It is this very appreciation and familiarity with the US and our being blessed with a French cultural background that makes us clearsighted enough to choose what we’d like to adopt from America and what we’d prefer to take from the French approach...We know many Americans understand our love of French culture, its social life, its eating habits, its approach towards education of children, to name a few examples. So much so that they become more French than the French in the US.... Or,I should say, that they create a new ’French way’ to life, which modernizes the French approach with a focus on nature, the environment, and efficiency.

How many Americans do I know in California that cook better and more refined meals, with finer ingredients, than French families here with the same social status? Nothing is sadder, in my view, than to see immigrants of French culture to the US adopt the fast-food-sweatshirt- and -tennis shoes- TV- and action-games way of life and even become poor speakers of the French language, losing out on the relationship they could have with their aunts, uncles and cousins...

Why? Because they left France to find professional opportunities in the US? Fine, you certainly will not catch me or Valerie Hufbauer, the site’s co-founder, defending the French business environment- if there is one..;-) ’Bizness is vile’, has been the French intelligentsia’s motto so far. It's a cathlolic country isn't it?

But is this a reason to throw out all the good things the French culture has to offer? Its refinment in all aspects of daily life-from its cuisine to its interior decoration-, its refreshingly unmaterialistic approach to life, and, for me, its structured approach to educating children?

Frenchparents founders think not. Being in California, or in Washington, DC (as opposed to Texas) offers the wonderful advantage of enabling one to live ’a la francaise’ while enjoying the benefits of the US environment. I in fact love the convenience of shopping at Albertson’s at midnight but, given I have the choice, I’d rather buy a bottle of wine ( not necesarily French, in fact, it would most likely be Chilean or Spanish if I’m deal-hunting) than a pack of beer. I prefer a baguette (or one of the hundreds of whole grain breads found here) and some pate or cheese to chips and salsa. I prefer a small, cozy get-together with friends around a good, home-prepared meal than a dinner at a restaurant with 30 people and loud music. I’ll have home-made cake and games for my kids’ birthday parties rather than mile-high bakery-bought cakes, a clown and a pile of gifts. I’ll prepare a hot lunch and fruit for them every day rather than feed them peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, followed by Jello (no matter how fun it is for kids).

However I do hope my children adopt Americans’ sense of community, their cheerfullness, their ease-of-contact, their optimism, their practical, cooperative and straightforward attitude...

And that’s why I am a Frenchparents.org co-founder! Are you with me?

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