71 articles France

Observations about French culture, language, and the author’s daily encounters with the galling Gallics.

Munchkin Update

Posted on November 30, 2017 by admin

The year is winding down. It’s time to check in on the little creature that carries half my DNA. She is still six years old — nearly “six and a half,” although curiously she doesn’t measure her age that way, as many children do. It is especially odd because she is a big fan of…

Je Me Souviens

Posted on September 26, 2017September 28, 2017 by admin

Despite now having an extremely busy jammed into the gap that separates my present self from my sabbatical self, France remains with me in powerful, often disconcerting ways. Some days, it washes over my mind in rich colours and textures, like a quilt that’s both exotic and familiar all at once. At other moments, it…

Letter, September, 1744

Posted on September 6, 2017September 6, 2017 by admin

Cher Thibaut, It has been many months since I left you, and all those whom I love in France, to accept my position with the Companies Franches de la Marine. The rigorous demands of the work have prevented me from writing to you earlier… besides, of course, the fact that I, like most of my…

Transforming Wistfulness

Posted on August 24, 2017August 24, 2017 by admin

I recently wrote about the regret I feel over France. The eight months we spent there felt wasted to me, because of the cultural whiplash I inflicted upon our daughter; because of the resulting need to homeschool her for half our time in Lille; and because that homeshooling robbed me of the chance to write…

Transforming Regret

Posted on August 11, 2017 by admin

In the thick of such a busy summer, it’s easy to forget the busy spring which came before it – or the busy winter, busy fall, or the busy summer of 2016. One year ago today, I was in Edmonton, recovering from an ocean-spanning journey to the far side of the globe – Osaka, Japan…

Transforming Hop(e)

Posted on June 30, 2017 by admin

I’m still enjoying the new job, or at least the discovery process, and I want to write about all aspects of it – good and bad – but as I was reminded at an orientation session today, I should actually be careful what I put on the internet because I am now a “Parks Canada…

Transforming Decaf

Posted on May 29, 2017 by admin

I blame the palm civets for my current coffee problems. Remember those adorable Indonesian berry-munchers? They choose only the best coffee cherries, snarf them down, and then leave the beans behind in fragrant piles for the weird hairless apes to collect and export. I first tried Kopi Luwak, the “best and/or most expensive coffee in…

Transforming Vivid

Posted on May 22, 2017 by admin

S is working on a scrapbook of our year abroad. She is good at them – the last one she made, of our 2008 Fringe tour, perfectly evoked the chaotic, grimy glory of the tour itself. She’d probably make more than one book per decade if we weren’t so busy having scrapbook-worthy experiences. I helped…

Transforming Weltschmerz

Posted on May 19, 2017 by admin

The phrase “crisis of faith” may not exactly inspire action movie music, but it deserves at least one stirring montage: the conflicted believer on his knees, struggling to pray; the drone of a priest’s sermon barely heard as tears slide down the doubter’s cheeks; maybe a visit to the grave of a loved one, or…

Transforming Kiss-Offs

Posted on April 21, 2017 by admin

I was 11 when I missed my first kiss. We were on a school trip to Expo ’86 in Vancouver, and KC pulled me aside in the kids’ play centre. There, shielded from chaperones by a maze of padded punching bags that hung above us and swayed in languid, come-hither movements – huge, phallic fruit…