Day 2121 (Thursday) 30th March 2023.
It was another beautiful day, a bit chilly going to the station but lovely and sunny. Huw was on the hunt for petrol for Kisbee and managed to find some in Nice. It looks like the petrol shortage is over for now. For once my train was on time and I was soon in the Maybourne Riviera. I was waiting for Guillarme and by a quarter past 10 I asked a woman in the office where I could find him. She offered to go and get him and he was soon in the classroom – he’s been on holiday for two weeks and had forgotten he had a class. As always we did some grammar first and then had a chat about his holiday in Rome, where he’d been with his mother.
He also told me about a region in Italy that is French speaking so I looked it up when I got home and found this…
Aostan French
Aostan French (French: français valdôtain) is the variety of French spoken in the Aosta Valley, Italy.
History
The Aosta Valley was the first government authority to adopt Modern French as working language in 1536, three years before France itself. French has been the official language of the Aosta Valley since 1561, when it replaced Latin. In the 1861 census, the first held after the unification of Italy, 93% declared being Francophone; in 1921, the last census with a question about language found that 88% of the population was French-speaking. The suppression of all French-language schools and institutions and violence against French speakers during the forcible Italianisation campaign of the Fascist government irretrievably damaged the status of French in the region. Italian and French are nowadays the region's official languages and are used for the regional government's acts and laws, though Italian is much more widely spoken in everyday life, and French is mostly used by intellectuals and within cultural events. Though French was re-introduced as an official language after World War II, by 2003 just 0.99% reported speaking standard French natively. French remains widely known as a second language, but it is no longer spoken as part of daily life. In 2001, 75.41% of the population of Aosta Valley was French-speaking, 96.01% declared to know Italian, 55.77% Franco-Provençal, and 50.53% all of them. School education is delivered equally in both Italian and French so that everyone who went to school in Aosta Valley can speak French and Italian at least at a medium-high level.
Numerals
Unlike standard French of France, Aostan French uses:
Seventy: septante [sɛp.tɑ̃t]
If they can do this why can’t the rest of France, instead of soixante-dix, quatre-vingt and quatre-vingt dix? These aren’t numbers, this is maths.
Meals
Breakfast = déjeuner
Lunch = dinée or dîner
Dinner = souper
Speedos to kissing: Six French social norms that take some getting used to
From the bureaucracy to driving on the right and a whole new language, there's a lot to get used to in France. But there are also more subtle social norms that foreigners can at first find confusing.
Here is our selection of some of the key social norms that you need to know about.
Obsessive bonjour-ing
People say bonjour a lot in France. Really a lot.
It is about more than simply saying hello, it is about politeness and respect.
You will hear people saying bonjour at the shop, at the workplace, in the elevator or doctor’s waiting room, as well as obviously with neighbours or people that you know – a normal day can easily involve 50 bonjours.
If you omit to utter a bonjour, you may be dismissed as rude or snobby.
Claree (Oceane’s big sister) has a maths tutor every Wednesday so Oceane and I work in her bedroom and Claree works in the living room with her tutor. Yesterday evening as I was leaving the tutor said bonjour to Oceane and bon soir to me, I was two steps away! I asked Oceane why and she giggled and said maybe the time to swap to bon soir happened as I was leaving. It was 5.45!
This is Oceane and the gorgeous Havana who keeps licking and licking.
Complaining is a national pastime in France.
There is almost no limit to the number of damning ‘Là‘ that can be affixed to an exasperated oh-là-là.
Opinion polls routinely show the French to be pessimistic about their future, even when things are going comparatively well.
Various theories have been put forward as to why the French are such a bunch of râleurs: from societal value placed on scepticism and rebellion enshrined since during the enlightenment period and revolution, to a sense of nostalgia for the glory days of De Gaulle and Napoleon Bonaparte.
La bise
Many countries practise a version of the cheek-kiss greeting but in France it is highly commonplace – before the pandemic, 91 percent of French people would greet close acquaintances with a bise and many have now resumed the habit.
For foreigners this can be a minefield, especially as different regions have their own variations of the greeting, how many times you need to do it and which cheek to start with.
Try not to worry too much though, even French people can find the rules pretty confusing.
Generally, you would only bise with your family, in-laws, close friends or social situations where everyone is doing it and actually since the pandemic many people – especially younger ones – have taken the opportunity to scale it back a bit.
Terrible drivers
Many stereotypes about the French are untrue, or at least exaggerated, but not this one. France numbers some truly shocking automobilistes.
Whether it is tailgating, speeding or clanging other cars while parking, driving is an area where France does not live up to its reputation for sleek elegance.
A 2021 study found that 74 percent of French drivers break the rules of the road and 88 percent said that they feared the aggressive behaviour of other drivers – no surprise there.
France routinely ranks high on the list of European countries with the worst drivers – although Italy, Spain and Greece tend to compete for the top spots. Huw and I regularly play the ding game in Betty’s, which is a bar on the main road. We have a beer on the terrace, as Betty calls it, or on the pavement where it actually is and try to spot a car without a ding.
Speedos
What is it with the French and Speedos?
The skimpy male swimwear item – also known as a budgie-smuggler or a banana-hammock – has been out of fashion for many years in other countries, but in France they are not just popular but compulsory in some places, such as municipal swimming pools, where baggy swim shorts are not allowed.
The French believe it is more hygienic to wear tight-fitting swimwear, a theory that is often met with raised eyebrows by Anglos. But if you want to swim at your local municipal pool you have no choice but to squeeze yourself into a pair. In most pools, swimming caps are also compulsory.
Not tipping
While your wallet might thank you, it can be a little awkward for foreigners in France to get around the idea that tipping is not the norm.
Service staff in France are generally better paid than in most anglophone countries, meaning they do not rely on tips to make up their income.
Leaving a bit extra for the waiter or waitress is considered a friendly gesture if the service was particularly good, but it’s certainly not expected for every meal.
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