tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post3247976180445170505..comments2023-09-23T11:16:00.352+02:00Comments on The Franco-American Flophouse has moved: The Roots of My Status Insecurity - the Sum of All my FearsVictoria FERAUGEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16319699673885400472noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-75315277892784115332017-06-01T06:50:37.538+02:002017-06-01T06:50:37.538+02:00Thank you, bubblebustin! Good to see you and I...Thank you, bubblebustin! Good to see you and I'm glad you liked reading it.<br /><br />Tim, That is so funny. The French don't think I'm French and an American doesn't think I'm an American any more. Wow. :-)<br /><br />I still have that dress in storage somewhere. Maybe in Brittany. It was my mother-in-law's doign and she has great taste.<br /><br />Oh, that would be an interesting post-Brexit development - having more Americans move to Paris from London. I think it sounds like a damn good idea. Victoria FERAUGEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16319699673885400472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-65377375113786320532017-06-01T05:48:21.503+02:002017-06-01T05:48:21.503+02:00One other thing I noticed is Marvin Van Horn told ...One other thing I noticed is Marvin Van Horn told me about a French documentary on Netflix called Emmanuel Macron: Behind the Rise with English subtitles about the Emmanuel Macron campaign. One thing I noticed is in several of the meetings Macron staffer we eating McDonalds takeout food in his presence. I find it hard to imagine something similar going on back in the 1980s during the Francois Mitterand campaigns.<br /><br />Even Macron himself doesn't seem to have the greatest eating habits. He seemed very eager on election day to stop at some roadside fast food place on the way back from Le Touquet(which is his legal residence and where he official votes) and Paris. All in all though an interesting documentary.<br /><br />Of course now at the Elysee Palace they have a special 24/7 kitchen serving the finest French cruisine.<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiY4rXzXYLg&t=58sTimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03894651289037073128noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-48064537534464775622017-06-01T05:35:57.868+02:002017-06-01T05:35:57.868+02:00It will be very interesting over the next few year...It will be very interesting over the next few years if due to Brexit a large portion of the American expat community in London(That is even more status driven than in Paris)centered around the banking industry is forced to relocate to Paris or some other city in the EU. In fact I have seen several articles indicating the property prices are already on rise in Paris especially in places like Auteuil and Neuilly and the French government is quite explicitly using snob appeal to get London banks to move to Paris instead of Frankfurt or Dublin(basically saying the Frankfurt and Dublin are hole in the wall cities compared to London and Paris).<br /><br />Timhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03894651289037073128noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-9345993835800295482017-06-01T05:23:27.156+02:002017-06-01T05:23:27.156+02:00I got into a bit of an argument with someone in th...I got into a bit of an argument with someone in the US whose company was bought by a much larger French company called Ingenico that you might have heard of. Basically he hates working for Ingenico and just quit and says we will never ever work for another US subsidiary of a French company ever again.<br /><br />I responded that I knew an American woman living in France originally from Seaattle since 1989 who has worked for many French tech companies and from everything she told me she has had really good experiences. I mentioned this American woman I knew had also done several expat tours in Japan for various French tech companies, to which this individual responded that an American living in France since 1989 is "really" French NOT American anymore so she doesn't count in his mind.<br /><br />**I have one confession I have to make in that when I tell your life story to people in the US it is hard for me and for the people I am talking to not to embellish about your lifestyle in Paris especially when I get to the part about the wedding and the "Princess Di" dress.Timhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03894651289037073128noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-17048289396215121872017-06-01T04:55:15.790+02:002017-06-01T04:55:15.790+02:00Beautifully written, Victoria!
