Valentines day in France, just the same as always
Valentine’s day came along yesterday and, what can I say, I didn’t receive any anonymous cards in the post from secret admirers. Same old story for the last 30 years but I still live in hope.
Mrs B and the girls didn’t receive any either, or none that they chose to admit to, so we all sat round looking unloved all evening. Unfortunately it’s not because there is no tradition of Saint Valentine’s Day in France, because there is. But the French are less keen on sending greetings cards to each other, not bothering much even at Christmas, so perhaps that is the reason.
As a result, cards for birthdays and Christmas are one of the few things we prefer to get from the UK. Here they cost a fortune - Mrs B bought a perfectly normal birthday card for someone yesterday and paid 4.5 euros (£3 / $6) for a card that would have cost less than half that much anywhere else. So remember to stock up if you are planning to move, unless you plan to make your own, since sticking amusing photos of your family onto bits of card is much cheaper.
For some reason I find Saint Valentine very hard to pronounce in French, it tends to sound more like ‘cerf-volant’ (kite) by the time I splutter it out, so I avoid saying it too much anyway. Incidentally the French say ‘bonne Saint Valentine’ rather than a more literal translation of Happy Valentine’s day.
It did bring to mind the one time in my life when I received an excess of Valentine’s Day cards, when I was about 14 years old and received three in the same year. Problem was, one was from my girlfriend at that time, and the other two I didn’t know who they were from - but I suspected at least one of the two ‘unknown’ senders was the same girl.
So when she asked me if I had received any others I eventually admitted that yes, I had received one other. Unfortunately she had sent both of the others, called me a dishonest ****, said I couldn’t be trusted, and that was pretty much the end of that.
Probably for the best, otherwise perhaps I wouldn’t be here in France with Mrs B now. Anyway it’s a sorry state of affairs when you still remember a Valentine’s day from the 1970’s so it must have made an impression on me. Else I’m getting that ‘old-people’ memory thing where you can remember events from your childhood with complete clarity, but have no idea what you did yesterday.
Let me know if I start talking too much about punk rock and Vietnam, and keep forgetting to mention France.
