Book Club 8 - Prepping To Become French

The following was originally published for Patrons on December 1st, 2023. Get caught up at your own pace by joining at the "Post Parisian" level or above!

In case you missed it in my last vlog, my naturalization interview has been set for this month! So I thought I'd take a different tack with today's post and focus on one little book that's going to be core to my repeated reading over the next few weeks. And thankfully, I do mean little. Little enough to be called a 'livret' in French: Le Livret du Citoyen 2022 (here's hoping there isn't an updated version lying around somewhere).

You can download it from the link above as a free PDF if you'd like to prep along with me. I'll be diving into a variety of other materials as I get ready for my interview, but here are three things that stood out to me as I reviewed Le Livret du Citoyen this week:

1) There's a Fourth Valor

If you're familiar with the French Republic, you've probably heard the refrain, "Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité,"more than once. Freedom, Equality, and Brotherhood. But there's a fourth valor that you hear about more and more the longer you live in France, and it gets its own section.

Liberté is described as the freedom to think, to speak, and to believe as one will. One of the surprising facts was that the freedom of the press wasn't guaranteed by law until 1880, but if you look back at the first few attempts at French republics and their repeated exchange for autocracy, it makes more sense that it took so long.

Égalité was laid out in the Declaration of the Rights of Man at the end of the French Revolution in 1789, and was later expanded universally (they didn't call it rights of man for nothing). But is summarized as the equality of all citizens before the law, regardless of gender, race, beliefs, opinions, or sexual orientation.

Fraternité is given a bit more space than the others. It lays out the importance of paying into and defending access to support through the nation's social security system.

But the one you might not be familiar with if you don't live here is la laïcité.

Laïcité translates to "Secularism" and is meant to be a strong dividing line between religion and the state. This section gets the longest write-up and, ironically, is labeled as "ancient" even though it wasn't made into law until 1905 (when compared to Equality, first enshrined in 1789). This one gets a bit spicy in modern politics, but the idea is to keep the state from treating anyone differently based on their religion and to keep the influence of any given belief system out of the public process.

The reason this gets spicy is because it often isn't equally applied, particularly in schools. This comes as a surprise to absolutely no one, but is worth mentioning, and leads me to something I didn't fully understand before:

1.2) Who Controls Education

What's also interesting is to see how different levels of education are controlled by different levels of government. Local municipal governments run pre and elementary schools. Departmental governments run middle schools, and regional governments run the high schools (lycées, something Napoleon set up during his reign).

I never realized there wasn't a unified education board for all levels of education, and it's an interesting highlight of just how important local elections really are in France.

2) Tourism On Top

The Livret highlights three major economic areas in France (and that France is the 6th largest economy in the world): international trade, major French multinational businesses, and tourism.

Tourism is most interesting to me for two reasons. The obvious one is that it directly hits on where I offer the most to France (helpful when making my case, "Please let me in"). But the other is that it's the most specific. While France may have a big port in Nantes, and it may have some large and recognizable businesses (like LVMH and Airbus), it doesn't exactly stand out in these categories.

But it does in tourism, as France is the number one tourist destination in the world. As such, tourism is labeled as an essential element to the French economy.

So let me stay already, I'll help. Promise.

3) Proud To Be An Immigrant

There's a whole long list of famous immigrants who took up French citizenship and wound up leaving their mark. Josephine Baker is right at the top.

The reason that this list stood out to me (beyond the intimidating question: "Do I have to memorize all of these names and their stories?!") was just how proud the French are to have such a list in the first place.

The process of attaining citizenship can feel risky, if not downright hostile at times. The hoops through which you have to jump are substantial, often on fire, and with more than one dispassionate bureaucrat between, holding their very own big red "Deny" stamp. Seeing the names of the people that the government is proud became French changes the tone. It's almost enough to make me feel wanted.

Almost. I still have some lingering trauma from my first year getting my visa through the system.

But as I prepare to take on the tricolor and establish my life in France as a permanent one, I'm not nervous at all. I'm sure I'll get butterflies the day of my interview, I'll be VERY aware of the mistakes I make mere moments after making them, but I won't sweat it. France gave me a new life and I've done my part to give something back to her. It's out of my hands if she'll take me in for good, but I have a sneaking suspicion she will.

And I can guarantee she won't regret it if she does.

This Week's Haul

At the very top of my list, and a video I'd recommend everyone watch, is Kurzgesagt's latest on the dangers social media poses to society at large. It's an important theme that I can't help but revisit regularly. They dove into some new research that essentially argues against the idea that echo chambers, or echo bubbles as they refer to them, are the core issue at hand. Rather than having limited exposure, only to things we agree with and already believe, we're over-exposed to the opposite: things that will enrage us. And the reason is obvious if you think about it: we're more likely to engage with things that make us angry, and that engagement is worth cold hard cash. Unfortunately I don't think their proposed solution is remotely likely, but making ourselves aware is a worthy end in itself.

Do you know AJR? I didn't, and I'm not going so far as to declare myself a fan, but I loved this interview they gave with Colin and Samir simply for the good vibes. If you don't know, AJR is a band comprised of three brothers who have been performing together for well over a decade. While I found their insights into the current music industry enlightening, what held me for this entire two hour interview was their vibe. They clearly love what they do, their fans, and each other. It was a refreshing break, and inspiring to build something you truly enjoy with people that make the journey better.

How about another feel-good video? I feel late to the game on Natalie Lynn, whose videos roll like diary entries. This one on her struggles with becoming a filmmaker, something she's always wanted, resonated in the age of content creator burnout. It also had a really nice nostalgic feel if you're looking for some video comfort food. Speaking of comfort food...

I've been visiting London more lately as it finally hit me that it's... it's just right over there.And I love it for the food, the shift in culture, and the new landscapes to explore. But London is changing and, depending on who you ask, not for the better. Well basically everyone you ask thinks it isn't changing for the better, but some think it's getting worse than others. This video, from a series on "The Death of the High Street" by Wandering Turnip was a slow, fascinating-yet-morbid ride. He heads into London to see how many boarded up shops he'll find, something he's been doing in other cities, and discovers far more than he would have even guessed. There are a lot of interesting tidbits in here about how councils in the UK gather revenues, and how small businesses can't bear the burden anymore.

And since we can't leave it on that note, be sure to check out Mark Rober's pet octopusclearing an obstacle course to train for its release into the wild.

Thanks for reading!

What books have been captivating you lately? Let me know in the comments below, and best of luck on your citizenship interviews ;D