Cultural walls

The year was 1993. I was in Florida with my then boyfriend (if you could call anyone in their 50s a boy).

"But how do they know where to stop mowing the lawn?" He could not understand the lack of fences and high walls between the front yards and front yards and the street in my stepmom's community. He found the same thing in New England. He told his friends back in Switzerland how strange the lack of walls was, and overall those who had visited the States shared his viewpoint.

I've always found it strange how houses are sealed off in Switzerland and in many neighbourhoods in France. In my Swiss neighbourhood (photo above) the house on the left is the most open. Even if it has a gate facing the street and a see-through wire fence, the rest of the house is surrounded by hedges as are the other houses nearby.

Rick was saying that in his French class there is a Czech woman who looked at a house that she and her husband wanted to buy, but they decided against it. "Every house on the street had a big fence around it. I found it too depressing." she told him adding she couldn't live like that.

Now an American friend who spent more time in Europe than she did in the States during her lifetime, said about a new apartment house without being completely hidden that mornings when she passed the building she could see them eating breakfast. She wouldn't like that for herself. Her house does have a lovely hedge and gate and the garden can be quite peaceful to sit in on a coolish summer day, especially if a book is involved.

I'm not sure I want to be on display, but sheer drapes take care of that and there isn't the feeling of being locked away from the world. In that I've retained my American side. I prefer open, but then again I'm a bit claustrophobic. As beautiful as our new drapes are in Argelès, and they will keep the heat in or out depending on the season, they give the flat a tighter hemmed-in (no pun that they have hems) feeling.

At the same time the drapes are on the enclosed patio side, so the only one who might spy on us, would be an errant snail that we missed when I brought home too many.

I suppose the idea of sealing one's self off is partly cultural.  I do see having a locked gate and hedges might slow down burglars and that is an advantage, but then again if everything was open, it might be easier for a neighbour to notice someone breaking into a house if the house was clearly visible. Maybe people in some cultures like to enclose themselves in their own worlds.

In my French office and snore room, the windows open onto the street. We have venetian blinds that during the day give some sense of privacy for me, yet I can look out. I'm not locked in mentally. At night people with the light on can look in, and that point I want the blinds closed. I certainly don't want them to see me asleep in bed. At the computer? Not so important.

The attitude toward walls hiding a person's living space away seems to be somewhat cultural with a bit of the personal thrown in.