Dec 01 2008
in which there are further observations on france
Things I forgot yesterday, mostly. Again I should preface this with the disclaimer that if I seem to be making sweeping generalizations, I’m really not; I’m just talking out of my nether regions based on stuff I saw in Marseille.
- French people don’t mind graffiti. Mostly I’m assuming this because it was all over in Marseille. Like, normally you’ll see it on bridges and things but often it’s covered up, and of course it’s in bad parts of town or whatever, but in Marseille–practically every flat surface had something scribbled on it, even in reasonably nice areas.
- Church bells toll on the half hour, not the hour. I really don’t know why that might be, but I noticed this enough times to be sure of it.
- There’s a significant crime level in Marseille. Well. Maybe. One site mentioned that it has a reputation for theft and muggings and stuff. Mostly I just noticed what seemed a higher-than-usual concentration of police and a high occurrence of police sirens, plus bars on most ground-floor windows. Also, lots of homeless, which might mean something.
- Lots of shops close on Sundays. And on Mondays, apparently, but not the same ones, so…I really don’t know what conclusion to draw there.
- Most French don’t speak English. I swear I’m not being the ugly American here, okay? I wasn’t expecting lots of English speakers in Turkey, for instance, But I figured, it’s France, it’s in the EU, it’s close to England–probably lots of people speak at least a little English. Well, sure, some do, but at least in Marseille, it was a surprisingly low number. I actually feel like I came across more people with a little English in Turkey than I did in Marseille. Of course, if I visited a more touristy area, I suppose I might have a different experience.
And on that note…I gotta say I’m glad to be back in an English-speaking country. I liked Marseille quite a lot, all things considered, but even two days there had the same effect on me that two weeks in Turkey did: I found myself abruptly homesick for America, where things are familiar and everyone speaks my language. That mostly went away as soon as I got back to England, so apparently the language bit mattered more.
