flowers started to stop blooming.

The temperature continued dropping and then came winter. We started having sleet storms every now and then. I remember the first time I saw a sleet storm I was so amazed that I even took a video. But of course! This is something that never happens in my tropical home. In some places winter can be harsh but fortunately not in this part of France. If you look at the map you'll see that we are one of those lucky places who got the most elevated temperature for the season. However, though we got the elevated temperature it is still winter and I am still an islander so the cold still bites. Thankfully my husband got me prepared for the season, he got me my first winter clothes and though winter is considered negative by some, for me it remains interesting. It's very nice and exciting wearing winter clothes because again it's something new for me. The cold weather is painful but as long as you are warmly clothed then you're good to go! I love it when it's cold and sunny, they call it here "froid et sec" which literally means "cold and dry". The cold air feels so nice on the face and you still feel warm inside with the help of your winter coat, leather gloves and boots.

Aside from the weather, the way of life here is completely different too but as a Filipino this doesn't bother me. We Filipinos are known to be flexible and are easily able cope up with changes no matter what they are. Living here has made me realize a lot of good things about my country, good things that we most of the time just take for granted because for us "it's nothing but normal". I'm talking about the simple things like always having someone to ask when we are shopping for example. Here, they don't have as much employees as in our country because the salary is too high so sometimes you find yourself in a situation where you badly need help but there's no one around. Either you continue with your shopping or just leave the shop and try finding what you need somewhere else, thus leaving you a bit frustrated. Another good example is having someone to pack your groceries for you. Back home if we go grocery shopping we take the cart, pick what we need or what we want, place them on the counter and pay. We don't touch our groceries after we place them on the counter, in most cases, each cashier is paired with a friendly and helpful "bagger", the one who will pack your things carefully in shopping bags and even take them to the parking if you wish. Whereas here, you do everything yourself, at some grocery stores you even do the job of the cashier and you bring your own shopping bags otherwise you'll pay for them. Then if we need fuel for our cars we just stop in a service station, wait for the "gasoline boy" to fill our tank and then pay. This isn't the case here. Here it's automated, there is no "gasoline boy" so you stop and turn off your engine, get out of your car, fill the tank yourself and pay using your card, get back in and go. These are just some of the things that we take for granted which we'll appreciate once we see how these people live without "our conveniences".

Now let's talk about food. It'll be in a general manner though, I'll be writing another post for details. Contrary to what most Filipinos think, French people are rice eaters too but not in the same quantity that we do, way far from that (with my husband as an exemption because he always claims to be a Filipino). Here they eat potatoes almost as much as we eat rice. I say almost because breakfast is already out of the equation. I'm a good eater but there are some French foods that I just can't eat like "cuisses de grenouille" (frog legs) and "les escargots" (snails). Otherwise, I can eat most of the foods on the table. Though my husband isn't a cheese eater he still lets me taste them and frankly, yes they do smell bad and some people say that the more they stink the tastier they get. Well, thanks but no thanks because I could never get myself eat a really strong odored cheese, especially goat cheese. One day I tried eating a goat cheese and I really couldn't help but puke (excuse me for the detail). I looked after a few goats as a kid and eating the goat cheese was like being in front of a male goat, the smell was too strong and I just couldn't find something good neither in the texture nor in the taste but at least I tried. Then about the meat, they are more diverse here. Most people eat beef, veal, pork and lamb. Back home we are more into pork, beef and rarely goat back in the countryside where I come from and where my parents still live. France is so famous with their best quality meat and our butcher is one of the best butchers of the country so I can really attest to this! Then they have the "charcuterie" (a branch of cooking devoted for meat products like ham, sausages and the like), the "pâtisserie" (a type of bakery specializing in pastries and sweets), "les bon vins" (the good wines) and other kinds of alcohol like pastis (anise based) cognac (brandy) and armagnac (brandy). I am not a liqueur specialist so I may have missed out on some other liqueurs that can be found in France. Lastly, they have the desserts to die for! The best cake I have tasted (in my life, so far) was in Chantilly during our vacation. There are a lot of good foods here so like I've said I'll write a separate post for them.

So far I am enjoying our stay here in the metropolis despite the new adjustments that I had to make. I find it more interesting than my husband because I didn't grow up here. One thing I love too is how people treat me or how people see me. In Martinique people were looking at me differently, probably because there are not a lot of Asians there, unlike here where you often see Asians almost everywhere you go. Here we also have the convenience of having almost everything just near by, needless to drive for a long time to go grocery shopping, see the doctor or go to the pharmacy. My husband had chosen really well when he bought this flat.

Since I have married a very good guide then yes, I've already seen a lot of beautiful places in Bretagne (our region). I have seen many beautiful ancient churches, historical places, the beautiful coasts and landscapes of Bretagne. If you get the chance to travel to France, aside from visiting Paris you should also try visiting this region. Trust me you'll never regret it and people here are kind and warmer too!

All in all, I can say: La France est franchement très jolie!!!