France in Summer..

I have lived in Nantes for several months, and hope to return to Tours. Tours in central France is located where access to the chateaux along the Loire is generally closer, not simpler but closer. It is true that France is never simple. During these first months my education which had been provided by postcards, film, and painting studies from afar shifted to a more nuanced version of life in France, at a very intimate distance and though less glamorous perhaps, my experiences have been vivid, giving meaning to these shallow preconceptions.

I will say now though that before I arrived from Australia I had a vague notion that I could operate reasonably, albeit on a superficial level, after a couple of years here. But I am not so brave now and after eight months, though I follow my dream, it is in a somewhat isolated state .. which isn’t altogether a bad thing. I say this as I have never traveled independently. I have accepted though that I’ll never be able to go to a bar and be fully engaged in conversation with locals or never be French when I go to the supermarket or the post office or the doctor. I will always be an ‘other’, but I will follow this path nonetheless. That’s my personal commitment, and hopefully I’ll pick up any self esteem lost on the way by acquiring an education about a different country and its society, and by seeing and doing things I have only ever heard stories about.

I love the French language but feel pompous when I try to speak it such is its grace, but I am hoping it will come to me suddenly, even overnight in my sleep would be great. I’ll make this a post if it does happen. In the meantime I will use both languages here where it seems natural .. and hopefully there will be more occurrences of French as time goes by.

My website is composed of information that I gather before and during excursions to different places (in North West France at the moment). I use Wikipedia and Britannica a lot, just to name the big publishers, (forgive me but it seems like a good idea and I do generally include a link) .. but this way I can gather all sorts of information in layers, sometimes weeks or months before a visit so this is interesting in itself. The detail easily copied beforehand becomes more meaningful the closer the event and could be expanded tenfold once I have walked on the stones and taken that feeling from a place.

This space is where thoughts are gathered about life in France and I hope you enjoy my pages as much as I have enjoyed making them.

Generally all images in sliders are © Sembleue.