So East it's Ouest

After reading my blog for a bit did you ever catch the draft that 'the French are...' I know it's terrible comparing cultures and the like but I know one thing I've never said about 'the french' is how cool and laid back they are in fact just the opposite usually.  Well today I've got news for you.  Do you wanna know where the cool kids are at?  The south west corner of France baby.   So the coolest kids on the block are those from le Gers seriously check it out its beautiful, but I recently took a trip to another little region and hope to return to an area that isn't quite French and isn't quite Spanish in fact it's quite...Basque.   This region divided between Spain and France speaking their own language (not related to any language in Europe) and being all cool and the like.  You like good food?  San Sebastián has more michelin stared restaurants than anywhere else in the world, or maybe you like something cheap healthy and yummy well the basq

 When I'm in France there are times when I feel like I need to represent the mid-west.  First off no one over here knows what that means so I end up just saying 'near Chicago' but I add 'it's the real USA'.  Why do you think that TV shows about 'Americain life' take place in Indiana.  The middle, parks and rec, a Christmas story, etc.  So many Americans come over here from California or New York or Colorado that I feel like I have to share a different side of American culture and I find that the French, although sometimes horrified, enjoy learning about it.  It takes a local who has spent her time enjoying if not braving blistering cold winters back home , cough and not feeling guilty about sitting this one out -19F as the high are you kidding me?, in order to truly understand one key of Mid-western culture, Euchre.   Now I know many a mid-westerner who does not know or like to play the pride and joy of the Midwest that is euchre but all will agree that

I technically live in the department of Lot-et-Garonne (the names of the two rivers) which is the old region called Aquitaine but I am right on the northern edge of...you guessed it Gascony.  Aquitaine has its own list of cool places and people; Eleanor of Aquitaine (cough she started chivalry), Bordeaux, lots of ducks, the town that was used as the basis for Beauty and the Beast but this is a post dedicated to the ancient wild beautiful region called Gascony. Who do you know from Gascony?  Uh I don't know a certain man called 'd'artagnan'.  Just kinda a big deal, not only because he is made fun of for being a gascon but also because try as he would he was very gascon.   Yes they speak with a cute twang, adding a -g- to the ends of words and yes they are friendly and different from other French from different regions.  Like the south east this region spoke a language called Occitan long before it spoke 'proper french' making it sound much like Catalan but not qu