by Arnaud | Nov 15, 2014 | French in the USA, People Pics
“I have always dreamed of adventure, I have always wanted to come to the USA, and Texas was the image I had of that country, the cowboys…people are cool here, there are relaxed, in the USA no ones judges you on your appearance nor the way you are dressed, unlike in Europe. Every year at Christmas I put the Rodolphe’s Red Nosed Reindeer horns on my huge Ford, and people like it! I am pretty sure that in my previous life I was an American, born and raised in Texas. ”
Chantal is a french mother of five kids, she is full of kindness and generosity, always so optimistic. Chantal’s dream is also to travel all around the world, not knowing where she would be going the day after.
by Arnaud | Nov 12, 2014 | French in the USA, People Pics
” I hope that people visiting the exhibition will be sensitive to “the story” we are trying to tell them, that they will be feeling emotions while discovering the variety of the creations we are presenting to tell that story. This is the story of “Art in Motion”, full of speed and modernity over the ages. Art is like a big balloon, full of emotion like the one this little girl shared with us while visiting the gallery today with her Mom; she had a candide look, and seemed to be full of admiration watching the creations of Calder, Miro, Spelletich, Elliott, Snelling…”
Why did you decide to come to San Francisco to open your art gallery? “SF is a city continuously reinventing itself, everything here is simpler, free. San Francisco is a city always in motion”.
Jules generously shared with me these last weeks the great opportunity to put images on the conception of his gallery and the preparation of the exhibition he will be showing tomorrow. Just like the exhibition’s creations, Jules is a masterpiece, always “in motion.”
by Arnaud | Oct 23, 2014 | French in the USA, People Pics
“My parents wanted me to spend my 11th grade in the USA, in New York or in San Francisco, I choose SF. I initially came here for one year only, but my friend Baptiste convinced me to stay one more. I grew up in a village in Picardie, North of France, among animals, and I have always wanted to be a veterinarian. But from the day I met with this french man Arlen, working in the aerospace industry, I decided I wanted to work as well in the aerospace world; from animals to the stars, this is where my stay in California has changed my life.”
Tom is living between France (the family) and California (the girl friend) and Canada is his next move to study mechanical engineering (the friends)
by Arnaud | Oct 21, 2014 | French in the USA, People Pics
“What do you miss the most about France?” ” I love going to France each summer to see the family, but how can I really miss a place I never lived in? I was born in the USA, spent all my life in SF, my parents came here 30 years ago, not sure if they are going back to France in a near future. My boyfriend is from France, he lives in France for the moment and he will soon be starting college in Montreal, Canada. I am happy because tomorrow the two of us are going to spend some time in Santa Cruz, just him and me”.
Marinca is a student, a singer and a guitarist, she just started a new music band with her friends
by Arnaud | Oct 19, 2014 | French in the USA, People Pics
” It is very easy to be a French in the USA here in San Francisco. SF is a city where you can live with your differences. SF will feed itself of your difference, just like if each one of us were a piece of that puzzle that is San Francisco; without you, without me, SF is not a completed puzzle, made of different colors and shapes; the puzzle would be incomplete; there is very little reject here in San Francisco, and politically the extremes do not survive long. I came to the USA at 24 for a two weeks’s trip, I was organizing concerts in France and wanted to see how different was SF. I never returned home; I worked as a maid, then I met an amazing couple who landed me a car and a house for one year, I then started a new Franco-American school in Sunnyvale with $100 000 people who trusted me gave me, and I hired four motivated teachers from France; Valerie became my wife 8 months after her arrival. I then started a company in the apartment rental business in Paris, allowing me to spend my time taking care of the kids, travelling all around the world to try to give a bit of that generosity, tolerance, and energy I received all these past 28 years in San Francisco”.
Just like the clowns, Claude does not want to be seen as a too serious person, and as every year, he is preparing his Halloween costume, for the little boy he probably still is
by Arnaud | Oct 14, 2014 | French in the USA, People Pics
Why did you decide to come to the USA? ” I met that California girl who was coming to learn French in Besancon who was coming to learn french; I was finishing my studies and my career was to be in the Franco-German business, quite boring. We fell in love, two weeks later I discovered that girl’s town, Sausalito, I fell in love a second time in Love and I decided that my life would not be in Europe but in California; we got married in Mill Valley, we started a dental business, our twins were born two years later; this was far from what my destiny was supposed to be between France and Germany…” “Do you miss Europe?” “I miss buying comics in Brussels, I miss the little french cafes”
Fabian is now a talented photographer
