Bienvenue chez les ch’tis (speakers)

Schoolyard chants in French woke me up this morning – school definitely starts at 8am here! I lured myself out of bed with the promise of a chocolate croissant. 90¢ of heaven of pastry heaven. I got my first daytime glimpse of Bonneville as I inhaled my croissant and contemplated buying five more. It’s a charming little town and looks just like the pictures. The main square is being redone, which is a shame because otherwise it’s picture perfect. There are some chain banks and phone shops, but the shops are mostly independent. A third are flower shops, a third are insurance offices, and a third are hair salons. Seriously. And everything else is a patisserie. Following my mini tour and not so mini croissant, I met my teacher and we went to the superintendent’s building, which is in one of the primary schools. I’ve been bombarding poor French teachers with emails all summer and now I’m finally meeting them – to apologize for my incessant questions, of course. The superintendent and the secretary are just as lovely as my teacher. I already love them because they told me my French was better than the last assistant’s. I had loads of paperwork to fill out, which Chantal the secretary had already done for me. I got my teaching schedule for the four schools – with a grand total of twelve hours par semaine. Apparently my time here will be spent eating croissants rather than teaching. The school told me to find the Orange shop for my phone and internet, go to the mayor’s office and arrange the housing papers, go to the bank and open an account, and get insurance today. Their emphasis on the insurance explains the ten insurance offices I’ve spotted so far…I can’t count how many times I’ve promised I will lock the door. Frustratingly, I have to wait til my bank card comes to open a phone and wifi plane but they let me open a pay as you go account and now I have a French phone number! I signed the lease papers at the mayor’s office for my insanely cheap apartment, went to the bank to make an appointment, and went to the insurance office to start an account. Everyone I spoke with today was so encouraging of my French and very patient. I kept interrupting myself to ask if I was saying something properly but they were so patient. The woman at the insurance office is super stylish and I asked where she shopped, hoping it was some local and semi inexpensive shop, but, of course, it was Comptoir des Cotonniers. She also taught me the most popular Savoyard word: “souci”. I’ve heard “pas de souci” lots today and simply nodded in clueless response, but I know now that means “no problem”… so exciting to learn my first Savoyard slang word! I returned home to meet my roommate from Belfast! Laura is hilarious, completely fluent in French, knows how to pronounce my name, and wasn’t fazed when I invited myself to Belfast within five minutes of meeting her. We went back to the mayor’s office and insurance office (which is in an apartment building and hard to find. Laura was amused that I figured out where it was by stalking a French woman and wandering into a building and somehow finding the office) to finalize papers. Then we found the grocery store, Intermarche, and had a deliciously stereotypical wine, cheese and bread dinner. We watched the French film “Chez les Ch’tis” which mocks Northern French accents. It’s quite funnay, as Laura says, and lets us in on the national humor…despite half of it going over my head. This was a blockbuster French film and it’s so different from American blockbusters – it has an independent, quirky feel, and you either have to be French or sitting next to someone who speaks/gets French to appreciate it because it’s clever. I highly recommend it, especially because it made me feel better about my weird accent.