I agree, salted butter from Brittany is like a dream come true. I especially like the soft kind. Unfortunately, in the country where I live, it's available only at E.Leclerc and there's only a few of those.
Make a huge bread and butter pudding with your stale bread. Lashings of butter and thick coatings of some strong-flavoured jam (like plum) or orange marmalade. about 550ml of milk, 2 eggs 2 tablespoons of sugar and 4-5 slices of bread.mix the egg, sugar and milk and pour on the the buttered jam'd breat in a dish and cook at about 180C for about 30-40m
I live in Canada. I ordered clothes from both France and Canada. The clothes from France arrived first. I thought i’d tell you so you would feel better about your post office.
A very funny thing happened to my grand-father with the galette des rois. He had gotten the "fève" (the porcelain thing she mentioned) and so was crowned king. The thing is, he completely forgot about the paper crown on his head when he went out on the afternoon to walk the dog... until he met someone that told him "Feeling kingly today, Mr. Mayor?" because of course he was the mayor of this little town which made the situation all the funnier!
Its the mistake to believe strike is a french traditions. First big strikes of workers were in england. All countries had. Actually france have a lot of strikes because communism tradition or civil servants. The fact they are pay the day they strikes isnt ramdom in the number of strikes. If u dont count them, france doesnt have more strike others.
La plupart des avancées sociales ne sont pas dues à des grèves, ni même obtenues par la gauche, mais données par le patronat et la droite, soit qui voulait calmer le jeu, soit qui voulait donner des avantages en nature pour paternaliser leurs salariés plutôt que de les laisser faire ce qu'ils en voulaient sans penser au lendemain avec des augmentations. Les retraites, la sécu, le RSA, les logements sociaux, le chômage... viennent de la droite. Bref les avantages en bossant. La gauche a obtenu les congés payés, les réductions du temps de travail (front populaire, dans les années 80 ou après les 35h). Bref le droit d'en faire moins. C'est une erreur que font souvent les gens, surtout ceux qui se qualifient de "gauche"
OMG! I was amazed at how many of my French language partners (that I don't know super well) took the time to wish me a Happy New Year. It was actually quite endearing to me
@@UnintentionallyFrenchified the fact that we have actual nouns to qualify people vacationing in July and August shows that taking vacation is part of our identity as French people!
Very funny video. A few remarks: It is no big deal if you don’t wish happy new year on January 1st. You’ve got the whole month to do it. To avoid the galette problem, stop eating galette with frangipane (almonds) in it and switch to a true galette : without frangipane, or a galette sèche in French. That’s the true way to eat it. Add some jam, and you’ve got the perfect desert. The stores randomly closed is rare. It happens, but not that much. But yes it can be annoying. Usually a tradi can be eaten the next day contrary to the baguette. Or go to another boulangerie. Or make some pain perdu. Or put a little bit of water on it and then in the oven for a few minutes. Have a nice one.
HI, everyone......I’m using these videos to psych me up for my distant relocation. My wife and I purchased a home in Sancerre and will move June 1st. My wife managed to travel to France in Jan. as a scientist and dual citizen, to visit and sign papers. I haven’t seen our place except with Google Earth! From Berkeley, CA to Central France wine country, my life is about to become interesting and exciting. My Spanish is ok but starting French from scratch!
The hardening bread is one of the reason frenchs dip their bread into their morning beverage (being tea, coffee, chocolate, etc). No to forget the delicious "pain perdu" !!!!
@@UnintentionallyFrenchified | Kate, do your kids also dip baguettes or croissants in hot chocolate, like Alekshar suggested? Frankly it sounds delicious!
About baguette, when it gets quickly stiff on 1 day like a wood: it means it's an industrial baguette and not a fresh artisanal baguette. it's frozen dough some baker fast cook and they don't make all the night. The real fresh baguette lost the softness day by day but never become hard like wood on 1 day.
I was looking for the comment saying if it gets hard in 1 day it's a shitty industrial baguette. Normally it will go soft then hard a few days later and you can always put it in the hoven when it's soft so it gets crunchy again.
@@coke-cinelle it's a way to detect/confirm if your baker sold you an industrial baguette. But the main differrence about fresh and industrial baguette is the taste.
What to do with staled bread: - let it dry and crush it to make breadcrumbs so you can make your own chicken fingers - slice it, put some olive oil, garlic, salt and herbs then toast it to make croutons - or make plain croutons - make grated onion soup - make gaspacho - make pain perdu One tip to preserve the bread longer, place the bread inside a paper bag then inside a plastic bag and tide the plastic bag. The bread will get a bit chewier but it will be eatable for next morning. Not ideal but still usable.
Prefect, the other day I made a onion soup of the first time (I'm a student), it's was delicious with croutons, as good as the soup my mom made even if I burn the bottom of cooking pot 😂.
WoW ! So funny for me, a French guy living in Australia, to watch your video. I went back to work on Monday after a month away, and I was completely lost not knowing if wishing a Happy New Year to all my colleagues was a thing here or not ! So funny that you pointed out our habits to wish a happy new year to every single person !! Thanks for your video. Loved it so much.
I might be able to solve one French problem! To make fresh bread last longer, my European relatives wrap the bread in a tea towel (or 2) and then wrap it in a plastic bag. This makes the bread last at least 2 -3 extra days, particularly in the winter.
American problems: Describing French strikes as “problems” when that type of social organizing grants French citizens more benefits than normal Americans could fathom. *but seriously I wish my fellow Americans went on strikes more.
ME TOO. SO much. since not enough are willing to, if people from a certain restaurant chain etc. went on strike, they would get fired since unlike France, its very easy to fire workers here. 😑
As a French I can tell you strike is not so great. When you depend on public service transport you constantly live with the fear of strikes that can cost you an exam or your job. they can shut down the entire country (in the case of a national strike like SNCF) . And it's a minority of jobs who can and are allowed in practice to make strike. Public transport service and teacher essentially and secondly other public service. In private companies like tertiary , industry and other fields you can forget it. So using public transport service in France is a very good incentive for having a car to become independent of them.
I once got in trouble at work for literally just saying the word strike. They will shut down entire stores if people even talk about strikes. Or clean house and literally fire everyone in the department. And that is normal. Unless you’re a teacher or police officer, whose unions have massive power and can strike without being fired
Now I know why a French lady I barley know wished me Happy New Year! 🤣 Also, my husband emailed our bank manger to make an an appointment to open a savings account and the response was “First, Happy New Year.” Finally, my grocery in my village is closed from 12:45-3:30.
Well the baguette tradition has zero additive and zero preservative. It's meant to be eaten the same day you buy it. So obviously it gets a little stale the next day, but most French people get it toasted for breakfast. How is that a problem ? If anything American tasteless bread with tons of additives and preservatives IS a problem.
Yep, any tourist or immigrant who comes to America will INSTANTLY notice how tasteless and bland the bread is. That's why they put peanut butter, ham or whatever on the bread, so it's more edible. I'll take a slightly stale baguette any day!
@@mgparis | Heck, as an immigrant kid in America, I was always confused when people talked about "bread of life" or "our daily bread". I always thought to myself, "What do these adults mean? Bread tastes terrible and I never want to eat it forever." ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Well, in France the bread is main lunch and dinner with the meal, how I know that? Because I'm french, si if you want speak with me, in Discord: discord.gg/DUBGTPAz4s
My fiancé and I did 2 years of long distance (him living in France and me living in Romania), and I cannot tell you how many times I had to spend the night in a hotel when I came visit him because there were no trains from the airports to the town we live in! I couldn’t believe that the strikes went on and off for the entire two years, such a waste of time and money for the people who traveled a lot.
