30 years ago

Thirty years ago today I left to live in the North of France near the Belgian border. It was my first time living abroad and this decision to move kind of shaped the rest of what was to come, who I was to meet, the choices I would make in life. The whole experience was a bit of an eye opener, to say the least, not least of which was beginning to learn to actually converse in French. I literally could write an essay about my time there.

The company I worked with suffered a bit of a tragedy as one of the owners basically emptied the coffers and absconded, watching the other employees, some in tears at the prospect of loaing their jobs was quite an education, probably one I could have done without. As a first professional experience, in som ways it couldn’t have been better, amazing colleagues but clearly after an experience like that, well it doesn’t get much worse.

The depressed region of Le Nord, now with major social issues given a steady decline, seems to be like many in France now.

I made many friends over there and quickly learned that a coffee for 5F was way better than a bad cup of tea at 17F50, (50 p versus £1.75) and my only regret was not to have heeded my mother’s advice to take her car, that said Id only been driving a couple of years by that point. Anyway Allez VA, vive le New Beat and keep on rockin les chtis

And this is probably what I’d have eaten

11°