Lisa

Moving to Paris or France

Moving to Paris So you are moving to Paris, the city of light! Good news! However, Paris and the French organization in general can be painful for the unprepared. Several Japanese tourists moving to Paris have suffered the so-called “Paris syndrome” – a shock after discovering the difference between the dream city they imagined and the reality of Paris. For example unsafe streets (compared to Japan perhaps, but Paris is not unsafe compared to many other cities), a crowded metro and administrative hassle. The following guide lists some frequent questions newcomers ask when moving to Paris or France. How to find an apartment? First, choose the area! Paris is divided into arrondissements from 1st to 20th, often written in roman numerals: I, II, III, IV, V, VI are very central, with mostly old pre-Hausmann Parisian buildings. They are well suited for wealthy students or workers, but don’t even imagine parking a car. VII, VIII, XIV, XV, XVI and XVII are usually family are…

Robert Leroy, Priest and cyclist

French Father Robert Leroy has an interesting way to relax and to connect with his parishioners. He's a priest and cyclist, and has a lovely a sense of humor. He has ridden 600,000km. That's the equivalent of 200 Tours de France, although he doesn't often compete since amateur races are most often scheduled... on Sunday mornings!

One competition he does participate in every year is the Clergy Championship which he has won more than once. Each year on the first of May this fraternal competition brings together anyone who is ordained for a short race of about 60km. About 50 clergy gathered in Brittany for the the 20th edition in 2019. Father Leroy is the only one to have competed in all 20 races.

Father Leroy has been riding his bike for most of his life. He owns 7 or 8 bicycles. It was while riding one day in 1983 that he made the decision to go to seminary.

Le jour où j'ai pris la décision de rentrer au séminaire, c'est la…

The novlangue Covid Vocabulary list

We have never had so much new vocabulary come into play in a month. Many of the words can be used in both French and English, but there are a few cases where it is better not to mix them up. Here's a selection of what we have noted. Do you speak the covid? Do you know the French nuances? Here's a novlangue Covid Vocabulary list.

Rona, Coco or Kid Corona – nicknames for the coronavirus. It is important to name things when trying to deal with it. Naming things is a way to domesticate and control a situation. Americans use Quarn as a nickname for pour quarantine and the French Confifi for confinement.

La Covid-19 - Le Corona Virus - Watch out for the difference in genders! The Academie française - guardians of the language have decided that La Covid-19 is feminin because it is an acronym which stems from "maladie" a noun which is feminin. Le corona virus is "masculin" because the noun virus is masculin. Read more directly from the horse's …

Horse puzzles – horse play

Here are 2 horse puzzles, games based on Horses that we put together for the kids next door to whom we were "teaching" English over the garden wall during confinement. I stood up on a ladder to see over the top and they were in their front court. It was pretty funny to see. They enjoyed having some authentic conversation although they had trouble with my "odd" US accent as opposed to the British one they hear in school. It was a welcome distraction for us all. It was tricky to select a "program" as there are 3 girls ages 10 to 17 to entertain and challenge. They have such different levels of English amongst themselves and of course there is the age difference between them and me in terms of knowledge and pop culture. But I figured out that they like to ride horses. So one lesson was centered on horses and their "homework", sent by paper airplane over the wall, was these two puzzles and this nicely done worksheet which includes word searches and lots of horse vocabulary tha…

Banking Glossary French-English terms

Banking Glossary French-English terms What is the origin of the word "bank"? It goes back to Italian. In Medieval Italy a moneylander set up a bench in the town square and sat down behind it to do business. The word for "bench" in Italian is banca. When the banker ran out of money he smashed his bench, it was then a broken bench or banca rotta. Doesn't that sound like bankrupt? (makes one think of "rupture", interestingly in French the word is banqueroute) Here is a set of the most commons terms used in banking/finance in France along with their English equivalents to form a banking glossary French English. Actions : Shares ADI (Assurance Décès Invalidité) : Death and invalidity insurance Agios : Interest paid on loan or overdraft Annuité : Annual payment Apport : Down payment or deposit you bring for loan or mortgage Approvisionner : To credit funds to your account Argent liquide/espèces : Cash Avis d’opération : Transaction receipt Avis à Tiers Détenteur : Not…

Moving in France?

