5 French Expat Blogs you should read {day eight}

There are a lot of French people scattered around the world, and a lot of us blog in English. Us expats/immigrants/whatever-the-hell-we-are have transitioned from the traditional French person to a multi-cultural hybrid, and you just can’t box us in anymore. We ain’t quite the real deal any longer, and yet, you may take the French person out of France, you can’t take France out of them. Not all of it anyway. As much as the French government would like to physically carry us back to the motherland to invest our well-earned dollars and pounds into home-grown businesses, we don’t see what’s in it for us, especially considering the hoops you have to jump through to set up your own business and the paperwork involved. But that’s another post for another time.

We may love the country we have moved to, we may love the life we have made for ourselves but there is still a part of us that is drawn to the country that shaped our early years, as faint a trace as might remain after so many years. We all get homesick from time to time, even if, like me, it happens once every six months and lasts all of two hours whilst I munch on a croissant and listen to soppy French love songs. We all have different ways of coping with that sense of dislocation, and as for me, I’m always excited when I stumble upon new interesting blogs. I particularly like French bloggers who share their experience of living abroad, in the same way that I much prefer to read books about France written by expats; their insights are refreshing. Here are a few English-speaking blogs from expats who bring their unique French eye to their new culture. This is the best way to see first-hand what cultural differences exist between France and your own country.

1. French Yummy Mummy: Muriel might be the most ‘famous’ of the French bloggers I follow. She lives in London and has featured in The Times magazine and regularly gets to do fun things in the wider public sphere as the token French person. She has a distinctly French ‘voice’ and a lot of her posts serve to shatter all the stereotypes you may have about French people.
2. Nearly Irish, as her blog title says, is French but also not quite anymore. She has lived in Ireland for 13 years and most likely sees a lot more rain than even I do. And she’s also doing the 31 Day challenge this year, talking about her holidays in Mauritius.
3. Franglaise Mummy is actually British, but she’s (in my mind) an honorary French person, having married a French man and lived in Nice in the South of France for a long time. She moved her family to London a few years ago and is now getting ready for a new adventure on the French-speaking island of Mauritius!
4. Le Blog de Mathilde: I only just discovered this blog last week, but I’ve been enjoying it, from a French expat living in Boston.
5. Comme Une Française: I recommended this blog yesterday for the language courses that they run but you should really check out all the vlogs. Geraldine lived in the UK for a bit and has moved back to France and turned her expat experience into one of the most helpful blogs I have seen in a long time.

If you know other French bloggers scattered around the world, please link to them in the comments!

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