Bonjour la France

When an American writer retires in Brittany, she learns how to belong again.

- Theresa Conroy

I WAS PREPARED for the big items: new language, slower pace of life, different currency. What I didn't expect when I moved from the U.S. to France were the subtleties-the nuances that sometimes managed to throw me off my game.

Decades of French lessons had schooled me in the strict rules of politesse. I knew to dump my usual Philly greeting ("Yo!") for the more proper "Bonjour" when entering a shop or running into a neighbor in the elevator. What I didn't know were the other, less obvious rules. Walking into a doctor's waiting room: Bonjour, everyone. Entering a department store: No bonjour. Getting onto the bus: Bonjour. Encountering a stranger on the sidewalk: No bonjour. Encountering a stranger in the courtyard in front of your building: Bonjour. Passing an older woman on the street: Bonjour, madame.