Language, Wine and The French Flag

When I arrived in France I had completed only one year of middle school French.  Consequently, upon arrival, I understood very little.  Luce had many friends and they were friendly and welcoming.  But I remember standing around and finding their conversations very, very long.  In those first few weeks, my head would be spinning at the end of the day.  My Mother had packed my bible in my suitcase. This fact is remarkable in that I don’t think of my mother as particularly religious.  When I queried her about the existence of God, she bought me a copy of The Golden Bough written by Frazer in 1890.  Let me quote Wikipedia here: “Frazer proposed that mankind progresses from magic through religious belief to scientific thought.”  Nonetheless, I was grateful for the bible in ENGLISH!  I found it relaxed my brain to read The Book of Ruth or the story of Deborah and Barak!

It’s a funny thing about your brain and absorbing language. It happens quite magically.  One day after a couple of months, I woke up and I could understand almost everything.  Comprehension just crept up on me and sprang into action.  On the other hand quasi-self-expression took many more weeks.

I attended classes with Luce for a week or two.  In France, the school year finished at the end of June.  I particularly remember her Italian teacher who took the time to chat with me.  He taught me a phrase that expresses the French as well as the Italian view of wine.  

“Qu’est-ce que c’est le vin?”  - “What is wine?”

“C’est le soleil en bouteille.”  - “It’s sunshine in a bottle.”

I met an English girl who was staying with another family in Montmorency.  One day we decided to go into Paris together to do some shopping.  We wanted to buy gifts to take back home.  I had decided to buy a French flag for my brother, Mark.  I found a shop and bought a large flag. It was wrapped in a long sheet of newsprint.

Here we are walking along. I apologize for these scratchy old pictures.

As we walked along the paper loosened and blew away. The flag unfurled and was whipping around in the breeze.  Before I could wrap it back up again we heard whistles and shouts.  A minute later we were accosted by two gendarmes!  Remember this was the period of the Algerian revolt.  The government was worried about terrorist attacks. They felt that walking down the street with le drapeau tricolore flying could cause unrest and possible reprisals. Eventually they captured the wayward paper and we wrapped up the flag.

Annie and my flag.