I’m talking about a sustained love or fetish for a country that isn’t your own. For me it’s Japan and Russia, and the UK of course (though that’s different as I lived there till age 3, when my parents immigrated to California) As such I don’t have the 100% disconnect that is perhaps necessary to be a true anglophile. Otherwise what’s the difference between a phile and a patriot?
So do you obsess somewhat over a foreign nation? Why?
Are you a “phile” of a foreign land?
I love France. The countryside, whether the green of Brittany, the stoniness of Jura, the purple of Haut-Provence, the medieval villages, the tacky beach towns, the food, of course the wine, picking up copies of ‘Rock et Pop’ and struggling through them, all bliss. The people? Not so much.
France for me too. I lived there for a decent amount of time and still go back regularly to visit my pied a terre I kept on.
Me too. I’ve seen a lot of the country in quick bites due to the times I’ve been over to follow the Tour. My favourite town on the planet is French, the wonderful Alpine lake town of Annecy. I could quite happily live out my days in a villa by the side of Lac d’Annecy. Plenty of other places I’d like to explore in more depth.
I’ve also got a great liking for, and curiosity about, Germany. The country and its culture fascinate me.
It’s not a country but I’ve been to Antarctica twice and I’m going back there next February, probably not for the last time! I love it, the isolation, the wildlife, the bleakness and the beauty.
Spain for me. Lived there for two years as a kid and I’ve loved it ever since. Love the contrasts between the central desert plains, Galicia and Asturias, and the big cities. I love it’s doomy pessimism combined with party fever. Always drawn to Spanish artists and writers, from Goya to Garcia Lorca to Almodovar. It’s pop music is mainly rubbish though.
Have had many significant holidays there – honeymoon, 50th birthday, last holiday with my dad, and can’t wait to go with my family for my 60th this summer.
You might enjoy the book Ghosts of Spain by Giles Tremlett.
Great book. Learnt a lot about the country through that book.
Sounds great. Thanks for the tip – it’s gone on the list.
Mainland North Western Europe for me. One of my dream holidays is to drive from Hamburg up to Copenhagen then over to Stockholm. I love the way Scandinavians in particular like to be seen as good citizens of the world. I’m also in love with the way things are designed, the music, art, forests, cars, the food (although I could do without tipping lingonberries on everything).
Also Canada. Wide open spaces with no bugger else in them, forests, mountains, lumberjack shirts as national dress, like to be seen as good world citizens. I can see a theme emerging here…
I always consider a year’s worth of holidays wasted if I haven’t been to Italy at least once; just such an easy and relaxed place to hang out. Our next trip is Venice for my birthday next week.
Italy for me too. In fact, all the Wad family. I especially love Lake Garda and Malcesine in particular, although we’ve stayed down in Peschiera the last couple of times. We’re thinking of somewhere further south this year though, possibly within distance of Rome, as we’ve never been there since we had the kids.
Actually, my wife was around 6 months pregnant with our daughter when we were there. We managed to pick the first time in years that we couldn’t get into the Sistine Chapel, as Pope John Paul II died a few days before we went. We walked to the Vatican on the day the new Pope was elected, but it was really hot and there were very few places to sit, so we didn’t hang around. I’ve never seen as many nuns and priests in one place. We had a walk back into the city and went back to our hotel for a rest. When we turned the TV on we saw that the new Pope was about to take to the balcony. I was pretty sure you could see the balcony from the breakfast terrace at our hotel, but my wife assured me we couldn’t. At breakfast the next morning, when we saw we had a lovely view of the Vatican balcony my wife owned up that she knew we could see it, but was too tired to face the walk up the stairs!
Africa unsurprisingly and Zimbabwe specifically. Having lived there I’ve been back with the kids, keep up with the news and continue to collect its music.
Course the place is rooted but I still love it.
“Rooted in what….?” I initially thought. This is literally the only place such Ozisms come into my consciousness. A sheltered life…
Rooted as in cactus, kaput, fucked , dysfunctional …
Japan for me. I love it unreservedly. Tokyo is the most fantastic city on Earth, a place where I could live twenty years and never be bored. There’s the neon overload of popular imagination, but also a hundred thousand quiet backstreets leading to quirky little stores, peaceful shrines or beautiful parks. It has the best restaurants, the best record shops, a full gig calendar, some fantastic architecture, some brilliant museums, an unending stream of happenings and, best of all, it just works. Public transport is cheap, frequent and reliable, crime is minimal, the streets are clean, and there is very little general oafishness. Out of the city, the countryside is beautiful, lush, green, mountainous. It’s a wonderful place, earthquakes notwithstanding.
