"Alameda writer Mark Greenside says that based on his first visit as a 21-year-old in 1966 to Paris, where he ran into a buzzsaw of Parisian rudeness, he wasn't eager to return. In 1990, though, persuaded by his then-girlfriend, he decided to give France another chance and became smitten not with Paris but the countryside of Brittany France's northwestern region just across the English Channel from Great Britain that in ancient times was settled by mostly Celtic people and for whom Brittany is named."
"Greenside says that he was struck upon arriving by all the Celtic flags and how welcoming everyone was, unlike Parisians. It was no accident, as Bretons are said to have long considered themselves outsiders within France. And so they're welcoming to outsiders, says Greenside, who recently authored a new installment of his French memoir series, I Am Finally, Finally French My Accidental Life in Brittany."
"So in short order, he became the owner of a charming two-story, stone-walled, French country home in Plobien, Greenside's fictitious name that he came up with for the undisclosed village where his summer home is plo in Breton means village, and bien in French means good, so together the name means good village. Which it certainly has been for me, says Greenside."
Mark Greenside first visited Paris in 1966 at age 21 and encountered Parisian rudeness that discouraged him from returning. In 1990 he returned to France, became captivated by Brittany's countryside and Celtic heritage, and found locals unusually welcoming. Bretons long viewed themselves as outsiders within France, fostering hospitality toward newcomers. Greenside bought an inexpensive two-story stone house in a small village he named Plobien (meaning "good village"), paid 75,000 francs, maintained a teaching job in California, spent summers in Brittany, and turned his experiences into a series of memoirs.
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