Delving into the French....over lunch

Sunday we were invited over to the neighbors for lunch. They're French, which is soooo cool because it's harder to make inroads with the French here than the English speaking expats here. The expats all share the common trait of being outsiders, and it draws us all together. And I think especially in Paris it's harder to make inroads into French society because people here are constantly under seige by the hordes of tourists that flock here.

This is the second set of neighbors we've socialized with, they have also lived in this building for over 30 years. Really amazing when you come from our 'I wanna build a new house' mentality in Texas. Their apartement is the same layout as ours, unfortunately someone had remodeled it before they moved in, and had gotten ride of the details that I find myself admiring in our own apartement every day (finely detailed crown molding, elaborate art deco fireplace). Their place was filled to the brim with beautiful decorating.

They had also invited a friend over, and their adult son joined us as well. It was really interesting, the conversation was roughly 75% in French. I know Sarah was much more engaged than I was, it was like drinking from a firehose for me. We covered all sorts of topics, one thing I find amazing with the French is the depth into which they dive with their conversation. They have a patience for detailed discussion of small topics. We spent quite a while discussing the pattern painted on the coffee service. While you might think "gosh, that's boring", it's actually interesting in its own way, and insightful to me as someone trying to work with the French.

We had a very nice lunch with a wonderful cheese course. I'm hoping we've made some new friends. Some new *French* friends.