To me it's a problem you present strikes as a problem. 😊 It's a political right, a social right. For instance, if you have paid 5 week holidays in France it's because people struggled to obtain that. And in France the only way to be heard by deaf governments is going on strike.
Si les gens ont 5 semaines de congés, c'est parce que Mitterrand a été élu en 1981 et les a donnés. Rien à voir avec une grève. Et l'invention des congés payés a été faite par le front populaire dans les années 30, parce que les gens avaient voté pour eux. Rien à voir avec les grèves.
Pro tip for stale bread : pop it in the over for a few minutes along with a small dish filled with water. The steam will bring back some moisture ! You can also quickly place it under cold running water (just a few seconds !!!) and pop it in the oven for around five minutes at 200°C. It's what I do :)
You can keep you braid way longer if you put it on the frizer. When you want some, you just have to microwave it for around 30 secondes and it's still very good.
Hm.. I was always taught formal, especially if they’re more senior than you work wise, a client, someone older, etc. If they don’t mind informal, they’ll let you know.
There’s a simple tip to fix the hardened French bread issue: microwave it for about 10s. That somehow restores it to a state close to when it was fresh out the oven.
Yeah, in New Orleans we have King Cake for Mardi Gras, years ago they used to put the baby inside, but now the baby is on the side ( guessing because a shocking hazard). It is a New Orleans tradition during Mardi Gras season.
OMG... Realizing how French "problems" are so... adorable! (coming back from your "American Problems" video) Btw, your knowledge of French day-to-day life just blows my mind. I've dual citizenship (FR-US), but mainly lived in France & Ireland. And I still learn from you, go figure. I hope you understand how your intelligent POV can be enlightening, for Americans and French alike. Building a priceless cross-culture testimony for decades, no kidding. Rebuilding long overdue bridges, maybe? (I'd say so). Trying hard not to throw politics in there... I'll weep in private :/
Happy New year Kate! Of course you can make French toast with stale bread, but you can do so much more with it. There's some exemples of what I do when I have stale bread: - crush it to make breadcrumbs or use it in the bottom of a "Gratin" to absorb the excess of water, - make croûton, - use it make dessert like Pastizzu, or Bettelmann or Canederli. - use it in meatball to dry it a bit - toasts even a Bruschetta There's a lot of no waste recipes using stale bread :)
Bonne année, bonne santé!!! 😂😂, you always crack me up, merci. As a French living in the US, I sometimes find closed stores when they are supposed to be opened. It's better to say "vous" if you are not sure then the other person might tell you to "tutoyer ou vouvoyer" . I miss some of those things and they are so true!!
In India, we don't have such a pressure of wishing Happy new Year. But we do have similar strikes. People don't go on holidays here. Some lucky folks probably get a week off. We also have the galette overload problem, but not galette. It applies to other Indian sweets and dishes. We also have store hours. Shops close during lunch hours. And every kind of shop closes for a different day in the week. For example, beauty parlours are closed on Tuesdays. India has hundreds of languages of which I speak tamil. We also have a formal and informal sentence construction, like tu and vous forms. We don't have eat bread, so we don't have the baguette problem.
Thanks for all the comparisons with India! So interesting to see what other similarities and differences other cultures have with France. Sounds like India has a lot of similarites, but the no bread is a BIG difference!
@@thomasalegredelasoujeole9998 in india people generally eat fresh and hot flat breads like Tawa roti,naan or tandoori roti etc obviously with ghee(clarified butter). But in eastern and southern india people prefer more rice to roti(flat bread).
With my guitar coach, i ve never known which formal or informal you i needed to use it was so hard omg even 12 years later, im still hesitating all the time
SNCF strikes are the worst of all the strikes. Traffic is also end of may, the month of bank holidays. I think you did a good job 👍🏻 the video is very relevant
We call this limbo between tu and vous tuvoyer. There are however some rules. In some industries, tu is the norm, in some you say vous but call the person by their first name. As a general rule though, when in doubt, always use vous and wait for the older person to offer switching to tu.
The correct use of the second person pronoun is absolutely not a specific French problem. It can be encountered in German, Spanish, Italian, Russian and others as well.
I lived the galette des rois problem and it was not so bad. My family only bought it on January 6th, though, and this is the day that counts 🙂 About the closed stores, another issue is that if the store closes at 5pm you won’t be able to get in after 4:45pm. Even if you are a local, you go to the same Monoprix every other day, and you swear it ‘ll only take you 5 minutes to grab what you need 😕
Usually during January in my department, there are at least 20 galettes des rois to eat... Thankfully because we work from home, I avoided having to decline politely.
The closed stores are so annoying sometimes when their opening hours do not fit into your personal schedule . Also litte tip with what to do with a hard baguette fill it with cheese (preferably goat cheese)and warm it up it will become softer and delicious at least that’s what I think 😅
I feel ya! I try my best but somethings are harder to get used than others. Taking a full month off in summer is not somethign that was hard to get used to :)
If you're not sure about the use of formal/informal "you" just stick with the formal form. The personne in front of you will tell you if you can use the informal form : "tu peut me tutoyer" (you can use "tu"/informal). Exeption : the kids. It could sound strange to use formal "you" to a kid outside of a teacher/student relationship. Even tough some teachers use the informal form. But once the protocol is established it stays this way all the time.
Ugh, I’m still trying to get used to store hours. I always go to a store and then see they are closed, either for lunch or for the day. It’s like you can’t do your errands in one day because something is always closed.
I totally agree! This idea of getting your list taken care of in a 4 hour slot just never seems to happen for lots of reasons that you can't control. Just gotta start controlling expectations instead!
Haha as a French, i really liked this video. This is clearly some very french problems. For the bread, just use a bread box. You can keep your bread 2 -3 days.
Happy new year Kate ! Pour les vacances, il faut aussi dire qu'il est obligatoire de prendre au moins deux semaines consecutives en été, entre début mai et fin octobre plus exactement. La plupart des gens prennent en juillet ou aout pour être avec les enfants.
Traffic! It once took me longer in the bus to get out of Paris than the actual ride to Lyon. I have one porcelain figure from galette des rois. And no extra dental bills. I fully understand the bread issues. But hey what a nice problem to have! Why can't any other country truly make a French baguette? (They make them here in Georgia... but.) Merci Kate. Et bonne année! (I should have done that at the beginning, non?)
- On the "tu" vs "vous", I always say "vous" to older people (>15 years than me). Or I simply ask "should I say "tu" or "you"? - Once your Brad is still, you can always make "pain perdu" with it. Not really the lightest thing to eat but so sweat...
The galette des rois is now a big business but it wasn't the case 15-20 years ago. It used to be eaten only once in the family. Now it's everywhere, anytime in January.
Good to know! At lot of people point out that we are supposed to eat the Galette des rois only once but honestly it's everywhere ALL THE TIME in January.
Yes it's normally for January 6th or the first Sunday in January but now bakeries and supermarkets begin to sell them in December or even November and it goes on till the end of January
3:28 Oh well we don’t really see on the same eye here, because they do have reasons to strike, most French people understand it. We are bothered whenever it happens to us when we need to use this service, but we understand. Also if they strike days in a raw it’s because the government doesn’t want to flinch, doesn’t want to listen and still go on with their policies. The politicians who maintain the status quo are not that bothered by the strike and obviously don’t care about the service users. Maybe if the US Labor Code wasn’t already destroyed by decades of neoliberals and most national corporations already privatised, you might have been able to relate to the rights employees have to strike. Therefore it’s definitely cultural ;).