You are in a class...Beautifully written, Victoria!<br /><br />You are in a class of your own.bubblebustinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01789474207408205280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-17532701331889502762017-05-31T23:33:43.031+02:002017-05-31T23:33:43.031+02:00Mike, I like that equation. A lot. And back i...Mike, I like that equation. A lot. And back in a previous post I mentioned that we lose a lot when we choose to separate ourselves. And if a farmer in France is a cool guy you want to talk, why isn't the farmer in your home country equally interesting? :-)<br /><br />Nezumi-san: Thank you. Oh, I can see what you mean. Makes me wonder what the villages around the world think of the adventure tourists and the "gap year" youngsters. We are here to "help" you and bring money to your local economy, you poor downtrodden provincials! No one likes to be condescended to. <br /><br />Before Seattle became a cool place (thanks to movies, Microsoft and grunge) the migrants the locals loved to hate were the people from California and other US states. The local paper had a columnist, Emmet Watson, who railed aginst them. The general consensus was that he was right. They were ruining the city for the natives - raising house prices and destroying the environment. A good example of how internal migration mimics international migration. Before I left the country it never occurred to me that an anti-migrant attitude might be a very unfair one. All the "we were born here" or "I'm third generation Seattle" really meant was "We got here first and so we should have the right to keep you out or make you uncomfortable if you slip in." <br /><br />I grant you the convenience of electrons but I wouldn't give up my woodstove for anything. :-)<br /><br />Maria, I can see that. I have come to hate the ord "practical." I have kept my mouth firmly shut when it comes to my daughters. They can study whatever they want. I am just grateful that they want to study at all. Some muttering from my mother-in-law whose dream is that her grandchildren become civil servants. Nothing wrong with being a civil servant but I had a parent who was one and can't say that he enjoyed his work all that much, nor did he earn enough money in my opinion to justify it being a practical choice. He was an outdoor kind of guy and I think he would have loved to work for the National Park service or something like that.<br /><br />That desire to learn, to read and to travel can be threatening to a local community or a nation. There is a reason the Amish pull their kids out of school early - so they don't leave. But the contempt (how many times did I hear from my father that "those that can't do, teach.") only serves to isolate the child and really make him/her want to get out. As a counter-example I read a really nice dissertation the other day written by a local at a local college about a community near where my grand-parents farmed in the Yakima Valley. Good work and a good example of someone who didn't have to leave home to study, to learn and to do research.<br /> Victoria FERAUGEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16319699673885400472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-3750037445520636312017-05-31T19:48:08.490+02:002017-05-31T19:48:08.490+02:00To me, social class is also a mindset, not just mo...To me, social class is also a mindset, not just monetary worth. Or perhaps it's just a matter of education. While a good education can be gotten with money, you can also achieve knowledge by yourself with a mind open to understanding different ideas of all kinds. If you have any discernment, the internet is a wonderful place to acquire knowledge. Yes, like your experiences with your father and mother after they were separated, I had my differences with acquaintances and friends, and my parents. My parents were like your father, concerned only with the practical that will put food on the table. I was more concerned with food for the mind, and so were most of my social circle, like your mother and stepfather. I have come to accept not having much money, but I will never accept having an uneducated mind. I classify myself as lower class in physical wealth, and middle class in mental wealth. <br /><br />Tourists can be a headache, mostly because of the congested crowds they have grown into. What bothers me the most, though, is the ignorant tourist who never bothered to read up anything about the place they are visiting, and who haven't the least idea of the culture, the history, or life in general of my area. I'm not saying they have to be experts, but a little research goes a long way, and thereby avoid extremely dumb mistakes like asking for the subway from Santiago to Vigo and other jewels. (There is a trip on the highway of almost two hours from city to city. They are not twin cities like Minneapolis and Saint Paul.)<br /><br />Wood stoves are still in general use in these villages. It's our only form of heating in the winter, and, yes, the upstairs is cold in the winter. Lighting it can also mean risking blackened lungs, especially on a still, cloudy day with no breeze whatsoever. I do like to stand in front of it on winter evenings, though, and warm my bones!Mariahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249273119777270679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-74113288128946896542017-05-31T14:48:16.099+02:002017-05-31T14:48:16.099+02:00Powerful post. Hard to think of anything to add.
...Powerful post. Hard to think of anything to add.<br /><br />Where I grew up, tourists were likely to be higher in class/income/wealth/education then the locals, so kind of opposite of the Fussellian model of uncouth barbarian tourists disturbing the refined Parisian locals and the migrants who would like to blend in with said locals. Resentment naturally ensued, similar to the resentment of a migrant who is working hard to fit in against those who seem to have it easier. In fact, my family had moved into the area from out of state when I was little, so we also felt like migrants working to blend into the very parochial local culture. Including feeling resentment at those rich out-of-state tourists who would haughtily deign to visit our rustic village for amusement, and then would breeze off when the fall leaves finally fell off, or the snow got too deep to deal with. So I guess I had already gone through this whole process from an early age.<br /><br />In contrast, where I live now, we don't really get tourists. So there is not the opportunity to contrast one's own situation with them. But the need to feel accepted in the local culture is exactly the same. A human invariant.<br /><br />We also used a wood stove for heating when I was growing up. Wonderful when it was fired up, not so wonderful when it was my job to get it going again first thing in the morning... I like electric heat now -- God gave us electrons for a reason, no sense in wasting them, I say.Inaka Nezuminoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-79230001567223617512017-05-31T11:59:21.405+02:002017-05-31T11:59:21.405+02:00I created the following equation after reading you...I created the following equation after reading your wonderful article. <br /><br />Separateness ∝ Wrongness (Separateness is proportional to Wrongness).<br /><br />I am separate because of (money, PhD, house, car, class, last name, fine ass, ________ fill-in-the-blank) is directly proportional to WRONGness. You are not your money, hair, class,...whatever. Therefore, if you think the above, you are wrong.<br /><br />For some reason I came up with the following example. I was taking photographs in the Cimetière du Montparnasse and by the tomb of André Citroën...a smart, rich, engineer...<br />and I asked myself, "self, who was this man?"<br /><br />I could only respond with a phrase from a poem be e. e. cummings<br /><br /> "and what i want to know is<br />how do you like your blue-eyed boy<br />Mister Death"<br /><br />The ultimate question: Who are you? Who were you?<br /><br />I could have stood next to any tomb in the citmtière and ask the same question.<br /><br />I can stand next to any person and ask the same question.<br /><br />Separateness is proportional to WrongnessAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00330287470153331279noreply@blogger.com