Being a French Catholic Woman
About Florence Richaud
When you go to the south of France you will not miss a little Grandma and her dog in their little gray polo racing through the streets of Nice and Cannes. She will be ready to talk about her childhood and the most recent news.
How did being raised in a French Catholic family affect your identity?
“ I am a Catholic. I am not a practicing Catholic, but I am a Catholic and I guess it gives you rules. You know of decency [and] being a good human being. You know all the practices [and] religious values. Even though now I find [it] a little restraining and restrictive and I don't really agree but on the whole I am a Catholic. Yes. That's how I was built.”
Did your brother's belief in peace reflect on you?
“Yes, I think that in that sense he was very gentle and yes it was somebody that believed in peace alot, even though we did not talk much I think that it did (how shall I say) it did make some influence on my identity because he was my big brother.”
Did you ever find it unfair being a woman?
“To be a woman, I have always been happy to be a woman first a little girl and then a young women there were no questions about that. Women did not have the position they have nowadays and for me I was just a girl and I managed to do things and I was happy about that.”
“We were not as evolved [and] mature as you are now.”
-Florence Richaud
Do you see the world differently in your eyes because you were raised as a young girl in the 1960s?
“Yes very much so but I had a very progresive mother. She would encourage me to do things and so much so that when I was 13 and 14 she sent me to England to learn English….And then (2 years after) she sent me to Spain to learn Spanish.”
When you moved to America did your French Catholic identity affect your transfer?
“No I chose to go (for me) it was exciting I wanted to go I was carrying on with my studies, I was in college and as you know I went to Texas to spend 1 year and I was very very excited to go because I was going to discover a new country [and] a new culture as you say [a] new identity so different from us [a small French town] we were totally different [again a French town] and I was curious and happy to be going to America….”
In the present day today what would you say to your younger self?
I’d say that I was very lucky to go through this period of time which was peaceful as supposed to now, which things are difficult for the youth and I think that I did not have what you have now and are going through you have [the] pandemic and there is [now] the climate change and the catastrophe ….”
“My mother had shown me the way, and then I followed the way.”