I’m also drawn to an idea of Central Europe before the war, a fantasy Mitteleuropa that probably only exists in my head. Imagine a cocktail of Stefan Zweig, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Heidelberg duelling scars, coffee shop discussion of poets, towering cathedrals, dark forests, narrow streets winding up cobbled hills, twilight gloom and sundrenched fields of wheat, and you’re on the right tracks.
I’ve made a rash promise to my daughter that we’ll try and go for the 2020 Olympics. I actually hope we make it because I’m curious to see it.
Seconded on Japan and Tokyo. You sum it up very well. I was looked after with unbelievable, and I like to think, genuine courtesy. I have so many good memories of my time there, now over 20 years ago and haven’t been back since. I’d like to see what’s become of the country.
Japan too here, my wife and I went there for our honeymoon. She had lived there for a couple of years teaching English. A truly wonderful place, like no other. I preferred Kyoto to Tokyo. I would go back in a heartbeat.
A fantastic description of Japan & Tokyo in particular Mr Dynamite.
Japan would be one of mine too. We did Tokyo, Hiroshima, Miyajima & Kyoto over 3 weeks & I fell in love with all of them. I actually had one of those ‘moments’ in Hiroshima where it feels like you have an out of body experience due to an overwhelming sense of being. I actually got a tattoo when I returned to remind me of that moment. A bit tossy but it does work.
We have made a promise that we will go back in the next 5 years & explore some more.
I haven’t been everywhere in the world but Iceland is the most amazing place I’ve seen. Truly a land of fire and ice. The people a very special too and the music is incredible.
Belgium.
Good beer, good food (fantastic chips) and a relaxed easy going culture (at least, thats my experience).
And now for sweeping stereotypes – it’s like Germany without the ruthless efficiency, and France without the arrogance.
Seconded. And you didn’t even mention the beer. A spring visit is essential to catch a cycle race. This year I shall be attending Liège–Bastogne–Liège
I’m not a “_phile” of anywhere, but of the countries I’ve visited I guess Thailand is the one I’d be most happy to go back to. I found such kind, friendly, gentle people there, as well as wonderful food, beaches and weather. I’d consider retiring there*. I also love the Greek islands, but no way could I live anywhere where you can’t flush the toilet paper down the loo. Euw! My least favourite place visited would be Mexico. No trains!
*Whenever I mention this to anyone I know, the response is nearly always “retiring from what exactly?”
France, most definitely. First went there in 1957, and have been roughly once a year ever since. I think I’d rather live there than anywhere else, although I’ve never managed it. France is a little bit rooted (see above) right now; fingers crossed Marie le Penis doesn’t get her claws into the place.
Italy next. Umbria, Roma and Venice are the bits I know best. I’m very keen to go to Sicily.
I’m planning to become a Japanophile: we’re madly saving up for at least 3 weeks in Japan next spring.
England is beginning to look like a foreign country, so you might say I’m an Anglophile.
Lot’s of good reading here…
I’ve only been to Russia once, but I was a russophile leading up to it. Their fiction and films captured my heart in a way that I would be embarrassed to go into on this forum. Not to mention their political history(!!) …speaking of politics, what about Japan? The generation gaps there are insane. Personally I love Japan for Ozu and Robotech, and everything before, after, and in between.
Here’s an instrumental track (shamisen/fusion) that for the moment nails what I love about the place.
I think there are different kinds of philes.
There’s the person who has fallen in love with a country because of a book, a movie, sport, music etc. Dave, the protagonist of Peter Yates’s Breaking Away, who is obsessed with Italy, is a classic example.
My feelings about Japan are a little like that.
Then there’s someone who has visited a country and been bowled over by the food, countryside, language etc.
That’s me and Italy, I lived in Rome for 6 months and completely fell for la dolce vita feel of the country.
Then there’s the kind of phile that Kid D so vividly describes above. Enchanted by a foreign place which, if it ever existed, is now no more. Anachronistic European cities often appear in the films of Miyazaki. And then all those foreign Anglophiles who are enchanted by Downton Abbey, Miss Marple etc. I feel like saying to some Swedes: You are interested in England? Go and see My name is Daniel Blake
My image of Brazi is a bit like that. All my favourite artists are long dead.
Finally there are the Anglos, like myself and Mike, who have been away from their home country so long they have become philes. Some have been away for so long, their mental image is based on memories of a place that no longer exists.
“Looking forward to getting back to Blighty this summer. Maybe the Stones or the Floyd will be doing a free concert in Hyde Park.”
I love France. We went on holiday there nearly every year when I was a kid, and stayed in a bunch of different regions. I then lived for a year in Provence in a small town just outside Avignon. That was it. Sold completely. For a long time, my retirement dream was a ma somewhere down there. And if I win the lottery, it’s still on. Food, wine, weather, people, countryside, pace of life.