This article is about moving WITHIN France, if you are moving TO France see our other article. www.fusac.fr/moving-to-paris/

If you're moving from Briaire to Le Falgoux or Limoges to Salers or some other place change within France a very practical website offered by the French Public Service allows you to officially update your address with public service and administrations when you're moving in France. In one fell swoop and a few clicks you can inform the EDF, vehicle registration, tax, social security, carte vitale, retirement, unemployment offices and other administrations of your new address.

Plus this form works not just for moving in France and your physical address but also for updating:

email address, landline phone number, mobile phone number

They call this service The Teleservice of Service Public.

You'll need certain ID numbers (client numbers, social security number, carte grise...) …

Understanding the Municipal Elections in France

First: what is a Municipality? In France a municipality is referred to as a « commune ». The French word commune appeared in the 12th century, from Medieval Latin « communia », meaning a large gathering of people sharing a common life; from Latin « communis », things held in common. It consists of the municipal council and the executive which is the mayor and deputy mayor. The mayor, elected by the councillors, is solely responsible for the administration. But he can delegate some of his functions to one or more deputies. In Paris there is a council for the whole city and for each arrondissement. The term hôtel de ville designates the building which houses la mairie. The terme mairie designates the communal administration since the Révolution of 1789. In smaller towns mairie is used for both the building and the administration. Who is elected in the Municipal Elections in France? All French municipalities will elect their local councillors for 6 years all at the same time. …

We Met in Paris, Grace Frick and Margueritte Yourcenar

They met in Paris, here's how YOU can meet your âme-soeur or just good friends in Paris https://fusac.fr/how-to-meet-people-in-paris/

We Met in Paris is the double biography of Grace Frick, the companion who created the world in which one of the best French authors could write, and of Marguerite Yourcenar the author of The Abyss and Memoirs of Hadrian (Selected as one of the "15 books to better help you understand the Hexagon" in our 2018 LOOFE). Yourcenar was also the very first woman inducted into the Academie Française in 1981. Joan E. Howard, the biographer, had the luck to not only meet Marguerite Yourcenar in the early 1980s but to become a friend and spend several summers with “Madame” before she died. In 2000, Howard, given her personal contact with Yourcenar, became the director of Petite Plaisance, Margueritte Yourcenar's home on Mount Desert Island on the coast of Maine. The home was labelled a “Maison des Illustres” in 2014. Ms Howard was also sel…

LOOFE 2020 is out! It’s free, fun and interesting

LOOFE, which stands for Light & Lively Observations on France Extraordinaire, is an annual magazine about life in France. Inside you’ll find short articles about different facettes of France and French society. You’ll find history, books, culture, people, language, photographs and nature explained helpfully with a touch of humor.Think of it as a manual for life in L’Hexagone! (L’Hexagone, incidentally, is one of France’s nicknames due to the nearly hexagonal shape of metropolitan France)

The third edition, which is out for 2020, contains articles called

Small is Good: Les Petits Plaisirs [of France], Laughter in France Rosa Bonheur, Broad with a Brush Photo essay Paris is not the Eiffel Tower Food Focus on Pâté en croûte See Paris and Die The Senate and of course there is a Culture Quiz, a Speak Easy Puzzle and "In Every French Household" Plus classified ads and advertising of places you should know in Paris …

Made in France, My 2019 Diary

For 2019 I decided to try to find Made in France products each time I made a purchase and keep a Made in France Diary.

Skip the intro and jump right to the latest entry.

The idea sprang from my exercise diary. I write down on my calendar each time I get some exercise, riding my bike, taking a walk for errands or fun or taking a class. Keeping a diary helps me to keep that focus and make sure I move. I have a nice record of my constitutional outings. It is very satisfying to be able to look back and see that I pretty much get my requisite 30 minutes each day, plus needing to make an entry on the calendar gets me up and out; I get both satisfaction and encouragement.

I decided to apply that to my Made in France year. I'm keeping a diary, technically a monthly of what I buy and if it is MIF. I'm not going to be obsessive and buy ONLY MIF, like this guy Benjamin Carle who in 2014 made a project of transforming his life and …