La presse quotidienne régionale, affectionately referred to as la PQR,* is a beautiful thing. Parisians love to make fun of it. Obviously.

But headlines like Ce robot plante tout seul des betteraves keep me smiling. And grounded…

Now that I’m living in province (which is most of France outside of Paris), I can’t get enough of my weekly newspaper, L’Éveil Normand. It reminds me what it was like to exist before the Internet, which I did for most of my life (serious #gratitude for that…). I actually buy a paper copy almost every week, which is how I’ve discovered some of the gems on this blog.

I admit I laugh out loud, too, but without malice (attention, faux ami !). And the cognates, like robot (a food processor is a robot de cuisine!), sometimes make for inadvertent jeux de mots and some pretty hilarious visuals for us bilinguals. But on a much deeper level, I rejoice. Je me fucking régale. Really. It is so refreshing, so real, so human. It’s quaint. It’s sweet. It’s honest. It’s au premier degré.* It is utterly devoid of snark or cynicism.

Can you say that about anything else you read these days? More and more, my Twitter feed makes me want to go full fetal position.

This stuff, however, reminds me what it means to be alive. It turns a city full of les gens into a city full of humans. In a world trending towards othering, stories like these let you cheer people on in their struggles and triumphs, share their hopes and dreams, get a glimpse into compelling life stories… And in a town this size, you can actually cross paths with them! The PQR humanizes, promotes empathy, reminds us what binds us to each other.

Sorry if all of this is glaringly obvious to you. But I’ve never done small-town life before, so it’s novel. 😉

Images: Nicolas has a very long beard; Lucie gives haircuts in her truck; A fourth sheep attack; Yup, there’s a wolf; Bertrand, going to tea dances for 24 years; Florence and Pierre met Jean-Pierre Pernaut (??); an American-style senior village; Raymond, the dog with millions of Internet views; He chased off the thief by hitting him with a crutch; Pierre and Joanna crowned world bridge champions; Beet robot; Nicolas makes designs in cappuccino foam; Harassment: He phoned his ex 600 times a month. (Image source: epresse.fr)

About the sheep attack. This one made me laugh out loud. I figured sheep weren’t very attacky in general, but I’m a city girl, so I could have been wrong… I mean, goats can be attacky, right? So I asked my French friend (a grammar goddess and near-native normande) if there was any way, grammatically, to tell if the sheep were attacking or being attacked from this headline, and she admitted that it was totally ambiguous. Of course, the next week, all was revealed: Y’avait bien un loup. 🤣

*About PQR. My French stepson reminded me that PQR also stands for plan cul régulier, which is a regular hookup. Just passing on the info.

**About au premier degré and au second degré. These are essential concepts in France that America seems to be incapable of understanding. The closest I’ve ever come to the meaning of au second degré is “tongue in cheek.” It’s more sophisticated and nuanced than that, though. Americans tend to take things at face value (au premier degré), while the French are conditioned to expect and distinguish between the two. So when I say these headlines are au premier degré, I mean they are sincere and without irony or double entendre. Which, in French, is double sens, BTW. A French person will have no idea what you mean if you say double entendre.

A Belgian/Parisian friend visited a few weeks ago, and she said whenever she’s away from Paris she picks up a copy of the local paper, just for the entertainment value. It’s a thing. So I made sure she got a copy of L’Éveil. You can pick up a copy at any of the presses, tabacs, grocery stores, librairies…

The L’Éveil HQ is right on the main drag (31 Rue Thiers), right next to the tourism office (at 29). They’ve always got an artist’s work displayed in the front window, the building they’re in is Instaworthy, and there’s great typography in the sign!

Also, apparently, the city is trying to figure out how to get more residents (although I’m not sure I agree that’s needed…). Any ideas?