21-28 April 2013 : From "Grand Paris" to "Greater London" via le Pays de Bray, le Dieppois, the South Downes, the Weald and Kent - intro

When you spend some time in a foreign country you are bound to make comparisons. When I was in England I wanted to take in the most of Englishness that I could possibly do, while touring London and the surrounding countryside extensively, as well as dipping my mind into the local cultural heritage (Darwin, Dickens, Shakespeare) and enjoy the English way of life, including the pub culture and the NHS.  I wanted to know what was laying behind such common expressions as “the English are tough” or “they’re hard working people”.

Thanks to rules being applied more strictly and a greater social pressure directed at individuals who will not follow these rules, not to mention the work place where the threat of being sacked on the spot is always lingering somewhere in the office air that you are breathing, you are bound to improve your ways and abide by the rules – if you do not, you will be excluded and stigmatised, and everybody will think that you well deserved it.

Hence the changes that I have undergone in England – be on time, be patient when queuing up and even finding it normal to queue, to the point where I have become a fan of displays of patience in public spaces (for instance, I tend to stop whenever I see a red light, as a cyclist and also as a pedestrian, at the risk of being ridiculed by some and criticised for overdoing it by others).  In order to reach such a result, and that might be the main interest of this stiffing-up, you need to get more organised in your lifestyle and hence in your head.  London has helped me become harder, control the display of my feelings, avoid being overthrown by other people displaying an overemotionality, which in turn has led me to be more efficient at work and have a better management of relationships, may they concern work or play.

Whereas before my insertion strategy was to try and get people to like me while being nice and kind to them, putting the quality of the work or performance at the background of the picture, now I have switched to try (hard) and give colleagues expected results.  The satisfaction reached with the right performance of tasks comes first now, even if it means adopting a conflictual approach and roughish behaviour, as long as what I believe should be done, gets done.  This now leads people to appreciate my reliability, which is what really matters in the end, at the expense of my agreeability.  Global appreciation for my personality comes later, when people have realised that I was not trying to seduce them over trifling smiles and kindness, but with real gestures and achievements helpful to them.  England allowed this new perspective to grow in me.

Hence, it was with a certain feeling of awe and student respect towards the master that I embarked on this journey.  Starting from Beauvais I was struck by the similarities of the Pays de Bray with my memories of what expected me on the other side of the Channel.  Hedge closed fields, Tudor styled houses (or Normand styled), remains of medieval strongholds, such as can be found in Arques-la-Bataille, Les Andelys or Dover, Renaissance buildings such as the 15^th century castle of Mesnières-en-Bray or the 16^th century castle of Chiddingstone, are underlining the mirror effect noticeable between both sides of the Channel.  The symmetry extends to natural landscapes, such as the high cliffs of Beachy Head, which reminded me of what I had seen already in Etretat or when leaving the port of Dieppe.  And when I entered into Greater London, there also similarities seemed to overcome differences:  London and Paris are both 19^th century cities for most of their striking architectural features (for instance, Somerset House as we see it today); there and here you may find the same vibrant atmosphere conveyed partly by the intense cycling traffic that is becoming more and more a characteristic of both cities.  There and here, people share the same way of life, a lot of them spending long and intense days at the office and patiently waiting for the evening in order to socialise with their friends and go to the shows.  Both cities also share the same stunning cultural institutions such as Tate Britain.

With one difference having struck me maybe: distances have seemed wider in London – for instance, I had to cycle 35k from Dulwich to Worcester Park in order to pay a visit to Marianna and Stuart, which is due to the horizontal habitat characterising Greater London even more than Grand Paris.

This perceived similarity may come from the successful merging of my London experience with the rest of my life.  Both heritages, native and overseas, are now at work within me and are cross-fertilising themselves, giving me a double source of inspiration in order to draw my own opinion on the world and take action whenever I deem it necessary.

So thank you England, you have been rough but it was not to no avail, you have changed me definitely and hopefully it is for the better.

Click here to start the journey (Day 1)