Welcome to the Once Upon a Trip podcast, where we dive deep into sharing everything
crazy travel stories, dating adventures, culture fusions, and plenty of takeaways to entertain
and feed your inner curiosity and travel bug.
I'm your host, Mary Grace Crawford, travel enthusiast, content creator, ex-Digital Nomad,
avid storyteller, and lover of all things Europe, based now in Atlanta, Georgia.
This is going to be a very short and sweet episode intro, since we have a whole lot of
fun and funny stuff about all things France that we'll be diving into today.
This one was just a ton of fun and beyond to record with my good friend and old classmate
from university, Josh.
We both studied, lived, and worked in different parts of France in the past, and we both now
live here in the US, not too far from each other.
We hope that you get some good laughs and maybe even some tears out of this as much
as we did, and that you take away some fun new facts and tips about visiting France,
meeting French people, and understanding French culture just a little bit better from the
American perspective and experience.
You can go through the timestamps and skip along as you like, but I do think that all
of the info included in this episode is very either funny or useful in some kind of way.
So listen to all of it if you can.
Without further ado, allons-y.
Let's go and jump right into this.
Okay, so we are recording.
How official does this feel, Josh?
It feels very official.
I never felt so important in my life.
We are literally sitting in Josh's kitchen as we record.
Well, actually, it's not kitchen, but we're sitting in the living room, and this is just,
I don't know, this is the funniest setup ever to me.
But I'm so happy that you're part of today's episode, Josh.
No, thank you for having me.
I feel honored.
I'm more than happy, of course, to have you on as a guest and to really dive into our
all things France journey.
Yes.
Oh my God, there's so much with that.
Truly.
Let's start off with you introducing yourself just a little bit for our listeners.
No problem.
So I'm Joshua.
I am from the US.
I have lived in France multiple times.
So the first time was studying abroad and then another time teaching over there.
I am an English teacher.
I've been teaching English for a long time since 2017, and I've taught in college level,
high school, middle school, still doing it all.
So it's a lot, but it's fun.
I really enjoy it.
I enjoy helping people.
France was one of the first countries that I taught English and was quite the journey
to say the least.
It was quite the journey, I think, for both of us because I also have lived in France
on two different occasions.
And yeah, both times were really an experience for completely different reasons.
But Josh and I were actually, well, we could say classmates.
We were classmates on the same study abroad program in the south of France, and we studied
in Montpied right on the Mediterranean coast.
All so beautiful.
So good.
What are some memories that you have of our study abroad time together, Josh?
So well, first, my host family was incredible.
They were from Senegal, and so I got a lot of Senegalese culture, a lot of their food.
My host dad was a chef, so I had only good meals there.
I felt very welcome.
That was a lot of fun for sure.
I remember one of the people we studied abroad with was deprived of good food, and so she
wanted to come to my house to experience good food.
Yeah, she cried when she had my host dad's food because it had flavor, it had seasoning.
Her host mom didn't even know how to use salt and pepper, so yeah.
But it was a...
No, it's true.
She's complaining the whole time.
It's like, this isn't food.
This isn't food.
And then my host dad made enough food for her to take home, so she had to opt over.
I think she came again a second time because it was so good.
Oh my gosh.
Why did I never know about this?
This is hilarious.
No, that was a lot of fun.
You know, you're kind of nervous about to live with a whole different family, and they
were really accepting.
They were very kind.
I remember one of our last weeks, we finally had free time because we never had free time
when we were over there because we were doing so much homework.
So we went out to the discotheque.
Oh my gosh.
I so remember that.
That was such a fun time.
It was.
And then I remember it was like 3 a.m. or something, and I was trying to get in the
door and he had put the key in the door so I couldn't get in with my key.
I'm like, oh crap, I'm going to have to wake up the entire household.
But he was already awake.
And so he opened the door.
He's like, Joshua, did you have fun?
It's like, yes, thank you so much.
