First impressions of Breda

After our arrival, we directly went to our appartment in order to take our keys and have a rest. But we letf our things and went out to visit the city with two other students from the ESAIP living in the same building.

We have been immediatly surprised by something : in the Netherlands, there is not any shutters on the windows of the inhabitants ! Everybody can see what is happenning in all the houses, and it does not seem to be a problem for the inhabitants. They just live in their house like if nobody could see what they do in front of the windows.

Source : Ségolène DADILLON

Furthermore, people living in the Netherlands eat their dinner very early, between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. . It is the same for the lunch, most of the restaurants open late, around 1 p.m. or 2 p.m. . Their eating habits are very different to the French.

Also, it is really clear that in France, the English skills are not the same in the other countries. In France the level is clearly poor, and in the Netherlands almost everybody is bilingual ! The evening of our arrival, we tried to find a supermarket in order to buy some food and drinks for the beggining of our Erasmus journey, but we could not find anything and it has been necessary to ask some people to help us in the streets. We asked our way to three persons, and all of them spoke English fluently.