I’m not pretending to be a world traveler, because my experience until this point has been pretty limited. These are my observations from Antibes. I already know from the Sancerroise that they are the true French. In fact, they claim they have no accent (sort of like our Ohioans). And not to be confused with the Parisiennes who are a different breed altogether.
Cafes really don’t care if you buy only one drink at a cafe and then sit for an hour. I had read this and as an American, I feel guilty occupying a table for too long if I’m not ordering a meal. Here it is no problem. This comes in handy when you need to watch your kids play in the park and you’d rather not sit there and pretend to watch. Now I can watch the people stroll Rue Republic and be within earshot if one of my kids breaks something.
Leather jackets, no matter the style are always in fashion. I hung mine in the closet after deciding it was out of style, but everyone here looks great in theirs: trench, bomber, rocker with zippers, long or tight fitting. Consider it done. It's an investment to buy a leather coat, so why not wear it?! I may even buy another while I'm here.
For Women:
For Men (sorry guys):
Scarves are omnipresent. Even on men.
If you go someplace twice, you are a regular. I love that. It's like you have instant friends in this town. Believe me, my loyalty has paid off. The butcher stayed open late for me as I dashed in to buy some eggs late night. We got extra macarons at the restaurant and they didn't kick us out for being loud Americans.
It’s true that the French are nicer than the old stereotype, but I have experienced some rudeness. On the bus today, we met an English woman who was very friendly and told us about places to go and how long shed lived in Antibes, etc., all in English. As she said her goodbyes she called out to the driver in French— Merci, ou revoir. A grumpy man said in French “finally she speaks french!!” I spoke French to my kids for the remainder of the bus ride.
English speakers have terrible French accents! Most of my language issues are putting things together— proper verb conjugations, pronouns in the correct place— but at least I try with the accent. You can be marginally successful if you learn to mimic the Rs and the intonation. I thought it was more stereotype, but no. I’ve heard many English speakers speak without even trying the accent. It’s like us torturing our teachers in high school french class! Last night we watched a movie portraying the English and their accents were hysterical. It’s like us imitating the French- so glad we got to see the other side of it. And it made an impact on my kids because they saw how silly people can sound when they don’t try.
I asked the boys to chime in with their observations-
Samuel adds: French people are put off by Americans being noisy, which sucks for us (because we are noisy even by American standards- adds mom).
Don’t ever think that I am not loving this. I finally kissed a girl! (he had to do the bise-bise when greeting a girl, so he says that counts!)
Bennett adds: French people know how to dress- I’ve seen five people dress very fancy. One lady was dressed in a full-on sailor suit just to work in a gift shop! (I love his interpretation of fancy!).
Cooper adds: In Sancerre I thought this place was really country-y but when I went to Antibes I saw beaches and palm trees and lots of stuff I would never think of about France.
I am really happy in Antibes— it’s just gritty enough to be inviting. Everything is smaller than it appeared on the map before we came (is that because their maps represent km instead of miles? I don’t know). This city is very easy to navigate and everything is so close to where we are. So much of life is outside here— much like Miami. It’s heaven with three boys because I can shoo them outside whenever. I am comfortable letting the kids go to the park by themselves for a few minutes. There are no cars in our neighborhood. And as you can tell by my former blogs, I need to be around people. I could never be a country girl, even though the Loire Valley was so beautiful. Nice to visit, wouldn’t want to live there. I guess part of my plan worked out!
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| Scenes from our hike around Cap d'Antibes |
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| Our picnic spot |
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| a view of the cliffs |
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| The hiking trail looks like this for much of the hike |
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| Foreground, an overlook on the trail; background Ft. St. Marguerite off the coast of Cannes -- I think that's the Man with the Iron Mask prison |
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| kayakers-- what a great idea! |
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| beginning of millionaires bay- where brazillionaires have their summer homes |
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