A Few Things That My Time In France Has Taught Me

I leave for Spain tomorrow, so I figure now is a good time for a reflective post.  But I feel I will have missed plenty of things.  Oh well.  Here goes...

• In France, people cheerfully admit to being a 'râleur' (ie a whinger).  Weird.
• Almond croissants, tarte au citron, macarons...
• Confit de canard, aligot, brebis, salade de chèvre chaud...
• Having a meal in France can really be a lengthy affair.  Btw, why is the apéro not more a part of our culture?  It's brilliant.
• It is possible to survive when supermarket hours are 8-8, closed on Sundays.
• It's kinda nice to be reminded of the time every 15 minutes, by church bells.
• Never underestimate the power (or time-consuming nature) of bureaucracy.
• The NZ schooling system is so much easier.  Maybe we're asked to process info more than rote learn (but I haven't really watched enough classroom teaching to know), but they can have 8 hours of classes, some students only have 30 mins for lunch, they get piles of homework, everything is about how many out of 20 they got...  Also, there are nowhere near as many extracurricular activities, and I didn't see any evidence of stuff like art or music at high school (well, lycée).
• People in the South West of France are rugby (and All Black) fans.
• Mountain views never get old.  However, they can produce weather which makes dressing for a full day out of the house tricky: pretty damn chilly in the am, with stinking hot arvos!
• Train travel: it's great, but you should always opt for 2 small bags over 1 big one.  Think of rolling that bag down the aisle.  Bonus points if your bags are small enough to go in the overhead rack.
• Independent travel is not so frightening after all.
• I miss cooking and baking when I don't have kitchen facilities.  How cruel, to put me in such a food-loving country and give me such a limiting space to cook.
• I'm incurably "gourmande."
• People are where it's at.  Networking is awesome.  You'll never know what good contacts/opportunities/friends you might be missing out on if you don't talk to people.
• A balance between solitude and entourage is very important.
• For the French, eating porridge is weird.  Apparently, so is a girl wearing a cap.  So is mixing up all your food on your plate (sometimes).  Sometimes, you're gonna get looked at in the street, and you will have no idea why.
• There are a lot of really good and generous people around the place.  Must remember to be more like this myself!