A few things we’ve learned in France –

  • Don’t judge the cheese by the way it smells. Josh has tried many French cheeses, and while many smelled awful, once the molded rind is cut off, the cheese tastes nothing like it smells.
  • How to be sick “well” – we have had numerous stomach viruses, colds, fevers, etc. and see it as great preparation for Africa. How to be joyful and keep a servant’s heart when you are dog sick is not easy, but has been a huge lesson for us this year!
  • Enjoy the French bakeries while you have them. Chocolate bread. Fresh, warm baguettes. Fruit tarts. Éclairs. We can’t even pretend we are suffering here!

  • Always watch where you are stepping – most people don’t clean up the sidewalks after their dog leaves “gifts.” In fact, Paris spends millions of dollars each year on “motocrottes” – motorcycles that suck up the doggy gifts at the end of each day. You can’t make this stuff up!
  • Go ahead and get used to the weird business hours. Doctors take walk-ins from 8:30am till around noon. Then they break for a long afternoon rest and don’t open back up for appointments until 5:30pm. Grocery stores open around 8:30 and some will close for a few hours in the afternoon. The bigger ones are opened all day. A few are open on Sunday, but only in the morning. As you can see, we had a lot to memorize when we first moved here!
  • Central heat isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. We enjoyed our first winter of no central heat. We have radiators that are heated by warm water and do a great job of keeping the apartment warm. We realized just how stuffy central heat in the States can feel and how much it dries out our sinuses. It feels a little old fashioned to use radiators, but we truly prefer it!
  • Don’t say “bonjour” or even smile to people on the street. Being from the South, we have a hard time with this “rule.” It is ok to look or stare at people when you are passing them, but if you say “bonjour” they mostly just look at you unless they have lived away from France for a while. Even smiling at them seems awkward, because they rarely smile back. We truly cannot imagine how difficult ministry must be here. Going to Africa seems like a piece of cake – everyone greets you and wants to know why you are there. It is an open door to share about Jesus! Here, things are much different!
  • Always be dressed as if you will be receiving visitors. We live in community here on campus and many times a day people are knocking on our door asking to borrow milk or sugar or asking Josh if he wants to play soccer, or if our kids can come play with some other kids. This, too, is great preparation for life in Africa – people will be knocking on our door day and night asking for help or just to visit. We might as well get used to it.
  • Living in community is wonderful, but not Utopian! We enjoy the almost constant fellowship with other like-minded friends/classmates here. Our children have built-in entertainment at the sandbox every day. Everyone is willing to serve and help when a need arises. We are encouraged and challenged by Jesus-followers who are striving to please God with their lives. But, we also hear kids screaming all hours of the day and night, have to navigate play times outside with different styles of parenting, and we share a washer and dryer with the other families and hope that everyone follows the schedule. We are with the same people every single day – in class, after class, at church, on the weekends. That is just our reality. We will certainly miss our community when we leave!
  • Enjoy the flowers! French towns have a grading scale depending on how many flowers they display in their town. We enjoy the different colors that change with the seasons and have never seen so many flowers in one place! Everywhere we go feels like the Botanical Gardens!