Growing up in France

For many years I considered myself more French than American: our family moved to France when I was 2 1/2 and we moved to Mexico when I was 16. Growing up, French was my first language while our parents tried to make us speak English at home. Even after having lived in the US now for more than 20 years, I still speak with a slight French accent. Now that I am married and have children, the US feels like home but I can’t say I wouldn’t mind living abroad for a couple years.

The first fun memories I have are of living in a village called Moumour near Oloron Ste Marie in the south west of France. We lived in a large house acrross a camp ground with large oak tree, a river and occasional gypsies who stayed on the camp grounds. Cows also walked through that area and I remember running after them. We had a boxer, a multiple grade classroom (I was the one girl in my grade with 5 boys) and walked to the boulangerie to get our morning bread. I was quite talkative in class and would regularly be sent to the corner or the hallway (where the teacher once forgot me). Life was simple in those days. We went on several cross country skying school outings!

Later on we moved to another town in the south of France but on the Meditarrenean side. We lived in different apartments, made different friends (two of which I am currently visiting in France and life was still good. As my children go through the school systems in the US, there are several school experiences that are still great memories:

• my favorite topic in middle school was social studies and most specifically studying the Egyptians!
• with that social studies teacher, our class created a documentary on neon lights and we won first (or 2nd) prize which was a class trip to a attraction park dedicated to large screens: 360 degree screen, imax… which was probably new technology back then. We also visited the city of Orleans and a castle. This was a 2 night trip.
• we went on a field trip to Barcelona in high school that was also a 2 night trip. Fond memories of that trip and my friend Caroline which I am seeing today!!
• In PE, we played a wide variety of sports: soccer, handball, ice skating, swimming, volleyball, floor gymnastics as well as other gymnastics, running and many more.
• we went to Rome for a 3 day trip as a family and we yearly went camping in the Pyreenees and Barcelona.

One of the things that I miss the most about France is the food and also the architecture/scenery. While there are some beautiful places in the US it is not as easy to find things with as much history which is probably why I like cities like Charleston, New Orleans and Savannah.

I moved to Mexico when I was 16 and finished high school there. I then moved in with my aunt in Texas but was too homesick so I ended up in California with my parents for a couple of years. It definitely took me many years to adapt to living in the US (I was still going to a French school in Mexico and all of my friends were French or spoke French). I think that once I found my place after my schooling as a teacher then as a wife and mother, I realized that home is where the heart is!

A bientôt!

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