Well, of you don't know whether to use the formal or informal you, you just need to use the formal one and if they don't mind the informal one they will tell you. Or if for example you meet the parents of a friend and don't know how to call them (you still have a connection with them, not total strangers) just say "oh I hope it doesn't disturb you if I use the informal form" or "can I use the informal" and it will make you not come off as rude and still allow you to be informal
I love your comment on the strikes, we have decided the strikes are to extend the holidays (joke) as they always seem to have one between summer holidays and christmas lol. As for the hardening baguette we actually had a meal with a new french friend and his girlfriend had a row with him and she attacked him by hitting him with the very hard baguette. It was like being in a sit com.
You're exactly in the topic of typical french problem ...The baguette is it also hard to I can break it on the head of my hubby? Is it enough hard to put him knock out and I can finish my diner quietly? :)
The Happy New Years thing is the hardest!! I lost track of which colleges I've said it to... it's past mid month and I'm still saying it 5 times a day! - emma
"La baguette" is far from being the only bread you can find in France. Watch the video by your fellow countrywoman "Oui in France" (th-cam.com/video/5GBo6NEiIFE/w-d-xo.html). As a matter of fact, a "baguette" should be eaten the very day you buy it, contrary to other varieties of bread. Nonetheless, you can keep your leftover bread in your freezer, then unfreeze it at your convenience in less than ten minutes in an oven at 180 °C. It will even taste, or at least feel, better in your mouth!
"the sncf was striking" me living in Ardèche, maybe the only place in France without a damn train :x This place is only good for tourists. But there is other kind of strikes too. Like.. Teachers. And.. Teachers. And if I recall well the last time cared about society.. Ah yeh, teachers
I just had to explain to some friends the difference between a French galette des rois for Epiphany and a Kings Cake for US Mardi Gras. Different, but the same. We add a plastic baby AFTER the cake is cooked, and it's more cinnamon/praline filling in a bread ring. The strikes!!! Every time I go to France! Truckers blocking train tracks my first trip made for a REALLY late arrival into Avignon. And the whole Happy New Year thing . . . NOW I understand why I get New Year's greetings from my host family every year instead of Christmas cards. Thank you!!
Soit , certains Français font souvent grève dans certaines professions , n'abusons pas dans le sens ou nous faisons tous , très souvent grève , en tous les cas , si la France a un niveau social assez élevé (5 semaines de congés payés , assurance maladie , assurance chômage etc... ) Ce n'est que grâce à nos anciens , qui se sont bougés , la France va payer très chère la Covid , et ses conséquences , et j'ai bien peur que l'on ai mangé notre pain blanc . Ceci dit , très bonne santé à toi et à toute ta petite famille .
Why wouldn't it ?! One day someone added mold to flour and the result was not necessarily bad for human health (one calls it "bread" nowadays). The true question is "how is that achieved ? is the product/method used without consequences on human health ?", not "Oh my god if it's chemical it is bad for you !!!"
@@alekshar9690 well the consequences on human health are real look at health situation of us citizens compared to european citizens and i never said "Oh my god if it's chemical it is bad for you !!!"
@@alekshar9690 first if i give you a study you wont read it, second you should check the LONG list of illegal additives that europe considers bad for your health that the us uses anw and yes some are used in american bread
@@jackdebois7898 I do assure you I am curious enough to read those papers, maybe it will even incriminate the products used in the bread I buy and that can stay fresh for a full month and make me change my habits (if it is about a legal product in France). My first comment remains : even if some methods to keep bread fresh are dangerous for human health, it does not necessarily means EVERY method will be that dangerous.
Great blog! You have been in France too long saying “proposing you”... oops... you are starting to pick up the mistakes that the French make in English. 😉
the tutoyer or vouvoyer will be a headache for the rest of my french life i am certain!! ive been teaching here and most of the teachers I work with let me use tu as they see me as a colleague, but i am quite young and there is one woman I work with who is significantly older than me and each time I speak with her I do all that I can to avoid using "you" in a sentence !!! So afraid to use the wrong one!
Okay, so that "January desert" is just King Cake. You're from the US, you should know what that is. It came to the US from France in 1870, and here is generally related to Mardi Gras/New Orleans, while worldwide is generally tied to Epiphany (so January).
The high traffic in summer in France is not only a "franco-français" problem caused by french habits, because european geography has to be considered: each summer, millions of British, Belgians, Germans, and even north Europeans travel by car in France at the same time, either to stay here, or cross the country to spend their holidays in Spain, or Italy. France is at the crossroads of northern and southern Europe, that is a very different situation in US, a huge space with only two borders, and even if US receive millions of tourists as well, they are flying rather than driving, as Americans do, I think, since the distance exceeds about 500 km, whereas an European in Europe will take his car to drive very long distances.
The tu /vous problem is both funny and very very real. At one point Chirac said to then prime minister Mitterand: “On peut se tutoyer?” And Mitterand said: “Si vous voulez.”
It makes me think to a SNL gig « White people problem » with Charles Barkley. « You’re problem is so white it could go snowboarding » would become « you’re problem is so French it could set a RTT day off to bridge between the strike days off and the next vacations »
Everytime you talk about habits and problems in France I get amazed by the similarities right here in Portugal. Except for random store closing hours...
I've only gone to Portugal on vacation but never to live so i'm not the expert, but i'm not surprised to hear that there are some similarities between European countries! But i feel like people in Portugal would be way more laid back than the French? Maybe it's just a wrong stereotype though?
Hi, traditionally there is a saying that you can wish a happy new year all through the month of January. No need to type frenzied sms at midnight. ;-) In a crazy January month like this one, you can also absolve yourself of guilt by answering to those who write or call first. Admittedly it is not French etiquette but it can help if you struggle with the situation.
Tutoiement/Vousvoiment: Usually not a problem at all: You don't say "tu" to someone you just met unless in a YMCA or at school. Alternately, the elder person may say "On se tutoie? (or " On ne va pas continuer à se vousvoyer") Problem solved. Galette des Rois: yes we have a few galette during January but hey, not every day, far from it AND, we usually drink Champagne, we select every time a nice Queen with it so when January is over we just move to the next thing (Crêpes de la Chandeleur, etc). Bread stale: nothing beats a hot baguette from the boulangerie. By my parents we used to have a "Huche à pain" (box for bread), we also were buying larger bread for the entire family and the bread was OK (not delicious) the next day.
I've seen that you like Largo Winch. More seriously, you call a problem the strikes but it's thanks to the strikes that people got the 35 hours work per week, the paid holidays or the minimum wage. You can say it's very french to be attached to the strikes and I love your interventions.
How French does it make me that when I tried to think about the subject of the video before your listed your points, the first and only thing I could think of was the "stale baguette" problem ? hahaha
Italian has an informal and formal way of speaking as well... French tu/vous and Italian tu/lei-voi. It is also on the basis of the respect that a person has towards people that they do not know/of a certain "sage" age. This sort of informal thing reflects on the society a lot as it shows respect for the person before you know it. With the "you", which in reality is an odd word, because it means both "tu" and "vous" as English dropped "thou", it becomes rather a generalist and disrespectful term to address other people because... "how dare you", and "I never keep distance with a meter, but "tu" as a first word to address me by a stranger is something that I never experienced".
Wait what? When did galette des rois become a thing for all of January? (I live abroad now, but when I was still in France, it was like 1 week, 2 weeks tops) For your bread, use a boite à pain. When it goes stale (even in a boite à pain, it will eventually get there), you can put it in the micro-wave for 30s with a glass of water under a glass dome. That will soften it up, which will not be great, because it best crusty, but you can then toast it.
The tu/vous thing is not a french problem at all. It is an anglophone problem :-) In actual fact most languages make a distinction between tu and vous. English is one of the exceptions.
