Étranger Things: My Discoveries about French Culture (From the Perspective of an Étranger)
When you arrive in France, people tell you the usual: “Learn bonjour, don’t expect free refills, and try not to look like a tourist.” What they don’t tell you are the little cultural plot twists—those stranger-than-fiction moments that make you stop, laugh, and whisper to yourself: ah, so this is France.
Let’s call them… Étranger Things.
1. The Upside-Down Baguette
There’s nothing more French than a baguette—unless you put it the wrong way up.
Somewhere between the boulangerie and home, I learned the hard way that placing a baguette upside down on the table is a no-no. A superstition, they say, dating back to when bakers would save an upside-down loaf for the town executioner (because naturally he was too busy sharpening his axe to queue politely).
Me? I just thought gravity had opinions. Now, whenever my baguette tips over, I feel like I’ve invited medieval bad luck into the kitchen.
2. Fromage: Rules of Engagement
You think you know cheese—until France.
Here, cheese isn’t just food, it’s choreography. There’s an order: mild to strong, goat to blue, cow to “what exactly is this living on my plate?” There’s a proper way to cut, too. Wedge-shaped? You don’t slice off the nose. Round? No cruel little corners. I once cut a Camembert like it was a birthday cake, and the silence around the table was colder than the fridge I should have put it back in.
Lesson learned: cheese is sacred. Also, never underestimate the power of a French person glaring at you over Roquefort.
3. France’s Love Affair with Flight
Americans think of the Wright brothers. The French think: “Hold my Bordeaux.”
The Montgolfier brothers were floating around in hot air balloons before most of us figured out kites. Then came Clément Ader with his bat-winged flying contraption, Louis Blériot hopping the Channel, and even a certain Madame Sophie Blanchard—the world’s first professional female balloonist—taking to the skies in a corset.
In short, the French have been defying gravity since before it was fashionable. Every time I pass the little statue of a balloonist in town, I remember that this isn’t just a country of wine and cheese—it’s a country that looked up and said, “Why not?”
Epilogue: Small Confusions, Big Smiles
These are the tiny revelations that keep me charmed (and slightly embarrassed) as I stumble deeper into French life. Upside-down bread, sacred cheese geometry, balloon flights in the 1700s—none of this was in the textbooks. But then again, neither is the feeling of being a happy étranger in Aix, discovering that the culture here is as layered as a mille-feuille: beautiful, delicate, and a little dangerous if you don’t know how to cut it.