Summary

The author shares personal experiences of cultural adjustments after relocating to France, highlighting differences in business hours, dining times, timekeeping, food healthiness, and pharmacy practices compared to North America.

Abstract

Moving to France presented the author with several cultural shocks, including the French emphasis on work-life balance, which leads to midday business closures and specific restaurant hours for lunch and dinner. The use of the 24-hour clock was initially unfamiliar, but it eventually seemed more logical and natural in the French context. The author also notes the scarcity of indulgent snacks and the prevalence of pharmacies, which contrasts with the availability of medical supplies in North American grocery stores. Despite these adjustments, the author recommends the experience of living abroad, particularly in France, and expresses a continued fascination with the cultural nuances encountered.

Opinions

The author highly recommends moving abroad for university, especially to France, suggesting it was a beneficial decision.
Adjusting to the French work-life balance and the resulting business hours was challenging but appreciated.
The specific opening times of restaurants required the author to plan meals more carefully.
The transition to the 24-hour clock was initially difficult but now feels more suitable in the French language and context.
The author misses the variety and indulgence of unhealthy snacks available in North America.
The ubiquity of pharmacies in France is noted as positive, despite the initial surprise at not finding medical supplies in grocery stores.

Culture Shocks I Experienced After Moving To France

People always talk about how different France is from North America but it’s hard to understand it until you’ve experienced it yourself.

Moving to France for school was one of the best decisions that I’ve made and there are so many reasons why I moved. If asked, I would definitely recommend that others consider moving abroad for university, especially to France.

Though I love it, here are a few things that took me a little while to get used to:

A lot of businesses are closed between 12–2 as well as Sunday and Monday

The French take their work-life balance seriously, so don’t be surprised when stores are closed at noon for lunch. If you need to go to the bank or any kind of government business, make sure to double-check their hours. There’s a good chance that they’ll be closed for lunch as well as on Sundays and Mondays. The same is true for small clothing boutiques and non-chain stores.

Most restaurants are only open during specific times for lunch and dinner

Restaurants will be open for lunch around 12 and close around 2, then reopen around 7 then close around 10. These restaurants have specific opening times, so if you’re ready for lunch at 3 pm, then you’re either eating fast food, or you’re waiting until 7 pm.

This one took me a while to get used to because when I moved to France, I would eat whenever I was in the mood to eat. This wasn’t too big of an issue because I cook a lot, but when I wanted to go out for a late lunch around 4 pm, just about everything was closed. So I ended up needing to plan my outings a little more.

They use the 24-hour clock as opposed to the 12-hour clock

Growing up in Canada, I was used to using a 12-hour clock with AM and PM. I had used 24-hour time every now and then when I was living in Canada but 95% of the time, all my clocks were using 12-hour time.

France (and most of Europe) use the 24-hour clock and I understand why. It just makes sense and takes out the possible confusion when people agree to do something at 8 and you don’t know whether they mean 8 AM or 8 PM. Now, when someone says 8, I know they mean 8 AM; if they meant 8 PM they would’ve said 20h. It took a while to get used to using it but I think that 24-hour time sounds more natural in French than it does in English.

It took me a little while to get comfortable doing the conversion from 24-hour time to 12-hour time in my head. My phone and laptop are both in 24-hour time now but I still always do the conversion in my head out of habit.

Everything is “healthy”

There are times when I just want to eat some really unhealthy snacks and watch a movie in bed, but what’s considered an unhealthy snack in France would be considered relatively healthy in Canada. Like if I want to eat some Oreos here, they just don’t taste the same. The normal Oreos here taste a lot like the fat-free Oreos in Canada. And there's no way that I’d be able to find all the different Oreo flavours here like I could in any Walmart in the USA.

They’re small differences, like the Frosted Flakes not even having that iconic thick layer of sugar, but I just wish that I could find more genuinely unhealthy foods like I could at home.

Pharmacies are everywhere

You won’t be able to go more than 5 steps without seeing a pharmacy. They really are everywhere. But this is good because if you want anything remotely medical, you won’t be able to find it at a grocery store. If you need something like Advil or Tylenol then you’ll need to go to a pharmacy. Vitamins too. The most you’ll be able to find in a grocery store is rubbing alcohol and bandages.

The first time I needed to find something like Pepto Bismol for nausea, I went to the pharmacy and spent around 10 minutes searching the shelves for any kind of nausea medicine until someone came over to help me. You won’t find any kind of medication on the shelves, you have to ask a pharmacist to get it from the back for you. Even something like paracetamol (Tylenol) is going to be behind the counter.

Final Thoughts

I moved to France about 3 years ago and there are still plenty of things that I feel like I’m only just starting to get used to. I could write about culture shocks and lifestyle differences for ages.

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