Les Français ne sont pas trop bizarres, non?

It is much more fun to be in France when you speak French.  The people in this area seem to know a few words in English like hello, numbers or welcome but overall they seem to be uncomfortable speaking any English, not that I've been trying to.  It's great because although there are tourists in this area, you can't at all get by by speaking English.  When I say bonjour or perhaps I'm speaking to my parents in English people will either stare or say hello when they pass you, which takes me off guard.  In fact, when you walk into a store, on the street, or you just so happen to notice another human being you always say the polite Bonjour or the even more polite Bonjour Monsieur/Madame.  Even if they speak fluent English many times they would rather speak French.  

However; as I was warned by several French people, do not give the traditional American smile/smirk when making eye contact with someone, especially on the street; as a woman men think you're coming on to them and overall people here just give a respectful bonjour rather than a puppy dog smile.  You learn that quickly when you make the mistake of smiling at the cashier lady, who wasn't too friendly to begin with, she looked at me like "what are you smiling about", the smile faded to neutral.

Overall though everyone has been nice, they go out of their way to help.  I'm going to be staying with a French family for a month and a half.  They invited us over for dinner last night, we had joue de boeuf which is basically the southern French version of beef bourginoun, made with the cheek meat (beef) which is tender and kind of fancy; along with some seafood, grilled red pepper and chèvre appetizers, sorbet, cheeses, and galette du roi.  It was funny because they looked up things about Indiana on Wikipedia before we came, so we talked about things that were different between the US and France.  They were worried I wanted to eat fast food for dinner every night, I guess they knew an American who was like that.  Once I've been here for a while, as long as 5 months is, I'll write a post about the stereotypes that the French have of Americans that I have noticed.  In fact the heading of this post is what my "host lady" asked me when I left the house, " Us French aren't too weird are we"?- with a smile; after the whole family had given me their rounds of "la bise"-kiss, around here they give 3 kisses ( left, right, left normally); and no hugs, which is weird because I always have the inclination to hug when saying goodbye.  

The grocery store and the bakery are some of the best places I've been to so far to learn the language.  You see something you want, well ask for it, but wait how do you say I want a pound of ham.  They don't use pounds, you don't know which kind you really want, and they measure ham in slices not weight.  What I've been doing is picking up a sandwich at the bakery that sounded interesting for lunch then buying the ingredients that were on it to make it for myself.  The coolest thing about the grocery store, other than how fresh the food is, is that you get to figure out what is a normal for your area.  At the grocery we went to there is no oatmeal, it was hard to find conditioner, most everything is in cardboard or glass, everyone uses reusable shopping bags, eggs at left out and you serve yourself to them, some milk is not refrigerated, and they love their Pringles. 

Another thing I've figured out is that they use more up to date credit cards than we do.  I know chase is just now updating their line of credit cards with little microchips in them, in France that's old news.  I've had several flustered cashiers muttering " ça ne marche pas" with a loud yell and a roll of their eyes to their fellow employee " Elle a une carte etrangère!" ( it's not working, she has a foreign credit card) , I guess magnetic swiping cards aren't used much around here.  

  

Photos of groceries, Gordes, the amphitheater in Oranges (which used to be ruled by the Orange-Nassau Dutch!-boom), and since Orange was a Roman colony...