Experience in France
Andre McGrath
10.24.14
RHET
Walking is the Gateway to Citizenship
The apartment I lived in was located in the center of Paris, within walking
distance from the Eiffel Tower. La Muette is home to the entrance of the Bois de
Boulogne, the second largest park in Paris. Emperor Napoleon used the park as a
source to hold and stock game. Living by the Bois de Boulogne, I quickly learned
French through recreational football games in the park. I moved to France when I
was six, and lived there until I was fifteen. Living abroad shaped my identity more
than anything else I’ve experienced. Cars pose an inconvenience due to the lack of
parking spots available, so the majority of people walk. Walking allowed me to
relate to my surroundings, while cultivating and shaping my identities as a Parisian
and a member of a community.
Living abroad in a foreign city the first emotion you experience is alienation.
Reflecting back on my experiences as a child, I felt like I was an outsider in a
community. I was a foreigner, who he didn't understand the traditions and customs
that dominate Parisian society. The au pair that took care of me lived with my family
for over nine years; she practically raised me in my parents absence. My au pair was
British and understood the European standard of living, which takes a
comprehension of how the locals live around you. My au pair unknowingly showed
me how the locals lived and communicated. The au pair would drag me along with
her as she ran errands, simply to make sure I didn't get into trouble alone, but as I
got dragged I took note of everything around me. The French are elegant in their
presentation, eat the best food, remain in healthy shape, don't work to the fullest
capacity, are charming but extremely vain, and enjoy the simple pleasures. Walking
alongside her, while she ran chores, allowed me to be exposed to the French culture.
To be a part of their community you must have an understanding of how the natives
lived around you.
My pathway to citizenship began with the arrival of an au pair who took care
of my brother and I. Throughout my time in France I had one au pair would cared
for me. Citizenship is being involved with a community. To be citizen in your
community you must walk and experience your surroundings firsthand. Citizenship
includes being familiar with the people and buildings that make up your community.
My au pair would take my brother and I along with her to run errands, as we walked
I would notice the locals engaged each other and how they addressed friends and
enemies. The residents on my block grew up with each other; their families met for
dinner and shared experiences with one another. I desperately sought to assimilate
and share common bonds with the citizens of La Muette. I wanted to become part of
the La Muette community. I wore French clothes, lost my British accent, and had the
same mannerisms as the locals. I noticed that the French are charmingly arrogant,
and I did my best to replicate their hauté attitudes. Walking introduced me to the
locals and soon I became integrated and became part of the diverse fabric of Paris.
Citizenship to the French was unknowingly centered on walking, people
walked to the marché (stores), they walked to the restaurant, and they walked to
work. Walking was an essential part of citizenship. Walking besides my au pair, I
began my initiation to citizenship, “Walking is only the beginning of citizenship, but
through it the citizen know his or her city and fellow citizens and truly inhabits the
city rather than a small privatized part thereof” (Solnit 176). Solnit describes how
walking is the gateway into citizenship of a community and the city. Without having
the ability to walk, I wouldn't be part of the La Muette community. Living in a city
would have been a completely different experience. Driving isolates you from the
community; you are not interacting with the locals but rather are alone in the car
separated from society. Walking allowed me to experience every facet of local life,
and without it I wouldn’t have been able to integrate and assimilate into part of the
community.
In Paris, I recognized where I was not by the names of the streets but by the
buildings themselves. Each arrondissement has a different style of architecture,
“Walking through these new megalopolises (Berlin, London, Paris) you passed
through districts that were like different worlds, separate apart. Everything could
vary; the size and the architectural styles of the buildings, the quality and scent of
the air, the way of living…(Gros 176).” The 16e arrondissement, where I grew up,
had beautiful limestone buildings that reached heights of seven floors. Walking
through each arrondissement was like entering into a different city. The
architecture was noticeably different depending on which arrondissement you were
in. You develop a certain rapport with your town and the buildings that surround
you. I noticed familiar building and shops, and felt safe while within their presence.
Once you leave the boundaries that make up your arrondissement you feel uneasy.
But once you begin walking you are calmed by the rhyme each step has and your
mind wander to greater subjects. Walking allowed me to experience different
districts of Paris, and realizing that my arrondissement was unique, helped me
relate to arrondissement.
After I moved to the U.S for high school, I lived in a very rural town in
Connecticut. I was completely surround by endless forests, the beauty of nature was
subtle but noticeable coming from a crowded city, “Too, the average rural walker
looks at the general- the view, the beauty- and the landscape moves by as a gently
modulated continuity: a crest long in view is reached, a forest thins out to become a
meadow” (Solnit 174). After become a citizen of a city I made the adjustment to
rural life, I became part of a hiking community. Recently I have found that walking
has become a metaphor for great pursuits rather than get to a destination. While I
walk I find that my mind wanders, I am in a trance, my body is moving but my mind
if absent. I just hear my footsteps and the wind howling. There is a direct
relationship between walking and my consciousness. “It is an observer’s state, cool,
withdrawn, with a senses sharpened, a good state for anybody who needs to reflect
or create. In small doses melancholy, alienation, and introspection are among life’s
most refined pleasures” (Solnit 186). Separation from society can be extremely
relaxing, unless you are ruminating on a past incident. I found complete relaxation
while hiking alone through the forest. Sonlit discussed in, The Mind at Three Miles
an Hour, how Rousseau perceived walking as, “both an exercise of simplicity and a
means of contemplation. During the time he (Rousseau) wrote the Discourses, he
would walk alone in the Bois de Boulogne after dinner, ‘thinking over subjects for
works to be written and not returning till night’ (Solnit19)”. Rousseau realized the
importance of walking as a way to contemplate and gain clarity toward his work.
Walking and hiking served as an outlet to explore and mediate on various things
going on in my life. While my and friends and I hiked, I usually kept quiet as we
followed poorly marked trails, I didn't talk not because I didn't have anything to say
but because my mind was elsewhere. I thought about greater subjects than the usual
conversation. Walking through forest trails actives my consciousness of identity, it
causes me to reflect on my past identity and look to my future identity.
Living in France was an experience I wouldn't trade for anything in this life. I
was given insight into another culture and their perspectives. After nearly nine
years in France, I assimilated into their community. After returning to the U.S for
high school, I again felt like an outcast that was neither French nor American.
Anazldúa refuses to be labeled as one particular identity, but recognizes that she is
cross-cultured, “Something about who and what I am and the 200 ’artifacts’ I have
just seen does not feel right. I pull out my ‘birth chart’. Yes, cultural roots are
important but I was not born at Tenochitán in the ancient past nor in an Aztec
village in modern times. I was born and live that in-between space, nepantla, the
borderlands… For me, being Chicana is not enough. It is only one of my multiple
identities (Anzaldúa 66). I am both American and French and can’t be categorized
as one of those, but both. The experiences of living in France and the U.S have
equally shaped my identity. I am homesick for my home country, if I can call France
home. Short visits to France don’t quench or satisfy my desire to return. My accent
gone, my French clothes out grown, but my experiences remain.
I was given the privilege to grow up in such a diverse and interesting city. I
treasured every aspect of my European life. I consider myself cross- cultured. I
belong to two citizenships, one of La Muette and the other of Weston, CT. Both my
citizenships have shaped my identity, which was cultivated and formed around my
ability to walk. Walking allowed me to relate to my surroundings, while refining and
modeling my identity as a Parisian and an American.