So he wasn't even angry that I came in at like three in the morning because he actually
had his own like car business that he did at night because it was corresponded with
the times in his country.
He sold cars from France to Senegal.
That is wild.
I mean, I'm learning just as much as everyone listening is.
I am literally very intrigued by all of this.
Wow.
What fun times this all is.
And then including all of us when we all went to set, that was probably one of the highlights
of my trip.
That was so fun.
It was like not even an hour away from Montpellier.
And then we had zero expectations, which is the best because they have like fresh seafood
and it was super cheap and then cheap beer.
And so we're just eating all these muscles and drinking all this beer and spending hardly
anything.
It was that was incredible.
We went to the beach there.
I think we did.
Yeah, it was really cool.
That was one of the very first outings I think that we all had as a group.
How many people in our group were there?
It wasn't that many.
I think we were there were about like 10 to 12 of us.
Even that sounds quite like a bit.
I don't know why I'm thinking it was like eight.
Well, you thought it was eight because that one one of them, she would never come to class
to too important for us studying for a job interview the entire time.
But no, that was good for her.
She got her her job.
Not the language, but no, not the language.
No, but I do remember set.
I also remember when we all went to I guess it was very close to set, but that beach near
Montpiedier or in Montpiedier, I think it was called Palavas de Flotte.
Oh, wow.
Do you remember that?
Nope.
I mean, I think I remember going, but I do not remember that name at all.
I only remember it just because we actually I don't know how I remember it, but I do.
And I just know that it was in that area and we didn't go to the beach that much.
That brings me to one of the questions that I wanted to get to.
You know, Paris is like this really touristy, popular, world renowned place.
But I'm curious to know what your opinion of Paris is just based on your experience
being there and traveling there.
Are you very fond of Paris or do you feel like, oh my God, this is?
Like a shithole or do you feel like?
So I do love Paris, but it is also a shithole.
I would second that.
I agree.
When most people who haven't gone to Paris imagine Paris, they have a very picturesque
image of the city.
And it's true that it is very beautiful, but it's also important to remember it is a city.
It's where people live.
So don't treat it like an amusement park because it's not.
I mean, if you've been to New York or Chicago or a big city, it's like that in the sense
that people are not there to like be welcoming.
It's like, oh, hello.
Welcome to Paris.
No, you're not going to get that.
But there's so many things that you can do.
It's like there's always something that you can do at any time of the day there.
It's very beautiful.
However, it's important to understand that French people are, especially Parisians, I
think are very vocal about their opinions.
And so they are going to go on strike.
They are going to have manifestations.
And so if you're going to go over there and you're going to act like, oh, this is a beautiful
city.
I'm just here to see Eiffel Tower and blah, blah, blah, expect like delays, expect especially
because I went there last year to visit friends and I had already been so I already knew the
system.
But like they were not picking up the trash.
So there was trash all in the streets.
And like I already I was like, OK, that's normal for me just to like see.
But I could imagine someone going to Paris for the first time being so disappointed seeing
trash everywhere on the streets.
And the streets are not that big.
No, they're not.
They're small and so you're walking around the trash and it's kind of disgusting.
A lot of people take advantage of Paris and I think you need to be respectful when you
go over there.
I really enjoy Paris.
I think it's a good city.
I personally would not want to live there.
Yeah, I agree.
Living in Paris would be hell.
I mean, especially with all the delays.
I mean, I remember when we lived in France, I don't know all of the stupid train cancellations
and the delays.
Also, I remember when Josh lived in Lyon, I actually went to visit him.
And I don't know if you remember this, Josh, but I think we were in the city center.
There was tear gas being released.
I think that was almost every week.
So weekly basis, my Roman Empire.
Oh my gosh, that was so funny and we were just running in the streets of Lyon and we
were running away from tear gas because I think Gilets Jaunes was having a protest.
The yellow jackets.
Yes, the yellow jackets.
How would you describe what that protest is about for people who don't know?
