Fun Facts about France

In 2011, I did a couple blog posts of fun things I like about France.  These were a discipline for me to find the good in the midst of the hard part of being so far from "my" familiar.  You can see them here : FIRST list.  SECOND list.

Well, I've been collecting a small list of other things that are different than how I grew up in the States.  Perhaps this will be enlightening for you too!


1)  Did you know that when you count on your fingers here in France, you start with your thumb as "one"?  [Note : it's possible that some of these thing may apply to Europe in general, but I'll just be talking about France.]

2)  Did you know that calendars start with Monday (Lundi) as the first day of the week, rather than Sunday (Dimanche)?  I don't use calendars here, as I've already messed up dates by a quick glance thinking something on Thursday was actually on a Wednesday.

3)  Writing out numbers, especially money values uses commas instead of a decimal point.  For example, 3 euros and 47 centimes would be 3,47 €.  This was hard for me to get used to at first, but now it's normal to me.  Note: When doing calculations on a calculator, we use the decimal point.

4)  You know how in the States, we say that pregnant women crave ice cream and pickles?... Well, here in France, they say that if you crave strawberries, you must be pregnant.  Interesting.  [The little birth announcement I found below says, "Everything starts with a craving."]

5)  When the French write names, the last name is almost always in all capital letters.  My name is Lindsey PETRIGNANI.  I actually think it's a good idea, since it makes it so much easier to identify the last name.

6)  Quotation marks are different.  In the States, we use "Quotation Marks."  Here in France, they use « Guillemets » (/ˈɡɪləmɛt/, or /ɡiːəˈmeɪ/; French: [ɡijmɛ]).

7)  Book bindings are printed in the opposite direction.  They each have their benefits... either the titles can be read while the books are stacked on top of each other, or they can be read left to right in a bookshelf.

Book binding in the States.

Book bindings in France. 

8)  Grocery carts are all-wheel-drive.  It was the same in Cyprus.  I'm not a fan, but it definitley makes for some creative maneuvering.

And that's all I have for now.  Traveling or living abroad or just getting to know someone who's not from my culture is such an incredible way to see how diverse the world and people are... God is amazing how beautiful His Creation is!  I'm thankful for the richness of my life, though I will always miss my family in California!  That's just a given.  Thanks for taking this little walk through some fun cultural differences with me!

Love Linz