I moved to southern France 2 months ago. I speak French, but the culture shock is more than I was expecting.

When my husband was offered the opportunity to move to the south of France for work, we didn’t hesitate.

Provence and the French Riviera are famously beautiful, we speak French, and it’s not far from our home, the UK. We’ve vacationed across France many times, so how different could living there really be?

Swiftly after moving, I realized that it was, in fact, very different.

We’ve been here for two months now, and culture shock has taken me by surprise. For example, I thought I spoke decent French, but quickly learned otherwise after I tried to terminate my WiFi contract on the phone with a rapid-speaking French woman because we signed up for the wrong one.

I’ve realized it’s going to take us at least a few more months to settle in.

Not understanding has led to some pricey mistakes

I’m no stranger to change. I lived abroad in Germany and Belgium for a year, and have spent the rest of my life bouncing across the UK in Leicestershire, Bristol, London, Devon, and finally Hampshire. However, Southern France has been a different experience entirely.

There have been many incidents like the WiFi mixup, where we come away not entirely sure what we’d agreed to, but simply had to hope for the best. And sometimes it’s been costly.

For example, there was the car park whose daily rate turned out not, in fact, to include the night, meaning our fee was €120 ($140) rather than the expected €40 ($47).

There was also the market stall where we reluctantly paid €34 ($40) for some (delicious, to be fair) bell pepper dip and cashews because they were priced by weight.

Ultimately, it’s all a learning curve, we know for next time, and at least we got some funny anecdotes out of it all, even if these costs were painful at the time.

The little things add up

Small things like how you pay for vegetables (which seemingly varies from supermarket to supermarket) may not seem like huge issues, but when lots of little things are different, it can take a toll, mentally.

Where do we scan the bus ticket? Do we have to weigh this vegetable before going to the till? OK this one we do, this one we don’t. Which type of nectarine is this? Oh, we need the receipt to exit this store.

Driving etiquette is hugely different to back home, too. The French drivers I’ve encountered certainly have a distinct idea of what constitutes a safe distance to leave between vehicles. It’s been terrifying to see cars changing lanes with just a few feet between them, and honestly I don’t know how there aren’t more collisions.

That said, it seems like at least 50% of the cars here have dents and bashes.

Not knowing what’s going on or what the right etiquette is quickly gets exhausting, and we’ve found ourselves sleeping a lot longer than we would normally.

We keep getting caught out by lunchtime shop closures

In the UK, shops don’t close for lunch, and we keep getting caught out by this very French custom.

Many of the shops here close for as long as three hours over lunchtime, which seems mad to me when a lot of people presumably want to run errands in their lunch breaks, but you have to respect the French commitment to lunch.

Equally, many restaurants don’t open until 7 p.m. in the evening and won’t start filling up until at least 8 p.m.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing for us, though, as it means we can generally always walk in and get a table at 7:30 p.m.

It’s a privilege to have culture shock

Provence is one of the most beautiful places in the world, and I do feel really lucky to be here. We’ve had so many friends want to come visit, we’ve had to start turning some down because we can’t have visitors all the time.

However, moving somewhere isn’t the same as being on holiday, and there’s a lot to get to grips with — fellow expats have told us it takes at least six months to feel settled.

Ultimately, it’s what makes living abroad such an interesting and exciting venture, even if we do have occasional moments where we just want to go home, where we know how everything works.

Those moments are fleeting though, because we’re in a stunning part of the world, with excellent wine and cheese, and (nearly) all the French people we’ve met have been very friendly. Except when they’re driving, anyway.

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