You did what?.....................

Twenty years of living in France!

And no not in a prison or mental home, although for those of ye who have visited my home you may disagree!

Maybe I should have had my head examined but like all ideas you don't always know the outcome , you know like the idea of "lets make a huge ship and sail from England to America really fast - and lets call it the Titanic!!"  or "Shakleton do you fancy visiting the South Pole?" or better still  "Tiger Woods asked me to marry me - wow me sooo lucky!!!"

I was totally prepared for my journey to France, yeah I did German!! Well one of my brothers kindly pointed out that since France had been invaded a couple of times by Germany that surely by now they could speak the lingo!

I was going to do the au pair stint, you know stay with a family look after a few kids and enjoy the sights and sounds of Paris. Luckily the family were lovely and I am still friendly with them 20 years later  (see their children did survive my tender loving care!)  or else they cannot afford to move house and do not know how to avoid me!
 It was really strange for me to be somewhere where I really hadn't a clue what people were saying to me and not just because I am a dimwit no they were actually speaking another language - the meanies - simple things like going to the post office, buying a bus ticket or just going to the shop was complicated at first. And the most important thing I did learn was when French people spoke subtitles did not automatically appear in front of them!!!!!
 And of course I was sick, yes homesick, I rang home almost every second day, I wrote at least 250 letters a week! I wrote to EVERYBODY I had ever met in my short life.


Dear Barbara, We sat beside each other when we were 10 years old - wow how time flies anyway how are you keeping, me I am living in France, send me your news!!! 
P.S. Remember when we used to watch The Little House on the Praerie together??
or
Dear Mrs Morey, I did enjoy been in your german class for those 5 years but now that I am living in France I realised I should have switched over to guess what - oui Français! However since it was Sr Mary Forest (I kid you not that was her name) who did that class and really did not inspire me (unfortunately her voice had a droning quality that even french could not pep up) now ha ha here I am in France, isn't that just so funny. So would you be interested in givng me some hints on how to speak the french lingo as I am stuck here for a year?  Auf wiedersein (see haven't lost it)
or
Dear Fr James, I did not always enjoy your sermons every Sunday at Mass but would it be possible for you to send me any old ones you have lying round the house because they may make sense now that I have absolutely no social life I have lots of free time. God Bless

Yes desperate times called for desperate measures.

Then life kicks in, working, making friends, social life, finding a place to live, cooking for yourself (major eye opener especially for the poor people I cooked for), paying bills, laundry etc etc


The plan was to only stay one year - obviousily counting was not my strong point. Ah well nobody is perfect, I mean it could have been worse I could have ended up in Siberia although some French women can give you looks that could turn you to ice - mon dieu what is she wearing?

If someone had told me when I was 21 years old that I would end living in a foreign country  I would have laughed myself silly,  foreign countries were only good for holidays not actually living there full-time, oh no I was planning to live in an anglophone country like any other normal person!!!

However it turned out that well I am not a normal person (yes some of ye already guessed it) and picked a different route. So far it has been a fairly interesting route but at times I do have to pinch myself (or some 'good' friend volunteers to pinch me) at how it did turn out and even now when I bump into somebody from the past and tell them a bit about myself - short version of course - I still get "you did what? moved to France? what did you do that for?", my answer "it seemed like a good idea at the time......................."

Still does.