An expat living in France has revealed the main things which “put her on edge” when she first moved to the country. Patricia Brookes quit her job in America to move to the south of France in 2018 and said it had been “incredible” but not without its challenges.
Ms Brookes had moved to the country in the hope of learning a new language but said adapting to France’s cultural norms proved tricky at first.
She said a lack of personal space and unreliable delivery services were the two things which stood out as difficult to adapt to.
Ms Brookes said on her YouTube channel: “It’s been an incredible experience, but there have been some challenges along the way.
“Here in France, with some mail and some of my packages, I don’t get them or I don’t get them quickly.
“There’s the problem number one of things just not being delivered, and then there’s the problem of things being delivered more slowly.”
She went on to explain that simple things such as queuing up at the supermarket began to “put her on edge” as people would stand very close to her.
Ms Brookes added: “After four and half years, something that really puts me on edge is when someone is in line behind me and they’re really pretty close.
“Here there is not the same degree of personal space and it really kind of sets me off.”
France is an incredibly popular place for British expats to settle in with more than 175,000 British people living in the country during 2019.
British expats have also had their fair share of trouble with adapting to the country’s culture, with one named Helena Woods taking to her social media channels to explain that restaurants opening between 12pm and 2pm had irked her during her early days in France.
She said: “This thing is that even more difficult and tricky is that sometimes those restaurants will close an hour earlier and they won’t advertise it.
“The French will close their stores, their restaurants – everything – and they won’t advertise it.”