It's been a while since I thought about that.
I think originally they were protesting because of the gas prices.
Originally, and so a lot of people were in support of that and it was quote unquote a
normal thing, but then it just escalated and then it just was like an excuse for people
to like damage the cities around France.
Yeah.
And France actually, it's required by law to have a yellow jacket in your car in case
your car breaks down at night.
And so you have to wear a yellow jacket so that way people can see you if you're outside
of your car on the side of the road.
And so that's why people have these yellow jackets.
I learned something new.
Oh, why did I not know that?
That's so funny.
So that's been a law for a long time.
Oh, I don't know about how long the law has been implemented, but that's why people had
them.
So it's not like they went out and just bought them for the manifestation.
Then living over there and then seeing how everything plays out, that's a completely
different level of frustration.
Yeah, no, I agree with that.
I mean, living in France is definitely different than studying and also being a tourist.
So when we taught English in France, let's hear some funny stories of teaching students
in France, or at least just some funny things you saw.
Like is there anything weird or anything funny that you remember happening in class one day
or happening?
Maybe at school.
I don't know if I remember what happened in the classrooms that were particularly funny,
but I remember one day the teachers were handing out these slips because the teachers were
going to go on strike.
And so they needed like the students' parents to know, it's like, don't come to class for
this time because we won't be here.
And so that to me was the funniest, most French thing possible.
Like I could never imagine that happening here in the US where it's just like, oh, we're
going to be on strike, so don't come to school.
Oh, in terms of crazy things, my second year is when they were rethinking, they were going
to redo the test for their last year's students.
I forget what the test is called, going to blink out on the name.
So they were going to redo that test to where it would be national instead of regional or
maybe even by school.
And so people who came from working class families felt that that wasn't fair because
they didn't receive as good as an education as other places in France.
And so a lot of the kids went on strike.
And so I went to school where there was a fire in the middle of the tramway because
the kids had a fire there.
And then I was going to school, there was a fire outside the school.
And then like people had thrown rocks into the school.
So there was like, it wasn't bullets, but it looked like bullets because they had thrown
rocks there.
And I'm like, I don't want to die trying to help these kids like English today because
they're, oh, that was wild.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah.
I don't think I had a wild crazy time like that.
That is so, oh my gosh, that's so funny.
Well, I worked in a neighborhood that is not the best in Lyon.
It wasn't even in Lyon.
It's a place called Venetia.
And I do not recommend visiting because it was not the most welcoming neighborhood.
And on a serious note, one of my students actually lost his eye because a police officer
shot him in the eye and he lost it.
Oh my gosh, that's crazy.
Because he was throwing rocks at the police.
So yeah, it's definitely not like what we have here in the US.
Sure, we have our own problems, but the kids are not starting fires in front of the school.
And throwing rocks and being shot in the eye.
Right.
Like, oh my gosh, that is chaos.
I remember, I don't know if you remember, but I do because I found this in my Snapchat
memories the other day.
So when we celebrated Thanksgiving with the school that we were with, I guess there was
this one class that created this poster and it was of the UGA Bulldog.
And I think the kids were trying to practice their English and so they wrote this small
paragraph and in the paragraph it said something like, this is a doggy doggy.
God.
A doggy doggy.
This is a doggy doggy.
It is a mascot of the USA.
You know, you mentioned that you've lived in France a few times.
So similar to me.
So the things that you remember from living in France, the things you hated, the things
you loved, all of these things, if you could put it in a list or if you could kind of remember
those things or at least a number of those things, what were some things you hated about
living in France and things you loved?
The things that I hated, the administration.
I don't think people realized how horrible it is.
It's not even cute.
It's like, it's horrible because online when you read what you need to bring, it has a
list and so you do that and then when you get up to the dishe, the like glass and you're
talking to that person at the counter, there we go, the counter, they're like, okay, where
is this document?
I'm like, but that's not on your list.
But we still need it to process your dossier.
