Is age taboo in France?

A fellow blogger, Keith Eckstein from A Taste of Garlic, writes a review of every Tuesday "of some of the posts from the last week that have made me smile, made me chuckle or, even…. just made me think."
I wrote a post about my Birthday a little over a week ago, but I didn't mention my age.  The truth is, I could care less about people knowing my age.  Keith tried to figure out how old I am.  I'm sure that he probably figured it out - it takes a little googling to do so, right? - but to be polite or due to lack of time, he apparently things I'm anywhere between 21 (which I know he's kidding about- and 30.  Keith, I'd like to thank you for that one.
So, do French women talk about their age or not?  About a month ago I went to the States on a business trip (I know, there are worse things in the world).  My American colleague told me about a time when her French (and male) boss asked her how old she was.  She was shocked.  Now, I think the French women are different.  It's not such a secret, and it's not insulting to ask.  Most people even put their age on their resume.  I believe it's better that way.  If somebody doesn't want to hire you because of your age, than why would you want to work for them (unless of course you're close to retirement because it's harder to find a job in France at that point)?  Age isn't taboo in France, even among friends and acquaintances.  Maybe this changes when you get much older, but all in all, the French women are not as afraid of ageing as American women are.  They actually embrace it - maybe I'm getting a little carried away here.
So Keith, any idea how old I am after having read this article?  There are about two clues in there.
This is Lindsay, wishing you a happy Monday, signing out.

The French-English dictionary doesn't always have the answer

You say tomato, I say tomato.

If you don’t say it out loud, it sure seems like the same thing, right?

It took me a long time to find the equivalent of my favorite products from home in France.

First of all, I never found some of them.  Maybe some of you out there will be able to help me with that down the road.  Secondly, they’re never exactly the same, but you get used to it.

So, I’ve decided that there are so many things to discuss under this topic that I’ll need to split it up into weekly articles.  Are you as excited as I am?  Good.  So let’s get started.

So, today let’s talk yogurt, or ‘yaourt’ in French (I still don’t know how to spell that by the way).  You can generally find yogurt in the ‘cremerie’ aisle (crème/dairy), or with the deserts.

Take baby yogurt for example.  France is like the mecca of yogurt.  It takes up the same amount of space that snack food does in the States.  No, I take that back…the chip aisle.  And 99% of the yogurt in France totally fatty, made out of whole milk.  So, if you’re looking for light yogurt, you might find some.  The name of the two biggest fat-free or light yogurts are Taillefine and Sveltesse (couldn't find their website, sorry).  Anwyay, that’s not my point.

Yogurt in France is creamy and thick.  When my son was born, I fed him lots of yogurt.  I usually fed him the Dannon baby yogurt.  The stuff is creamy and delicious.  Then I went to the States to see my family when he was like 6 months old.  I searched and searched for baby yogurt.  99% of the yogurt section is fat-free.  And all of the yogurt is liquidy.  Even the baby yogurt that I found after like 10 minutes of roaming in the dairy aisle.  Why is that? 

To make a long story short, if you’re used to very liquid, fat-free yogurt, you can find it in France, but there aren’t a lot of products like that out there.  I suggest you get used to the creamy, delicious yogurt that France has to offer and deal with it!

This is Lindsay, signing out.

Attention walkers

So I was out walking around today admiring the beautiful fall leaves
with the palace of Versailles in the background and I almost got run
over while crossing the street.  I had waited for the the green
light...at least I thought I had.
   I am pretty sure the sign I took a picture of says something like
"Attention walkers, crossing is in 2 stages."  I figured it out when I
looked at the sign rather than the green crossing light.  I did have a
green crossing light but only for the "first" part of my crossing.
The "second part" of my crossing had a red light.  Mind you there was
no sidewalk to wait on, just lots of cars and buses going by.  I am
not sure that I have ever seen this configuration before or perhaps I
have just been lucky and not gotten run over.  Anyway, no harm done,
and the leaves were amazing; once I learned how to cross the street.`

Contributing writer, Christine.

