"French-isms"

There is a joke in my family that every person has things that they say or have said that are reflective of who they are. For example, as a child, I always liked to be the boss, and when I did not get what I wanted, I would cross my arms, pout my lip, and shout "Fine." To this day in our family, we call the word "fine" a "Liz-ism." Thank goodness we grow out of some things! Another example- my little sister Caroline has always seen the world differently than everyone else, and when we were in London many many years ago, she saw a man running completely naked with only shoes on. Her natural 5 year old response? "Mommy, he looks like a horse!" Think about it :) That is a "Caroline-ism." I've heard the French say some pretty fantastic things while I've been over here, and I wanted to share some "French-isms" with you!


1- On the Fourth of July we had a small dinner with American friends. One American friend brought her French boyfriend, so he could experience some American cuisine and culture. We did every American style and had Budweisers and a buffet of pigs in a blanket, broccoli salad, pasta salad, and sugar cookies with icing and fruit on top. For being in a foreign country, our spread was quite impressive. Cyril (the French guy) was looking at all the food, and when we showed him the pasta salad, he said "That's NOT pasta!! It's COLD!" 


2- Also on the Fourth, we visited Aidan's local Irish pub who had American specials. We were thrilled to enjoy the company of other expats and listen to some American tunes, but we were very surprised with the large amount of French people also showed up to celebrate. When Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" came over the speakers, all of the French people started jumping around and screaming the lyrics... of the chorus only. They did not know any words other than "born in the USA," so the bar was totally quiet until that phrase of the song was heard. I think the Americans would have picked up the verses, but we were laughing too hard!


3- During the Euro Cup soccer finals, Aidan and I went with a few friends to the Eiffel Tower lawn where there was a big screen showing the finals. During the game there was a particularly nasty foul that resulted in a yellow card. One of our friends screamed, "WHAT? That was clean ref!" To which a nearby French man turned and said plainly "Mister, this is not American football, it's EUROPEAN football."


More to come... stay tuned :) I'll update as I hear more!