And I'm like, I don't have, I was trying to get a visa extension.
They were asking for my birth certificate and I did have a copy of my birth certificate
because I was trying to be prepared.
I was like, okay, where's the French translation?
First of all, you did not ask for this birth certificate.
So why on earth would I have a translation?
It's like, okay, we can't do anything with your dossier.
Thank you.
Have a good day.
And so I had to make another appointment.
And so the place where you make appointments in France is called the Préfecture.
So the prefecture, it's like a DMV smushed with immigration stuff.
So it's a shit show.
And so it was constantly a battle being over there because once I went in the morning and
someone told me, oh no, you have to come in the afternoon for your type of dossier.
So I did that.
It's like, oh, you have to be here in the morning to do your type of dossier.
So that was two trips.
And remember when you go to the Préfecture, you have to go there early.
So you start waiting in line at 6 a.m. or 5 a.m.
So you're there until they open and there's still like a long line.
It's like Disneyland.
And so it's just, it's wild.
It's just the amount of stress that I had to go through in France in terms of documents
and stuff was wild.
I don't know how, but I got what I needed from the Préfecture.
But it's not like because you're a foreigner, they're terrible.
They're terrible to everyone.
I don't know specific French native examples, but I had some similar challenges.
When I lived in France the second time, I remember when I lived in Lille, when I was
in the north of France, this whole process of setting up a bank account and having to
get documents and having to prove that I live somewhere.
I mean, it was just a shit show.
In order to get a bank account, you need a place to live.
But in order to get a place to live, you need a bank account.
Yeah.
And it's like, what is this?
Come on, check this out.
What do you want?
I think that France being very bureaucratic like that is something I don't miss.
And I think you would agree with me.
Oh, I don't miss that at all.
I mean, it's just another thing.
Maybe you remember this when you had to cancel your film subscription.
Oh, yes.
Yeah.
Did you have free?
I think I had free.
So free is one of the mobile carriers in France.
Yeah.
I compared to Spain.
I made a phone call when I lived in Spain.
I'm like, I have to cancel.
I had orange.
It was easy.
And France, I was reading like what I need to send is like, you have to send a letter
to parents, like a letter.
You have to send them a letter saying that you want to cancel your subscription.
They have to receive it by mail, not email, mail.
And then they'll cancel it a couple of weeks after that.
I'm like, aren't we in the 21st century?
Exactly.
What is this?
To send things through the mail to Paris.
Luckily, you could find sample writings online and you just copy that practically verbatim.
But like, I don't even have the words to express how.
Or like when I had to close my bank account.
I was so at that point, my French was good, but just these processes, you have to write
the bank a letter telling them that you are done.
And I'm like, what is up with writing letters to everyone?
So I was like asking the front desk guy, like what I need to do.
And he's like, write a letter.
He literally gave me a piece of paper, a blank piece of paper.
And then I'm like, I don't know what to do with it.
What do you want me to say on this letter?
Like I am moving goodbye.
Like I don't know what you.
And so I got really mad at him.
I was able to write a letter and then he wanted me to have an appointment with my contact
person at the bank.
I'm like, I'm leaving in two weeks.
I don't have time for this BS.
He's like, okay.
So they luckily canceled my bank account or like, but it was like, why do I need to do
all this administration stuff?
So if you go to France, be prepared for the amount of administration work you're going
to have to go through.
It's a lot.
Yeah.
It is extremely annoying.
Extremely tedious.
Stressful.
Yeah.
No one has time for that.
I am pretty sure I actually never closed my official bank account.
Really?
I mean, I'm pretty sure it closes after a couple of years of an activity, but I never,
I don't remember closing my bank account in France.
So I haven't closed my one in Spain.
So it might be in the same boat.
Yeah.
I, it was rough.
Yeah.
So we actually lived both in France and Spain, but this episode of course is sticking only
to France.
Stay tuned for another episode when we speak about Spain another time.
But anyway, going back to France.