Tips in France

I'm on vacation in a far away place, which is why I haven't been blogging as much over the past couple of days.  So, anywhere you go, you always ask yourself, 'How should I tip here?'. 
I bet a lot of people ask that question in France.  The French do not tip as much as many cultures.  The reason is, the price generally includes the tip.  This really pertains to restaurants.  At a meal that costs you around 35 Euros, it's odd to tip them more than 2€.  On the other hand, you should give them something.  If you take a taxi, you generally round up.  For example, if the total comes to 23.50, you'll round up to 25€. 

That's just a little tip for the day.

This is Lindsay, signing out.

Happy Halloween, or not...

My oldest son goes to an English school on Wednesdays.  He's be hearing about about Halloween for the past month.  French bakeries decorate their windows with spooky spiders and cobwebs.  Disney World in France turns into a gigantic Halloweened land...But in reality, nobody in France acutally celebrates it.

First of all, the Catholic population in France is very high.  They celebrate 'All Saints Day,' 'Toussaints.'  This day is meant to celebrate all Saints that don't have their own holiday throughout the year.  It's on November 1st.  The French celebrate it by visiting cemeteries to pay respects to loved ones, and going to church.  Halloween is like the antithesis of All Saints Day.  If you're intersted in finding more about this, here's an interesting link I found.

Halloween was pretty popular in the late nineties until about 2005.  I remember it being popular when I first arrived to France.  Now it's pretty much over.

Last year, I went to an American get together, and we all celebrated Halloween at someone's house.  It was fun, but it wasn't the same thing as trick or treating, getting candy that your parents have to sort through to make sure some twisted person didn't inject them with poison (did your parents do that?).

This year there was no American party.  So, I got my kids costumes and painted my son's face.  They both had their trick or treat bags (that I obviously got in the States).  I got them candy corn.  On Saturday we 'celebrated' Halloween.  My son was like, 'OK, we're ready to go out trick or treating.'  I was like, 'nahh, what's so fun about that?' (trying to disuade him from actually wanting to go out, rather than disappointing him).  My son was like 'To get candy!'  OK, so, I told him the truth, told him we'd make cookies instead, and that was that. 

It's too bad we don't celebrate Halloween in France.  That was one of my favorite holidays (hmm, after Thanksgiving and Christmas).  Maybe it will be 'à la mode' sometime soon, before my kids get old enough to want to throw toilet paper and eggs at our neighbor's houses.

This is Lindsay, signing out.

Buy your bags in French supermarkets

Message from contributing writer, Christine

So here is something I think the French do so right, and I understand
that it it being done in the U.S. as well, just not all over.  I went
into a store today that sells nothing but frozen foods....a story for
another day...and the sign said that they would charge me 3 cents for
each bag I needed to put my purchases in.  I have a fold up bag in by
handbag at all times, so I did not spent my 3 cents...but the point
is..I had a fold up bag in my handbag  just for this purpose.  I mean,
really, at home my supermarket asks me if I want paper or plastic.
Many stores in France charge you if you want a bag for your groceries.
 This is annoying at first and believe me I complained about spending
3 cents for a bag the first time I was charged for it.   But after a
minute of thinking about it it made good sense to me.  I really never
know what to do with the hundreds of plastic bags I have at home.
Think about it.  We actually can purchase bags to hold our bags in the
U.S.  At the end of the day, a minor inconvenience because you have to
carry a bag with you at times, but I really thing the French are onto
something.  I know that I am helping save a little bit of our planet
every time I bring my own bag...a great idea for my children an my
grandchildren.

A strike, again!

What a surprise, another French company is on strike.  Air France is, yet again, on strike.
The flight attendants are on strike against possible and probable job cuts.  Ok, that sucks.  But should customers have to suffer because of this?

I'm supposed to fly via Air France tomorrow.  My flight might be cancelled.  argghhh.  All I can say is, 'The French are always on strike.  All the time.  Enough already.'

This is Lindsay, signing off.