LOL....South Louisiana has the King Cake (our galette des rois)...starts at Epiphany and you're eating that ALL the time until Mardi Gras Day...but guess who we were settled by? Our tradition? You get the baby, you buy the next one. King Cake parties are the thing here. My brother is born between 1/6 and Mardi Gras Day and his birthday cake was always a King Cake. XD
I enjoy hearing another's perspective on something. As for late July and August, everyone leaves Paris, and other parts of the EU, and all seem to come down here, to the Mediterranean...
I haven't had any galette de rois this year at all, 😂😂😂. For NYE it was just me, the hubby, and my mother-in-law, and I made enchiladas with black beans on the side, all home made, and a mixed berry pie, and my mother-in-law was more than happy, lol. I cut the vents on the top of the pie to be the same shape as a galette de rois though, but no figurine to break your teeth on 😂😂. My mother-in-law was really happy to have something different and unique this year, since it was just us.
there's also a trick to "refreshen" baguettes and other bakery types of bread that isn't pain perdue, you quickly run the whole bread (not cut up) under the tap with cold water, then throw the whole thing in the oven at like 190 C for about 15 minutes or so
These things are not problems they are different. Forget what you’re used to go with flow. I’ve lived in France for 5 years & live by “ when in Rome do as the Romans do” . Bread has to be available every day by law. Always use vous unless the person you are speaking to uses tu or says “Tu peux me tutoyer”.
Strikes are overused in France, more often than not they don’t know what they strike for, I suspect some unions to do some drills. Strikes are the reason it is so difficult to reform and « modernize » the country. On the flip side, French enjoy many perks (healthcare, education system, holidays….) whose cost is shared across the whole population. Pretty good deal. And if ever a French President had any temptation to overturn elections, cancel voters or undermine the constitution and/or the institutions, he/she/they would be swiftly ousted by the street and prosecuted. That reassures me, even if I am living just across the border.
"Happy New year... ", many french people really don't care, frankly. Strike is not a "problem"...It's the way everybody begin to have rights... Le "chassez croisé" is a real pain in the ass... I remember living Paris at 3.00 during the night, awful ! Never heard this problem about the "galette des rois" over the month of january, I guess your boyfriend family must be a little "traditionnalist". Yes stores closing is a good thing, it doesn't create any problem, you get use to it easy it's not a french problem in fact it's a USA problem ! English is Informal... but I tend to prefer english with "you" rather than "tu" and "vous". Yes baguette is fresh bread, you can't compare bread in US and in France, impossible ! Kisses !
I LOVE to terrify dabblers in french with getting theatrically offended if they DARE adress me as « tu ». I make a show of flying off the handle, then of course i break it out i was just pulling their leg. A bit risqué at time but generally pretty amusing ^^
For your hard baguette issue, there is a solution ! You can cook pain perdu with it. (Mais j'ai perdu la recette du pain perdu...) You dip your bread in milk, butter and a lot of sugar (if I remember well, maybe add the butter later) then cook it a few seconds in a pan and you have an incredible unhealthy pastry. (But tasty as fuck)
Kate, you could have included the Masculine Vs Feminine classification. I know for a fact that it drives a lot of English-speaking friends nuts when they try to learn French. And something peculiar about strikes is that the people on strike still get payed a percentage of their wages by the company they work for so, fun fact (or not), the last days of strike generally include negotiating the percentage value which always prolongs the strike. As for the weekend of Julyists Vs Augustists, we often refer to it as the Flip Weekend.
@@UnintentionallyFrenchified I've often heard the radio & TV host speak of "weekend de la bascule", Flip weekend was the best translation I could think of. As for masculine Vs feminine, I have a friend who couldn't understand why, if we went out for a bike ride it was masculine (UN vélo) but if we went out for a bicycle ride it was feminine (UNE bicyclette) HAHAHA
I mostly agree 😅 But I hate too when shops are supposed to be opened and they are "exceptionally" closed when you arrive. Otherwise, galette des rois is never a problem 😆
Stale bread... The primary ingredient for the pain perdu. With crème anglaise, berries, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, a dash of amaretto or rhum or maple syrup... 🤤 And that is why I avoid buying bread. Too coronary-risky aha
I think one of the most underrated French problems is salted butter vs. unsalted butter...:-) (real butter vs. ordinary
greasy stuff)
Breton, va ! :p
Unsalted is used especially for baking.
Maybe in Normandy, but not in Britanny (I'd rather choke myself than eat something baked with unsalted butter :)
I agree, salted butter from Brittany is like a dream come true. I especially like the soft kind. Unfortunately, in the country where I live, it's available only at E.Leclerc and there's only a few of those.
Make a huge bread and butter pudding with your stale bread. Lashings of butter and thick coatings of some strong-flavoured jam (like plum) or orange marmalade. about 550ml of milk, 2 eggs 2 tablespoons of sugar and 4-5 slices of bread.mix the egg, sugar and milk and pour on the the buttered jam'd breat in a dish and cook at about 180C for about 30-40m
I live in Canada. I ordered clothes from both France and Canada. The clothes from France arrived first. I thought i’d tell you so you would feel better about your post office.
If you want talk, i'm french.
In Discord:
discord.gg/DUBGTPAz4s
A very funny thing happened to my grand-father with the galette des rois. He had gotten the "fève" (the porcelain thing she mentioned) and so was crowned king. The thing is, he completely forgot about the paper crown on his head when he went out on the afternoon to walk the dog... until he met someone that told him "Feeling kingly today, Mr. Mayor?" because of course he was the mayor of this little town which made the situation all the funnier!
That's a cute story !
For the strikes it's a part of our history. Some big reforms was made because of strikes. For example social security , holidays...
ok i see
"social security", do you mean "Sécurité Sociale" ? Because it has nothing ti do with strikes...we have to thank the CNR for that.
@@hysope5 Yes for Securité Sociale you are true but for holidays not it's due to the strikes
Its the mistake to believe strike is a french traditions. First big strikes of workers were in england. All countries had. Actually france have a lot of strikes because communism tradition or civil servants. The fact they are pay the day they strikes isnt ramdom in the number of strikes. If u dont count them, france doesnt have more strike others.
La plupart des avancées sociales ne sont pas dues à des grèves, ni même obtenues par la gauche, mais données par le patronat et la droite, soit qui voulait calmer le jeu, soit qui voulait donner des avantages en nature pour paternaliser leurs salariés plutôt que de les laisser faire ce qu'ils en voulaient sans penser au lendemain avec des augmentations.
Les retraites, la sécu, le RSA, les logements sociaux, le chômage... viennent de la droite. Bref les avantages en bossant.
La gauche a obtenu les congés payés, les réductions du temps de travail (front populaire, dans les années 80 ou après les 35h). Bref le droit d'en faire moins.
C'est une erreur que font souvent les gens, surtout ceux qui se qualifient de "gauche"
OMG! I was amazed at how many of my French language partners (that I don't know super well) took the time to wish me a Happy New Year. It was actually quite endearing to me
we have even 2 words for summer break : french people are either "juilletistes" or "aoutiens"
Hahah summer vacation in France. LOVE IT!
@@UnintentionallyFrenchified the fact that we have actual nouns to qualify people vacationing in July and August shows that taking vacation is part of our identity as French people!
... et leur chassé-croisé :)
So interesting how all these points can be applied in Spain as well! I guess frenchies and spanish are more alike than they like to admit 🤣☺
Very funny video.
A few remarks:
It is no big deal if you don’t wish happy new year on January 1st. You’ve got the whole month to do it.
To avoid the galette problem, stop eating galette with frangipane (almonds) in it and switch to a true galette : without frangipane, or a galette sèche in French. That’s the true way to eat it. Add some jam, and you’ve got the perfect desert.
