Early pints, scotch eggs, loud dresses: What the French love about Britain

I have spent a lot of my 15 years in London gently making fun of British people and their occasionally odd ways, and I have no regrets but I thought I should attempt something different this week. There are a million and one small things which annoy me about living in England, but none of them really matter.

Instead, here are some things I have begun appreciating so much that I am not sure I could ever meaningfully live anywhere else. Here goes:

1) The efficient rhythm of the British night out

As a teenager in France, I assumed that going out meant having dinner at home then heading into town at around 9pm, perhaps even later. A number of hours of drinking would ensue, and there was little hope of making it back home before 2am. It was great, I thought.

I moved here and found that people would go to the pub at 6pm on the dot – or earlier if they could get away with it – and would be, more often than not, home and tucked in bed by midnight. I hated it at first; I couldn’t get used to it. 

Years later, however, I came to realise that it is the perfect way to live your life: you can have an entire night out and still fall asleep at a reasonable time! You don’t have to loiter between work and the pub! I now actively resent being abroad and returning to a more nocturnal life. Give me pints at 6.01pm or give me death.

2) Scotch eggs

You may not think that scotch eggs deserve their own entry but they do, I promise they do. Foreigners like to make fun of British cuisine but no people that created scotch eggs could ever be unredeemable. A real fancy scotch egg? Warm, with the yolk still runny? As good as most things you’d eat in an expensive French restaurant.

3) The freedom to dress however you want

I remember once going back to Paris to see some friends. We were out on a Saturday afternoon and it was sunny, and we were walking across town. People on terraces were staring at me, one after the next, and I eventually asked my pal if I had something on my face, or in my hair.

What I had, she awkwardly explained, was quite a loud and short dress, which Parisians clearly frowned upon. It was, for context, a dress conservative enough that I have worn it on BBC News in the past. It’s just a bit quirky, that’s all.

That moment was a real shock to the system, but mostly an overdue reminder that I am lucky to live in a country where people can wear more or less anything they want, and no-one will bother them. It is incredibly freeing, and I would find it hard to ever go back.

4) The sense of humour

Enough said! I am writing this from America and I can tell you, for certain, that the Brits are some of the funniest people in the world. Well, either that or Americans really are uniquely unfunny, but let’s go with the former.

5) The love of eccentricity

This one is a bit tricky. On the one hand, there is a love of conformity embedded deep inside the British psyche – you’ve just got to look at the architecture, with all those rows of entirely identical houses. Most people seem allergic to the idea of standing out.

Still, the flipside of this is that, as a country, Britain not only tolerates but tends to really celebrate misfits, people who don’t quite fit in and aren’t quite like anyone else. You love a charming weirdo! And that’s a delight. 

Again, there is a lot of gentle acceptance on your side of the Channel; you may not shout about it from the rooftops but it is there if you know where to look.

Anyway! On this note – I think I’m just about done, and will now return to affectionate snark. See you in five years for the 125th anniversary. I’ll consider being nice again then.