Work à la française...and markets

This was my first working week in France, not counting my stint as an au pair (nanny) 10 years ago. I've discovered just how bureaucratic the French can be - as one of my students reminded me, about 25% of the workforce in France work in the public service sector, so if systems were simplified many people would be out of work for lack of paper to push around.

The French government is very protective of its country's workers, which can be a good thing. This means that it is very hard to fire someone in France because they are protected by their contract. You cannot get a (declared, legal) job here without a contract. I expected to turn up and work as a casual teacher, as I did in Sydney, with no paid holidays, no job security and work when it was available.

Instead, I have a contract for 5 weeks and a specified number of working hours, and I had to take a medical test because it is a French govt requirement that all employees do so. I also had to go and queue at a govt office to show them my work visa so they could print me a letter saying I have the right to work in France (what was the visa for then?)

The French students I've taught so far have been lovely and very talkative. I work at the school's 2 campuses; one is not far from the Opera House, and the other is just off the Champs Elysées. I decided to take advantage of this location and checked out the 'Arche de Triumphe' this week. There were loads of tourists queuing to buy tickets to climb it, but Jon and I won't do the same as we'd rather go up the Eiffel Tower - it's much higher.

Since I've only had 10 hours of teaching work this week, I've had a lot of time to shop - for food. Twice a week there are food markets down the street from our place, and I love going there to get our groceries because they're really cheap. Like a French version of Paddy's markets in Chinatown, Sydney. Except the vendors all compete by calling out "Tout à 1 euro!" (everything for 1 euro) And indeed it seems that everything is 1 euro a kilo, or thereabouts. Moroccan strawberries have been cheap the last few weeks, so we've eaten lots of those.

Cathlin

Carla & the Queen

Photo: 'I found Wally...with the €1 wine'

...just to be clear, we liked her music before (and separate to) her becoming France's First Lady, and before the press started drawing comparisons to Jackie Kennedy.

But there hasn't been much talk of Carla Bruni's music of late. Rather, her rendezvous with the Queen (Monsieur Sarkozy was there too) has attracted huge coverage in France. Our interest in Carla is I (Jon) listen to her music most days, because her songs are slow and poetic, and are great for learning French...except for the times she starts singing in Italian mid-way through a song.

And of more importance... Cathlin walked down the aisle to Carla's best track, 'Quelqu'un M'a Dit'.

On a different note, we heard positive comments from people who went to the Christian conference in Katoomba during Easter, and listened to talks on 'caring for the poor'. Would be very interested if anyone would like to post on our blog, or email, their thoughts on the talks.

Just finishing my second week of classes (and Cathlin's been working this week....but she'll post something about that later). We are moving into a shoe-box on Sunday for the remainder of our time in France (no internet access, but there is a public network that floats around Paris we might be able to use).

Other Paris observations include: wine is very cheap; everything else is expensive; and pigeons are much fatter here (I guess they need protection from the cold).

Jon

My French relative...

Jon was excited to find out there is some left-ish blood in my family of engineers!

We went out to Montparnasse (south-west part of Paris) yesterday to see where my great, great grandfather once lived. The Frenchman Lucien Henry was a struggling artist (and activist) who lived, for a time, at 79 Boulevard du Montparnasse. I was most disappointed to find this building nestled amongst cinemas and tourist cafés - I was expecting a different kind of building, but not really sure what exactly.

Anyway, we took a photo of the entrance. He mustn't have been famous enough to have a plaque placed next to the door, unlike another of the tenants there (the poet). We also looked for his name at the cemetery nearby, but later found out he wasn't buried in Paris.

Jon was fascinated to learn that Lucien Henry was banished to New Caledonia in 1871 for his part in the Paris Commune uprising, where Parisians (led largely by socialists and anarchists) took control of the city, much to the delight of observers such as Karl Marx et al.

In a nice twist, we are staying in Belleville, which was the last stronghold of the Commune, before it was over-run.

Cathlin

In the cemetery

...nothing quite like a long walk through a cemetery to remind us of our mortality. We are staying quite close to the Cimetière du Père-Lachaise - resting place of Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf and Oscar Wilde to name a few of its more well-known tenants - so we took an opportunity to visit on Friday (a couple of pics in the attached album).

Speaking of death, we attended my (Jon) first French church service last night to remember the death of Jesus Christ. I was frequently lost, although could pick up several phrases which would put me back on track. At times I would turn to my personal translator ... otherwise known as Cathlin.

We also discussed faith briefly in my French class on Friday. I learnt the French phrase for 'a secular government/the separation of church and state', which is "un pays laique". I enjoy learning French phrases, because often there isn't an equivalent in English. For example, if you are running very fast (because you are running late for something), you might use the phrase "prendre ses jambes a son cou". This implies you have taken off your legs and put them around your shoulders/neck, to get somewhere faster.

But my favourite expression remains "trois fois rien", or "three times nothing", which you might use when someone asks what you have been up to.

There's a good chance I'm using these phrases out of context (Francophone readers might be able to point me in the right direction). But, I've still got five weeks of language saturation to go... before the temperature rises 40 degrees as we enter (God willing) Africa.

Jon

More cemetery pictures here:

Dans le cimetière (à Paris)

First days in Paris

Photo: "You have to be careful of words"

It's day 5 of our six week sojourn à Paris, and we have lots to be thankful for...Jon likes his French classes, and is doing his homework every night...I have a job starting next week teaching Business English...and we have a little apartment in a nice part of Paris. We're only here for 2 weeks as the tenant is returning to Paris earlier than expected, so we have to move to another place that's closer to Jon's school and the centre of Paris, but probably will be smaller than this place. We've been told that it's not unusual to live in studio apartments that are the size of a hotel room.

We haven't done loads of exploring yet - we've been busy finding our way to school/job interviews and getting over jet lag (still waking up early in the mornings) We've also both felt a little sick this week, which is not surprising given that we spent about 20 hours in a small shared space with 300 people on the way over here. However we did get out to the beautiful parc des Buttes Charmont this afternoon, walking very quickly to warm up in the chilly Paris air. It felt much colder than 15 degrees!

Last night we had our first taste of Parisian neighbourly hospitality. Actually I think this is quite rare, but our apartment building only has 5 tenants, and the guy opposite us met me on the stairwell and invited us to his place for a drink with his friends. We ventured over after dinner (we figured we had no excuse as it wasn't far to go) and were introduced as 'les australiens'. It was a great chance for Jon to practise his French, especially listening skills - not easy when there are loads of people talking at the same time. We chatted with a lady who was really interested in our trip as missionaries to Burkina Faso.

She was surprised that we are 'real' Christians who have a 'real' faith...and this led to me trying to explain in French why we believe in Jesus and why you can't work your way into heaven and what the idea of 'grace' is. It was really hard! And made me realise I need to learn a lot more French vocab to do with Christianity and what I believe in and why I believe it, so I can explain my faith.

We found a reformed evangelical church around the corner from us, and visited there on Sunday. We went to their Easter services and a special 'pre-Good Friday' supper last night (note: blog has been updated since this post was written 2 days ago!) It was lovely to meet some French Christians!

Cathlin

See a couple more of our Paris pics here:

à Paris (first week)