I also love the USA< my new home, and especially Virginia, which is where I am "from". USA is a country full of contradictions, but the aspirational dream of what it could be is compelling. I live in a small city just outside DC, where everything is walkable, and our neighbors are amazing. Less than an hour away is the Shenandoah valley, which is just beautiful.
The more you about USA< the more you realize it's just….big. Rolling acres, for miles less than an hour from DC. Big roads, and big sky.
I've been lucky in my professional life here, but looking back a chunk of it was due to my "grab the opportunity or make the opportunity happen" approach, and I'm not sure, had I stayed in the UK<, that would have happened.
Is it a flawed country? Absolutely. But show me one that isn't.
Italy for me.
What’s not to love…..
The countryside, the food, the wine, the weather, the history, the art, even the opera, the beautiful women, the men – mad as Irishmen but in an Italian way.
Mind you I deal with some Italian IT guys…….IT not their strongest suit.
Love it all from Venice to Sicily.
Strangely with the exception of Florence……don’t know why been there a couple of times and the magic escapes me…..much prefer Sienna….down the road a bit.
I think Florence is a victim of its own success as a tourist attraction. A lot of the time when people visit Italy they have a checklist, and Rome, Florence and Venice are at the top. Rome is big enough to absorb the tourist crowds, and apart from at obvious places (Vatican, Colosseum), it never really feels overwhelmed and the centro storico remains enjoyable to stroll through. Florence and Venice are smaller and suffer as a result.
As you say, there are other places close by which are prettier to explore, like Sienna, Ferrara and Lucca, and to be honest, Bologna is a nicer city to walk through.
Sienna is a lovely place and Sicily…had my favourite holiday there. The food, wine, climate, the ancient ruins, the old towns. But mainly the food…cor!
I’m a big fan of Germany though or perhaps more specifically the Germans as a people. Lived there till I was 7, albeit on an Army base and worked their too for 3 years in my early twenties, albeit on an RAF base but did lots of exploring. Just nice people and yes, extremely efficient.
When I was 14, my one great dream was to fly off to SanFrancisco. visit Height Ashbury and sit in Golden Gate Park with a gaggle of boho babes, Allen Ginsberg and the Merry Pranksters and listen to the Dead, the Airplane, the Quicksilver Messenger Service etc.
Our son is now 14. To my amusement, his big dream is to move to Tottenham, pig out on fried chicken and hang with Abra Cadabra, Stormzy.
What happened?
For me its become India. The first time I visited I hated it but it’s different when you have enough money for even a $20 hotel. I’ve been about 10 times and I love the food and people and general insanity of the place. Just one example is last years Kumba Mehla. A four yearly Hindu festival attended by up to 50 million people. I spent 3 days just wandering through the crowds and one day came across a group of sikh men who had driven down from the Punjab (three days drive) just to hand out free food to their Hindu brothers. Every time you visit India you come away with stories like that.
Clive of India!
Who wrote one of my favorite military messages ever:
Peccavi
Greece for me. It has a kind of shabby, run down quality that I love. I learnt a smattering of Greek phrases to help me bond with the locals, which led me to drinking home brewed raki out of an old Tizer bottle. Had a very memorable evening in a deserted Cretian taverna with the owners family watching the 2005 Champions league final (Liverpool 3 Milan 3) Got well leathered thanks to their hospitality!
Sweden for me. Only been twice but a cheery “Hej! Hej!” is always a welcome thing. On my last visit I was interested to learn that Emmerdale Farm had been wildly popular there during the 1980s.
Sweden & Japan for me.
Both are countries that I have an incredible fondness for & will always recommend to people & try to visit as often as possible. I recently stopped working for a Swedish company though so the trips are going to be a lot less frequent now! Boo!
I don’t you’re missing much not beng in Sweden today.We had heavy snow on Tuesday and now it’s all slushy and soggy. It’s beautiful when it all falls though, less so as it all melts.
This chap was looking very cocky and pleased with himself yesterday. Today he is a puddle!
Is there anyone else who developed a great fondness for a country due to childhood travels?
My mum was from the Prescelly Hills in Dyfed (Pembrokeshire) and we went to Wales every summer. Since then I’ve been a real Cymruphile. It was a magical place for a suburban child.
Beaches with rockpools. Lanes wth hedgerows full of honeysuckle. Streams where you could catch fish. Relatives who were farmers: a teatme the table was always groaning under an assortment of home-baked cakes. Not to mention the beauties of a language of which I understood not a word. And everthing so green.