The stores randomly closed is rare. It happens, but not that much. But yes it can be annoying.
Usually a tradi can be eaten the next day contrary to the baguette. Or go to another boulangerie. Or make some pain perdu. Or put a little bit of water on it and then in the oven for a few minutes.
Have a nice one.
HI, everyone......I’m using these videos to psych me up for my distant relocation. My wife and I purchased a home in Sancerre and will move June 1st. My wife managed to travel to France in Jan. as a scientist and dual citizen, to visit and sign papers. I haven’t seen our place except with Google Earth!
From Berkeley, CA to Central France wine country, my life is about to become interesting and exciting. My Spanish is ok but starting French from scratch!
The hardening bread is one of the reason frenchs dip their bread into their morning beverage (being tea, coffee, chocolate, etc).
No to forget the delicious "pain perdu" !!!!
How could I forget french toast! It's so good and a great way to get rid of hard bread!
@@UnintentionallyFrenchified | Kate, do your kids also dip baguettes or croissants in hot chocolate, like Alekshar suggested? Frankly it sounds delicious!
Pain perdu is also a british treat...poor knight of Windsor....with sherry....
About baguette, when it gets quickly stiff on 1 day like a wood: it means it's an industrial baguette and not a fresh artisanal baguette. it's frozen dough some baker fast cook and they don't make all the night. The real fresh baguette lost the softness day by day but never become hard like wood on 1 day.
I was looking for the comment saying if it gets hard in 1 day it's a shitty industrial baguette. Normally it will go soft then hard a few days later and you can always put it in the hoven when it's soft so it gets crunchy again.
@@coke-cinelle it's a way to detect/confirm if your baker sold you an industrial baguette. But the main differrence about fresh and industrial baguette is the taste.
yesss!!
And after a while you can do a delicious « gateau de pain » with all the remaining pieces of breads
@@TheFrederic888 or doing a pain perdu: the real origin recipe of the french toast
What to do with staled bread:
- let it dry and crush it to make breadcrumbs so you can make your own chicken fingers
- slice it, put some olive oil, garlic, salt and herbs then toast it to make croutons
- or make plain croutons
- make grated onion soup
- make gaspacho
- make pain perdu
One tip to preserve the bread longer, place the bread inside a paper bag then inside a plastic bag and tide the plastic bag. The bread will get a bit chewier but it will be eatable for next morning. Not ideal but still usable.
Prefect, the other day I made a onion soup of the first time (I'm a student), it's was delicious with croutons, as good as the soup my mom made even if I burn the bottom of cooking pot 😂.
WoW ! So funny for me, a French guy living in Australia, to watch your video.
I went back to work on Monday after a month away, and I was completely lost not knowing if wishing a Happy New Year to all my colleagues was a thing here or not ! So funny that you pointed out our habits to wish a happy new year to every single person !!
Thanks for your video. Loved it so much.
I might be able to solve one French problem! To make fresh bread last longer, my European relatives wrap the bread in a tea towel (or 2) and then wrap it in a plastic bag. This makes the bread last at least 2 -3 extra days, particularly in the winter.
American problems: Describing French strikes as “problems” when that type of social organizing grants French citizens more benefits than normal Americans could fathom.
*but seriously I wish my fellow Americans went on strikes more.
ME TOO. SO much. since not enough are willing to, if people from a certain restaurant chain etc. went on strike, they would get fired since unlike France, its very easy to fire workers here. 😑
American Problem for you lol
As a French I can tell you strike is not so great. When you depend on public service transport you constantly live with the fear of strikes that can cost you an exam or your job.
they can shut down the entire country (in the case of a national strike like SNCF) .
And it's a minority of jobs who can and are allowed in practice to make strike. Public transport service and teacher essentially and secondly other public service.
In private companies like tertiary , industry and other fields you can forget it.
So using public transport service in France is a very good incentive for having a car to become independent of them.
I once got in trouble at work for literally just saying the word strike.
They will shut down entire stores if people even talk about strikes. Or clean house and literally fire everyone in the department.
And that is normal. Unless you’re a teacher or police officer, whose unions have massive power and can strike without being fired
@@Jenny-tm3cm extremely unfortunate, hopefully things change and people get organized against this anti-labor aggression.
Now I know why a French lady I barley know wished me Happy New Year! 🤣 Also, my husband emailed our bank manger to make an an appointment to open a savings account and the response was “First, Happy New Year.” Finally, my grocery in my village is closed from 12:45-3:30.
#truefacts!!
Well the baguette tradition has zero additive and zero preservative. It's meant to be eaten the same day you buy it. So obviously it gets a little stale the next day, but most French people get it toasted for breakfast. How is that a problem ? If anything American tasteless bread with tons of additives and preservatives IS a problem.
Yep, any tourist or immigrant who comes to America will INSTANTLY notice how tasteless and bland the bread is. That's why they put peanut butter, ham or whatever on the bread, so it's more edible. I'll take a slightly stale baguette any day!
@@vdayucla Amen. I lived in the US for 9 years and the *one* thing I missed the most was bread.
@@mgparis | Heck, as an immigrant kid in America, I was always confused when people talked about "bread of life" or "our daily bread". I always thought to myself, "What do these adults mean? Bread tastes terrible and I never want to eat it forever." ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Well, in France the bread is main lunch and dinner with the meal, how I know that? Because I'm french, si if you want speak with me, in Discord:
discord.gg/DUBGTPAz4s
In the 16 years we’ve lived here in the US, I still haven’t gotten used to not wishing a HNY to everyone I talk to the first time in January.
My fiancé and I did 2 years of long distance (him living in France and me living in Romania), and I cannot tell you how many times I had to spend the night in a hotel when I came visit him because there were no trains from the airports to the town we live in! I couldn’t believe that the strikes went on and off for the entire two years, such a waste of time and money for the people who traveled a lot.
To me it's a problem you present strikes as a problem. 😊 It's a political right, a social right. For instance, if you have paid 5 week holidays in France it's because people struggled to obtain that. And in France the only way to be heard by deaf governments is going on strike.
I think she meant it is a problem only in the sense that it causes certain inconveniences, such as the subway not working for weeks.
Si les gens ont 5 semaines de congés, c'est parce que Mitterrand a été élu en 1981 et les a donnés. Rien à voir avec une grève. Et l'invention des congés payés a été faite par le front populaire dans les années 30, parce que les gens avaient voté pour eux. Rien à voir avec les grèves.
Strikes are literally legalized terrorism. Legalized back in the day through .. terrorism.
Pro tip for stale bread : pop it in the over for a few minutes along with a small dish filled with water. The steam will bring back some moisture ! You can also quickly place it under cold running water (just a few seconds !!!) and pop it in the oven for around five minutes at 200°C. It's what I do :)
second tip: buy baguette tradition, it usually takes at least 2 days to get stale (if it does, try another bakery), not just one.
It's exactly what I do, too. :)
You can keep you braid way longer if you put it on the frizer. When you want some, you just have to microwave it for around 30 secondes and it's still very good.
Hm.. I was always taught formal, especially if they’re more senior than you work wise, a client, someone older, etc. If they don’t mind informal, they’ll let you know.
That's true, if you're not sure, go for formal and the person will automatically let you know if you can use the informal way
That's not untrue but saying the formal one can be rude if they expected the other because it means you don't both see your relation the same way
There’s a simple tip to fix the hardened French bread issue: microwave it for about 10s.
That somehow restores it to a state close to when it was fresh out the oven.
Yeah, in New Orleans we have King Cake for Mardi Gras, years ago they used to put the baby inside, but now the baby is on the side ( guessing because a shocking hazard). It is a New Orleans tradition during Mardi Gras season.
