24 years ago I was born the beautiful city of Toulouse in France, known affectionately by the locals as the 'Pink City' due to it's regional bricks and famous flower exhibitions in the spring. I lived in Beaupuy, just over a hour north of Toulouse, in quite literally the middle of nowhere. No neighbours to be seen, just fields and fields and fields. So you can imagine when, at 12 years old, when we moved to a large village (of 4000 people) to be closer to school, I was quite shocked by the sudden immersion into French culture, which I had successfully avoided for 12 blissfully ignorant years.
It's been 12 years since that move and I am now looking back and summing up my thoughts. In school I was 'the English kid', the only one of course and therefore did fit in with my fellow pupils. I wouldn't be surprised if some are today members of the National Front! I was personally blamed, by children and teachers alike, for all bad weather and British food. I was nicknamed 'Harry Potter' because of my glasses and hair, they thought they were being mean, I loved it!
Culture is entirely different word in France; they are French and will protect it to the death. If I said I was English and wanted to preserve English culture no matter what I was faced with, I'd get a call from those half-wits in the BNP! I'll grace you with a great example of the two cultures clashing: During the building of the Channel Tunnel, when the railway was laid down to join the two nations, a bitter and costly argument erupted. The English wanted to fence off the entire line to protect the people from the high speed trains, The French refused because the attitude was: 'If they don't want to get hurt, they won't walk in front of a train.' The argument was resolved a couple million euros later.
Another argument arose when then President Jacques Chirac stormed out of the European Parliament when one of his ministers addressed the assembly in English instead of French. While I'm on a roll I'll just mention the new grammar police who take English words like 'Picnic' and invent French words to keep the language pure.
So while it is inevitable in today's world that people will move to other countries like France, be ready to accept blame for the weather, mad cow's desease, bad sweats, marmite and the English language.