So those are the things you hated about living in France.
What are some things you loved?
As much as I talk shit about France, I do love the country.
I love being able to go to the bakery, being able to get a baguette.
And I mean, that's not necessarily just France.
You could do that in most of Europe, but just the, it's not as stressful as here.
It's not as, I mean, except Paris, but like, it's not like a go, go, go, go culture.
It's a lot more relaxed.
Like when you eat lunch, they give you time to eat lunch.
That's a very important to their culture.
People actually drink wine in their lunch break and the teacher lounge.
I'm like, oh my, and no one cares.
People there are a little bit more difficult to get to know because they are what we call
a coconut culture.
You don't know there are peach cultures and coconut cultures.
So peach cultures are those that are peaches are soft on the outside and then hard on the
inside.
So like the United States, Mexico, I think Spain.
And so they're easy to get to know people, but then it's going to be hard to become really
good friends with these people.
Whereas with coconut cultures, it's the opposite.
It's hard to like get to know people at first, but then they're very soft on the inside.
And so countries like France, Germany, maybe Japan to some extent, because they're a little
more difficult to get to know.
That is something that you have to be aware of because if you're trying to make friends
with French people, it takes time.
It's not like here where you're like super excited after you meet them the first time
they're like, like we're BFFs now.
Right?
No, they're like so skeptical of you for like six months.
They're just like, I don't know if I enjoy you yet.
I really enjoyed the culture.
I enjoyed having those festivities in Lyon.
There were like, like there was like a music festival and just being able to like walk
to it.
Like I was able to walk places and this isn't really a walkable place.
Well, it's not a France being only, but being able to walk to places or take public transportation,
I think I loved being able to do that.
Paying not a lot of money because you're not paying for car insurance.
You're not paying for gas.
I enjoyed being able to walk everywhere.
My supermarket was like right in front of my apartment.
And so it was just nice to be able to walk to the supermarket, walk back.
The transportation infrastructure just really is so different in Europe or maybe not all
of Europe, but in all of the cities.
Yeah, in the cities you can walk everywhere.
And also I love how you can go everywhere too.
You can take weekend trips to other countries even.
You can make that happen.
Whereas in the US, you know, not really.
If you live close to the borders, then maybe, but then it's just that one country.
Exactly.
Knowing some French, I would highly recommend.
I mean, it doesn't even matter if they speak a little English, they prefer French at the
end of the day.
It still wasn't easy though.
Like I still had prompt days where you're tired, where you can't say anything.
You're trying to communicate with people and you don't get your point across.
And they look at you like you have three heads.
Oh my gosh, story of my life.
Yes, that was so frustrating.
The language barrier.
Well, not language barrier, but being misunderstood.
Anybody who speaks a second language and also not perfectly can understand that.
Like it is so, so, so frustrating and you feel so stupid when you speak.
Another reason why I'm not entirely sure where in France, but there are some cases where
the English menu is going to be more expensive than the French menu.
So they might like trick you.
So if you ask for a French menu to compare the prices with the English menu, that would
be good.
Especially with Google translate now, you can actually just have that image, Google
image, whatever they will translate it for you.
So I do recommend just asking for a French menu so that way you can get your good prices.
The correct prices.
Not inflated.
Right.
Exactly.
I actually didn't know that or I actually, or maybe I did at some point, but I had forgotten
that.
Well, this is not just France.
This could be in any country.
You need to just be, they want to raise the price cause you are not from there.
And you don't know any better.
So it's like, Hey, if I can get more money out of you, then why not?
I don't know how legal it is, but it's what happens in some like very touristy places.
It could happen.
Well, another thing and a lot of Americans, especially who go abroad, don't know, but
tipping culture.
So in France, as far as I remember when we were there, I don't think you really tip.
And if you do tip, it's like a euro or two or three.
Right.
But that's, but you don't go overboard with your tipping.
You don't need to tip.
I think the bigger the party, then you're probably more inclined to tip.