I'm interested by the recipe dude!
OMG... Realizing how French "problems" are so... adorable! (coming back from your "American Problems" video) Btw, your knowledge of French day-to-day life just blows my mind. I've dual citizenship (FR-US), but mainly lived in France & Ireland. And I still learn from you, go figure. I hope you understand how your intelligent POV can be enlightening, for Americans and French alike. Building a priceless cross-culture testimony for decades, no kidding. Rebuilding long overdue bridges, maybe? (I'd say so).
Trying hard not to throw politics in there... I'll weep in private :/
Happy New year Kate!
Of course you can make French toast with stale bread, but you can do so much more with it. There's some exemples of what I do when I have stale bread:
- crush it to make breadcrumbs or use it in the bottom of a "Gratin" to absorb the excess of water,
- make croûton,
- use it make dessert like Pastizzu, or Bettelmann or Canederli.
- use it in meatball to dry it a bit
- toasts even a Bruschetta
There's a lot of no waste recipes using stale bread :)
I'm french and living in the UK and I miss the galette des rois à tous les repas 🤤
I would totally miss it if i couldn't have it all too!
il faut s’intégrer et manger comme les Anglais.
@@axeller4209 Je ne vis pas en France, je n'ai donc pas à m’accommoder des Français.
Bonne année, bonne santé!!!
😂😂, you always crack me up, merci.
As a French living in the US, I sometimes find closed stores when they are supposed to be opened. It's better to say "vous" if you are not sure then the other person might tell you to "tutoyer ou vouvoyer" .
I miss some of those things and they are so true!!
In India, we don't have such a pressure of wishing Happy new Year. But we do have similar strikes. People don't go on holidays here. Some lucky folks probably get a week off. We also have the galette overload problem, but not galette. It applies to other Indian sweets and dishes. We also have store hours. Shops close during lunch hours. And every kind of shop closes for a different day in the week. For example, beauty parlours are closed on Tuesdays. India has hundreds of languages of which I speak tamil. We also have a formal and informal sentence construction, like tu and vous forms. We don't have eat bread, so we don't have the baguette problem.
Thanks for all the comparisons with India! So interesting to see what other similarities and differences other cultures have with France. Sounds like India has a lot of similarites, but the no bread is a BIG difference!
@@UnintentionallyFrenchified well, dry out a Naan bread and you can chip a tooth on it too ! Damn i miss India. Cheers !
@@thomasalegredelasoujeole9998 in india people generally eat fresh and hot flat breads like Tawa roti,naan or tandoori roti etc obviously with ghee(clarified butter).
But in eastern and southern india people prefer more rice to roti(flat bread).
@@arnabchakraborty3152 indeed ! Right know i would kill for some idli or freshly baked wada with sambar and coconut Chutney ! 😄
@@thomasalegredelasoujeole9998 that's a great choice as well.Are you french?
a lot of french people are against the public transportation strikes. A lot.
With my guitar coach, i ve never known which formal or informal you i needed to use it was so hard omg even 12 years later, im still hesitating all the time
SNCF strikes are the worst of all the strikes. Traffic is also end of may, the month of bank holidays. I think you did a good job 👍🏻 the video is very relevant
We call this limbo between tu and vous tuvoyer.
There are however some rules. In some industries, tu is the norm, in some you say vous but call the person by their first name.
As a general rule though, when in doubt, always use vous and wait for the older person to offer switching to tu.
Yes, always safest to go with vous if you don't know!
The correct use of the second person pronoun is absolutely not a specific French problem. It can be encountered in German, Spanish, Italian, Russian and others as well.
@@philipperoche2577 and in French it is so much easier. In Polish for instance the equivalent of vous induces a whole syntax change.
Or change everything to neutral or on ;)
When I was a child, my mother served stale bread soaked in milk with a bit of sugar for breakfast, she spoke French and called it "miton".
Never heard of the word
Very normal way to soften stale bread, sounds like something my grandmother would do.
I lived the galette des rois problem and it was not so bad. My family only bought it on January 6th, though, and this is the day that counts 🙂
About the closed stores, another issue is that if the store closes at 5pm you won’t be able to get in after 4:45pm. Even if you are a local, you go to the same Monoprix every other day, and you swear it ‘ll only take you 5 minutes to grab what you need 😕
Usually during January in my department, there are at least 20 galettes des rois to eat... Thankfully because we work from home, I avoided having to decline politely.
The closed stores are so annoying sometimes when their opening hours do not fit into your personal schedule . Also litte tip with what to do with a hard baguette fill it with cheese (preferably goat cheese)and warm it up it will become softer and delicious at least that’s what I think 😅
100% accurate video ! love it ! I sometimes had problems with my mates because I refused to follow some of those social rules x)
I feel ya! I try my best but somethings are harder to get used than others. Taking a full month off in summer is not somethign that was hard to get used to :)
11:26 when bread is not good anymore is still is, make "pain perdu" ;-)
If you're not sure about the use of formal/informal "you" just stick with the formal form. The personne in front of you will tell you if you can use the informal form : "tu peut me tutoyer" (you can use "tu"/informal). Exeption : the kids. It could sound strange to use formal "you" to a kid outside of a teacher/student relationship. Even tough some teachers use the informal form. But once the protocol is established it stays this way all the time.
Ugh, I’m still trying to get used to store hours. I always go to a store and then see they are closed, either for lunch or for the day. It’s like you can’t do your errands in one day because something is always closed.
I totally agree! This idea of getting your list taken care of in a 4 hour slot just never seems to happen for lots of reasons that you can't control. Just gotta start controlling expectations instead!
Haha as a French, i really liked this video.
This is clearly some very french problems.
For the bread, just use a bread box. You can keep your bread 2 -3 days.
Happy new year Kate !
Pour les vacances, il faut aussi dire qu'il est obligatoire de prendre au moins deux semaines consecutives en été, entre début mai et fin octobre plus exactement. La plupart des gens prennent en juillet ou aout pour être avec les enfants.
The strikes are actually pretty relaxing since the valid excuse it’s the strike makes life a lot easier ;)
Traffic! It once took me longer in the bus to get out of Paris than the actual ride to Lyon. I have one porcelain figure from galette des rois. And no extra dental bills. I fully understand the bread issues. But hey what a nice problem to have! Why can't any other country truly make a French baguette? (They make them here in Georgia... but.) Merci Kate. Et bonne année! (I should have done that at the beginning, non?)
hahahah bonne année! And if only other countries could manage a baguette like the French. We try in the US, but it's just not the same thing!!
- On the "tu" vs "vous", I always say "vous" to older people (>15 years than me). Or I simply ask "should I say "tu" or "you"?
- Once your Brad is still, you can always make "pain perdu" with it. Not really the lightest thing to eat but so sweat...
true for the french toast!
@@UnintentionallyFrenchified Don't forget "le gâteau de pain" , recipe from north-east of France I guess.
The galette des rois is now a big business but it wasn't the case 15-20 years ago. It used to be eaten only once in the family. Now it's everywhere, anytime in January.
Good to know! At lot of people point out that we are supposed to eat the Galette des rois only once but honestly it's everywhere ALL THE TIME in January.
Yes it's normally for January 6th or the first Sunday in January but now bakeries and supermarkets begin to sell them in December or even November and it goes on till the end of January
3:28 Oh well we don’t really see on the same eye here, because they do have reasons to strike, most French people understand it. We are bothered whenever it happens to us when we need to use this service, but we understand. Also if they strike days in a raw it’s because the government doesn’t want to flinch, doesn’t want to listen and still go on with their policies. The politicians who maintain the status quo are not that bothered by the strike and obviously don’t care about the service users. Maybe if the US Labor Code wasn’t already destroyed by decades of neoliberals and most national corporations already privatised, you might have been able to relate to the rights employees have to strike. Therefore it’s definitely cultural ;).
