Top 5 French things you love (i.e. a meal, a place, a cultural quirk) 🇫🇷
Aahhhh this is so hard! I'm not all that fond of France, I look on my own country with a lot cynicism and dissatisfaction, but I can find five things for you.
5. Our history. French history is long (all places have long history, of course, but because Europe wasn't massively colonized, our history wasn't erased and we can look back very far), sometimes ridiculous, quirky, tragic. I love that the French and the English realized there was a people just beyond the sea and decided to fuck each other up forever. France was a main theater for the two world wars, which has impacted it in massive, fascinating and lasting ways (the traume is very much still here). There's always something interesting left to learn about French history.
4. French book trade laws. The book trade is the only one in all of commerce that benefits from exceptions, leniencies and government help that are written in law. For example, the price of books is the same wherever you buy them, which is why Amazon hasn't destroyed our book trade yet. I'm no longer a bookseller, but I think we can be proud of that.
3. Clairfontaine is a great stationery brand. Their notepads and notebooks are amazing, the paper quality is perfect. I absolutely love notepads, I buy too many, and I love working with theirs. I've written a whole self-published novel in Clairefontaine notebooks. We have great writing stuff is all.
2. Raclette (I'm willing to share it with Switzerland because of our geographical proximity). Raclette is a meal: you put a heating appliance in the middle of the table, and everybody melts cheese under it. Raclette cheese can be plain, or smoked, or be one of many variations. Then you pour the melted cheese in your plate, and add to it charcuterie that you've grilled on top of the appliance. Cured ham, sausages, pork in all its forms. It's also eaten with potatoes. Pour cheese on all that and eat. (I have no idea if you know this, I hope I haven't overexplained)
Toulon, my city. To most french people, it's kind of lame. Okay, there's not much to do, it's not overly cultural, it's not very pretty. It's way too hot. It's been a military stronghold for centuries, so it doesn't attract as many tourists as the rest of the southeastern coast. But it's easy to navigate, it's by the sea, and it's my home. It's backed by low mountains, half its harbor is military and the other is civilian. The high point of its history was the Napoleonic period, my favorite.
Thank you for playing and giving me an occasion to talk about my country, I hope some of it was of interest <3