But if it's just you, you don't have to tip or if you do tip, it's going to be like, you
know, it's just left change essentially.
But a tipping culture is not as big over there.
It's good to leave something, but it doesn't have to be like 10 or 15%, 20%, nothing like
that.
Not like here where, yeah, like people will scrutinize you and literally look down on
you if you don't tip at least 15% for sure.
But for here it's different because there they are getting paid properly.
Yeah that's a whole lot of discussion.
I mean, can you think of any American things that maybe French people should know if they've
never been to the US?
Honestly, it's probably harder to think of that than the other way around.
Being able to communicate in English is probably going to be important to some extent.
With French people, a lot of people like French people here in the US.
There are, there is a population that does not, but typically people are like, oh, you're
from France and they're going to want to socialize.
Well one thing is to really take advantage of the United States and being able to go
places I would recommend learning, making sure you have your international driver's license.
That's a good tip.
So that way you're able to go other places because when you typically talk to Europeans
and you're like, oh, I want to go to the US.
It's like, oh, okay, where?
And they're like, New York, Los Angeles, Miami.
And they act like those are just like right next door.
You're like, uh huh.
It's like, no, not quite.
That's a little bit far.
Only that.
I would argue like if you go to Los Angeles, if we go to New York, yes, that those are
cities that show you an aspect of the US, but it's not the US that most of us know.
And so you're not going to necessarily understand if you, if you're trying to like understand
American culture, you probably need to go to other places.
Even if you drive outside of those cities, I would think you could definitely get a better
feel of stuff.
New York and Los Angeles, they normally take international flight airplanes to do those
kinds of trips because it's so far away.
It's very, I don't realize how big the US is until they come here and you realize, oh
yeah, I need to get on a plane and I need to take like five hours to get to the other
side of the country.
Right?
It's not, this is, yeah, not quite like Europe.
I mean, yes, like Europe, but not, but it's more vast.
We're our own Europe.
I wish I had taken advantage of this app.
I do not know what it's called.
I need to figure it out.
You could get all the bakery goods at the end of the day for cheap.
Oh, I didn't know about that.
And so I did that with my German friend and he paid like six euro.
We got like three sandwiches, two baguettes, all these pastries for six euros.
And it was like a ton of food.
And I'm like, and I was like my second to last month there.
I'm like, I should have taken advantage of this, this entire time, but no, you pay for
all the goods that didn't sell.
So you don't know what you're going to get, but it's not like they made it that day.
So it's not like they're old, gross things.
I never knew about that.
That's crazy.
It was wild.
The amount of stuff we got.
That's very good advice for anybody living in France.
Even if you're just visiting or visiting just to get like all the these baked goods for
cheap.
It was a good time.
I traveled a lot.
I visited you a couple of times and that was really good.
We all learn something from our time abroad and that's the most important thing to remember.
For sure.
Do you have any last words that you'd like to just throw in here before we start wrapping
up the episode or today?
Um, I'm yeah, I don't know what to say now.
Thank you so much for having me on your podcast.
Oh, well, you're, you're so welcome.
I am so thrilled that you were more than willing and excited to be on the podcast and we will
have Josh again in the future to talk about Spain.
I'm really excited about that.
Thank you so much for tuning in with us, Josh.
Thank you.
So fun.
I love this.
Yes.
We'll do it again for sure.
Maybe again here in your kitchen.
Yeah, living room, wherever.
This now officially wraps up today's episode of Once Upon a Trip.
If you enjoyed and learned something new, please do take a minute to give the show a
quick five star review since I do want to continue growing and sharing this podcast
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Let me know your additional comments on Instagram at OnceUponATrip.PC or on my host account
at Mary Grace Crawford.
Merci beaucoup à tous if you're French and still listening to this or thank you so much
to you for tuning in.
I look forward to being back here again next Tuesday for another fun, adventurous trip
of an episode.
Hong Kong on Us Real ~!