Well, of you don't know whether to use the formal or informal you, you just need to use the formal one and if they don't mind the informal one they will tell you.
Or if for example you meet the parents of a friend and don't know how to call them (you still have a connection with them, not total strangers) just say "oh I hope it doesn't disturb you if I use the informal form" or "can I use the informal" and it will make you not come off as rude and still allow you to be informal
You can put your stale bread under running water for 2 sec and put it in the oven. It will come out like fresh bread :)
For Vous and Tu it's very easy. If the person is not your friend you have to say "Vous". Except if the person is around the same age as you.
I love your comment on the strikes, we have decided the strikes are to extend the holidays (joke) as they always seem to have one between summer holidays and christmas lol. As for the hardening baguette we actually had a meal with a new french friend and his girlfriend had a row with him and she attacked him by hitting him with the very hard baguette. It was like being in a sit com.
You're exactly in the topic of typical french problem ...The baguette is it also hard to I can break it on the head of my hubby? Is it enough hard to put him knock out and I can finish my diner quietly? :)
The Happy New Years thing is the hardest!! I lost track of which colleges I've said it to... it's past mid month and I'm still saying it 5 times a day! - emma
hahahah. The worst!
@@UnintentionallyFrenchified I've just accepted ill come off rude at least once a day in January 🤣🤣
"La baguette" is far from being the only bread you can find in France. Watch the video by your fellow countrywoman "Oui in France" (th-cam.com/video/5GBo6NEiIFE/w-d-xo.html). As a matter of fact, a "baguette" should be eaten the very day you buy it, contrary to other varieties of bread.
Nonetheless, you can keep your leftover bread in your freezer, then unfreeze it at your convenience in less than ten minutes in an oven at 180 °C. It will even taste, or at least feel, better in your mouth!
"the sncf was striking" me living in Ardèche, maybe the only place in France without a damn train :x
This place is only good for tourists. But there is other kind of strikes too. Like..
Teachers. And.. Teachers. And if I recall well the last time cared about society.. Ah yeh, teachers
tu as oublié de parler des greves de profs
Teachers is true! Though that tends to be something we see more often in the states too!
I feel you! Every country has its quirks for sure (all shops closed on Mondays in our village, for example ! 🙄)
I just had to explain to some friends the difference between a French galette des rois for Epiphany and a Kings Cake for US Mardi Gras. Different, but the same. We add a plastic baby AFTER the cake is cooked, and it's more cinnamon/praline filling in a bread ring.
The strikes!!! Every time I go to France! Truckers blocking train tracks my first trip made for a REALLY late arrival into Avignon.
And the whole Happy New Year thing . . . NOW I understand why I get New Year's greetings from my host family every year instead of Christmas cards. Thank you!!
Soit , certains Français font souvent grève dans certaines professions , n'abusons pas dans le sens ou nous faisons tous , très souvent grève , en tous les cas , si la France a un niveau social assez élevé (5 semaines de congés payés , assurance maladie , assurance chômage etc... ) Ce n'est que grâce à nos anciens , qui se sont bougés , la France va payer très chère la Covid , et ses conséquences , et j'ai bien peur que l'on ai mangé notre pain blanc . Ceci dit , très bonne santé à toi et à toute ta petite famille .
HOLD ON : bread in the us lasts weeks? you can't tell me that bread could be good for your health
Why wouldn't it ?!
One day someone added mold to flour and the result was not necessarily bad for human health (one calls it "bread" nowadays).
The true question is "how is that achieved ? is the product/method used without consequences on human health ?", not "Oh my god if it's chemical it is bad for you !!!"
@@alekshar9690 well the consequences on human health are real look at health situation of us citizens compared to european citizens and i never said "Oh my god if it's chemical it is bad for you !!!"
@@jackdebois7898 do you have any study indicating that us citizens' health is worst than europeans due to bread conservation techniques ?
@@alekshar9690 first if i give you a study you wont read it, second you should check the LONG list of illegal additives that europe considers bad for your health that the us uses anw and yes some are used in american bread
@@jackdebois7898 I do assure you I am curious enough to read those papers, maybe it will even incriminate the products used in the bread I buy and that can stay fresh for a full month and make me change my habits (if it is about a legal product in France).
My first comment remains : even if some methods to keep bread fresh are dangerous for human health, it does not necessarily means EVERY method will be that dangerous.
I had to travel to Bretagne during the SNCF strikes..we struggled a lot to get there from Paris.
aaah ! i'm French, and omg your video are so funny and true haha
Great blog! You have been in France too long saying “proposing you”... oops... you are starting to pick up the mistakes that the French make in English. 😉
Totally. :-) Next step using pass like a French speaker. Do you want to pass?
hahahah i totally saw this when i was watching the final version of the film. It's always cringeworthy when i catch myself doing it. :)
the tutoyer or vouvoyer will be a headache for the rest of my french life i am certain!! ive been teaching here and most of the teachers I work with let me use tu as they see me as a colleague, but i am quite young and there is one woman I work with who is significantly older than me and each time I speak with her I do all that I can to avoid using "you" in a sentence !!! So afraid to use the wrong one!
A good way to solve the problem is to ask: "Pouvons nous tutoyer ?". It is very common and very polite. Instead of assuming, you ask for permission.
hahaha i completely feel you on this one! But i agree with Olivier Castets that you can politely ask, but i always felt uncomfortable asking!
Okay, so that "January desert" is just King Cake. You're from the US, you should know what that is. It came to the US from France in 1870, and here is generally related to Mardi Gras/New Orleans, while worldwide is generally tied to Epiphany (so January).
Actually I am from California and never heard of Kings Cake until in my 40s. Outside of Louisiana it’s not well known.
The high traffic in summer in France is not only a "franco-français" problem caused by french habits, because european geography has to be considered: each summer, millions of British, Belgians, Germans, and even north Europeans travel by car in France at the same time, either to stay here, or cross the country to spend their holidays in Spain, or Italy. France is at the crossroads of northern and southern Europe, that is a very different situation in US, a huge space with only two borders, and even if US receive millions of tourists as well, they are flying rather than driving, as Americans do, I think, since the distance exceeds about 500 km, whereas an European in Europe will take his car to drive very long distances.
The tu /vous problem is both funny and very very real. At one point Chirac said to then prime minister Mitterand: “On peut se tutoyer?” And Mitterand said: “Si vous voulez.”
For the bread, if you put it in the freezer, it will keep it really good.
very good? I'd say edible.
We do that if we have too much bread, and its way better than not having bread when you defrost it, but it's not the same!
It might be better to defrost it in an oven, not by microwave, it is way better, almost like when it is fresh.
It makes me think to a SNL gig « White people problem » with Charles Barkley. « You’re problem is so white it could go snowboarding » would become « you’re problem is so French it could set a RTT day off to bridge between the strike days off and the next vacations »
You NEVER have to much galette des rois! I always love January for the galette.
Everytime you talk about habits and problems in France I get amazed by the similarities right here in Portugal. Except for random store closing hours...
I've only gone to Portugal on vacation but never to live so i'm not the expert, but i'm not surprised to hear that there are some similarities between European countries! But i feel like people in Portugal would be way more laid back than the French? Maybe it's just a wrong stereotype though?
@@UnintentionallyFrenchified Depends, laidback in what way?
Hi, traditionally there is a saying that you can wish a happy new year all through the month of January. No need to type frenzied sms at midnight. ;-)
In a crazy January month like this one, you can also absolve yourself of guilt by answering to those who write or call first. Admittedly it is not French etiquette but it can help if you struggle with the situation.
