two things i like about the french

there are two things i greatly enjoy here in france. first, the french have an entire subculture around cartoons and comic books (here they are called “bandes designees” or bd for short). here if you walk into any respectable book store you will find a section dedicated to these comics. and they are not for children alone; an adult can take his time browsing through the comics or buy any of them without getting weird looks from passers by.

unfortunately, in romania, most of the adults will dismiss comics or cartoons/anime as strictly for children and you’ll only get questions of “just how old are you?” if you confess to any of them your passion for such things. i greatly dislike these individuals, not because they despise comics/cartoons/anime, but because they just refuse to sit down and watch an anime (or read a comic) before they judge them – the word “shallow” now pops into my mind. unfortunately there are two such persons who i’m very close to. to the first one i am related by blood (no further comment here) and the second one is my bro’s gf (girlfriend, not guardian force). i can only hope that maybe one day they’ll have the patience (and the broad-mindedness) to watch “grave of the fireflies” or “lain” or “perfect blue” or “ghost in the shell” and maybe realize that an anime can indeed convey a serious message (even an ideological or philosophical one)…

oh, and the second thing i like about the french is the “moutarde forte de dijon”.