Well, I've been in my new French hometown for a week now. I am proud citizen of Douai, which is located in the département du Nord in the northernmost region in France, Nord-Pas-de-Calais (the French really love to divide things into lots of categories!). There are about 43,000 people here, and it's roughly one hour from Paris by TGV (high-speed train) and about 25 minutes from Lille. I was a bit concerned about moving here after spending a week in Paris. I would excitedly tell people I was moving to Douai, and they'd make a terrible face and say something like "oh, you're SO unlucky" or "why ever would you want to go there?!" They said it was cold, ugly, rainy, the people were poor and uneducated, there was nothing to do there, I was going
... read more
