Vive la Différence

     When people who have never been to France ask me what I think of the country, my answer is that it is the same as the United States, just a lot older.  That's a broad statement, and I am only referring to the top visual layer.  The roads are the same with rush hour traffic jams and the occasional fender bender.  The shopping centers are the same.  No one is strolling along, making separate stops at the bakery, the green grocer, and the butcher.  They go to the supermarket where they pick up rotisserie chickens and frozen entrees and where they tie up all sorts of produce in separate pale green plastic bags.  Younger French males are just as addicted to video games as their American counterparts.  And everyone, I mean everyone, is engrossed in their cell phone screen.  Of course, culturally there is a world of difference between France and the United States.  Mike and I adjusted well to different foods and especially well to the increased alcohol consumption!  We enjoyed eating later and lingering at meals.  It seemed to us that French children are extremely well behaved.  Here are some other things we noticed:

The top legal speed in France is 130 kilometers per hour or 80.77 miles per hour.  There are no speed limits in Germany.

Commercial trucking is banned on Sundays.  If you go out for a Sunday drive, you will see the truckers parked, patiently waiting for midnight, so they can start running again.

New Jersey hunting regulations prohibit permanent tree stands and screw in steps.  These permanent stands are common in fields in France.

Would you like three baguettes?  Don't use these fingers.

Use these fingers - thumb, index, and middle.

Have some cheese at the end of the evening meal.  It's important that your cheese board be shaped like New Jersey.