Good tip!!
Tutoiement/Vousvoiment: Usually not a problem at all: You don't say "tu" to someone you just met unless in a YMCA or at school. Alternately, the elder person may say "On se tutoie? (or " On ne va pas continuer à se vousvoyer") Problem solved.
Galette des Rois: yes we have a few galette during January but hey, not every day, far from it AND, we usually drink Champagne, we select every time a nice Queen with it so when January is over we just move to the next thing (Crêpes de la Chandeleur, etc).
Bread stale: nothing beats a hot baguette from the boulangerie. By my parents we used to have a "Huche à pain" (box for bread), we also were buying larger bread for the entire family and the bread was OK (not delicious) the next day.
Hello. Elle est sympa, ta musique de générique, c'est quoi, comme chanson ? What is the song you use at the bedinnin' and the end of this vidéo ?
I've seen that you like Largo Winch. More seriously, you call a problem the strikes but it's thanks to the strikes that people got the 35 hours work per week, the paid holidays or the minimum wage. You can say it's very french to be attached to the strikes and I love your interventions.
How French does it make me that when I tried to think about the subject of the video before your listed your points, the first and only thing I could think of was the "stale baguette" problem ? hahaha
Hi i remember that from the news in the netherlands when we were on holyday there, we called it black saturday.
We had fifteen régimes between 1789 and 1958, birth of our current Vème République, hence our love for fiery débats and struggling dans les rues
Italian has an informal and formal way of speaking as well... French tu/vous and Italian tu/lei-voi. It is also on the basis of the respect that a person has towards people that they do not know/of a certain "sage" age. This sort of informal thing reflects on the society a lot as it shows respect for the person before you know it. With the "you", which in reality is an odd word, because it means both "tu" and "vous" as English dropped "thou", it becomes rather a generalist and disrespectful term to address other people because... "how dare you", and "I never keep distance with a meter, but "tu" as a first word to address me by a stranger is something that I never experienced".
Wait what? When did galette des rois become a thing for all of January? (I live abroad now, but when I was still in France, it was like 1 week, 2 weeks tops)
For your bread, use a boite à pain. When it goes stale (even in a boite à pain, it will eventually get there), you can put it in the micro-wave for 30s with a glass of water under a glass dome. That will soften it up, which will not be great, because it best crusty, but you can then toast it.
The tu/vous thing is not a french problem at all. It is an anglophone problem :-) In actual fact most languages make a distinction between tu and vous. English is one of the exceptions.
I've spent the last 2 New Years Days in rural France ..and not one person has wished me Happy New Year...is it because I'm English?🙄
Lol. Dont panic , if nobody wished u ''happy brexit'', they dont hate u.
Personnaly i m rural in brittany and prefer english people that parisian.
LOL....South Louisiana has the King Cake (our galette des rois)...starts at Epiphany and you're eating that ALL the time until Mardi Gras Day...but guess who we were settled by? Our tradition? You get the baby, you buy the next one. King Cake parties are the thing here. My brother is born between 1/6 and Mardi Gras Day and his birthday cake was always a King Cake. XD
Striking is worse in UK as then the tube is not working AT ALL in London (I lived 5 years there) whereas there is now a minimum service in Paris...
I enjoy hearing another's perspective on something. As for late July and August, everyone leaves Paris, and other parts of the EU, and all seem to come down here, to the Mediterranean...
So that must have been how king cake was invented within Louisiana Creole culture, then!
I haven't had any galette de rois this year at all, 😂😂😂. For NYE it was just me, the hubby, and my mother-in-law, and I made enchiladas with black beans on the side, all home made, and a mixed berry pie, and my mother-in-law was more than happy, lol. I cut the vents on the top of the pie to be the same shape as a galette de rois though, but no figurine to break your teeth on 😂😂. My mother-in-law was really happy to have something different and unique this year, since it was just us.
there's also a trick to "refreshen" baguettes and other bakery types of bread that isn't pain perdue, you quickly run the whole bread (not cut up) under the tap with cold water, then throw the whole thing in the oven at like 190 C for about 15 minutes or so
That's really sweet and fun to create your own traditions too!
Will be trying this out!
These things are not problems they are different. Forget what you’re used to go with flow. I’ve lived in France for 5 years & live by “ when in Rome do as the Romans do” . Bread has to be available every day by law. Always use vous unless the person you are speaking to uses tu or says “Tu peux me tutoyer”.
You forgot to add that you must wish happy new year to every new person you contact untill 31 January 🤣
Strikes are overused in France, more often than not they don’t know what they strike for, I suspect some unions to do some drills.
Strikes are the reason it is so difficult to reform and « modernize » the country.
On the flip side, French enjoy many perks (healthcare, education system, holidays….) whose cost is shared across the whole population. Pretty good deal.
And if ever a French President had any temptation to overturn elections, cancel voters or undermine the constitution and/or the institutions, he/she/they would be swiftly ousted by the street and prosecuted. That reassures me, even if I am living just across the border.
"Happy New year... ", many french people really don't care, frankly. Strike is not a "problem"...It's the way everybody begin to have rights... Le "chassez croisé" is a real pain in the ass... I remember living Paris at 3.00 during the night, awful ! Never heard this problem about the "galette des rois" over the month of january, I guess your boyfriend family must be a little "traditionnalist". Yes stores closing is a good thing, it doesn't create any problem, you get use to it easy it's not a french problem in fact it's a USA problem ! English is Informal... but I tend to prefer english with "you" rather than "tu" and "vous". Yes baguette is fresh bread, you can't compare bread in US and in France, impossible ! Kisses !
I'm french, I was like "what is strike..." until I hear "SNCF striking" => ok, I get it !
It’s only people in the public services, the public servants, who do strikes weeks long. In private companies strikes are shorter
I LOVE to terrify dabblers in french with getting theatrically offended if they DARE adress me as « tu ». I make a show of flying off the handle, then of course i break it out i was just pulling their leg. A bit risqué at time but generally pretty amusing ^^
For your hard baguette issue, there is a solution !
You can cook pain perdu with it. (Mais j'ai perdu la recette du pain perdu...)
You dip your bread in milk, butter and a lot of sugar (if I remember well, maybe add the butter later) then cook it a few seconds in a pan and you have an incredible unhealthy pastry. (But tasty as fuck)
Kate, you could have included the Masculine Vs Feminine classification. I know for a fact that it drives a lot of English-speaking friends nuts when they try to learn French. And something peculiar about strikes is that the people on strike still get payed a percentage of their wages by the company they work for so, fun fact (or not), the last days of strike generally include negotiating the percentage value which always prolongs the strike. As for the weekend of Julyists Vs Augustists, we often refer to it as the Flip Weekend.
Good point! Also, i had never heard of the "flip weekend" as the name for the dreaded julyists vs Augustists!
@@UnintentionallyFrenchified I've often heard the radio & TV host speak of "weekend de la bascule", Flip weekend was the best translation I could think of. As for masculine Vs feminine, I have a friend who couldn't understand why, if we went out for a bike ride it was masculine (UN vélo) but if we went out for a bicycle ride it was feminine (UNE bicyclette) HAHAHA
I mostly agree 😅
But I hate too when shops are supposed to be opened and they are "exceptionally" closed when you arrive.
Otherwise, galette des rois is never a problem 😆
Stale bread...
The primary ingredient for the pain perdu. With crème anglaise, berries, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, a dash of amaretto or rhum or maple syrup...
🤤
And that is why I avoid buying bread. Too coronary-risky aha
I have an electric bread box, it keeps chips crispy, bread fresh, any item like that!! It’s amazing!!
Umm this sounds like my kind of jam!