I think I have spotted an element of French culture. And I'll admit that I have may have had help on this from a YouTuber who does little skits where she plays both a English Woman and a French Woman. They are very funny.
What I have discovered is that the French enjoy gossip!
This is brilliant for me as I am quite fond of gossip as well, and I think it would be nice to have more things in common with the French, like a love of cheese, and apertifs, and cafes, and old architecture, and complaining, and cheese, and, eventually, speaking French.
Hypothetically. Theoretically.
The thing that threw me off concerning the French enjoying gossip is that they are rather private. Unlike me, for instance, they are quite dignified and disinclined to freely share personal details and experiences. But yesterday we were at a Fed Ex drop off site involved in sending insanely expensive and pointless paperwork that is also now essential to my healthcare coverage here. While we were conducting this rather elaborate business with a typically reserved but pleasant enough French Woman, I noticed two giant towers of boxes sitting around waiting to be shipped. These were all packed in banana boxes. So I said (in English I confess) "That seems like an expensive way to ship bananas!"
I got a small laugh or two, which was nice.
Then after a little while the counter person said "Those are from an Austrian woman who is shipping all of that because she is leaving and moving back home."
This wasn't the first time something like that had happened, but it was the first time I realized:
Oh, the French don't like to talk personally about themselves, but they absolutely love to talk about everyone else!
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