france v us

I'll start this by saying you cannot compare two countries. I get asked a lot, "Which do you like better? France or the US?" I can't really answer that question if I'm being honest. They both have positives and negatives as does anything. These are merely differences I have noticed in my eleven months of living in France, take each bit with a grain of salt as my experience here has been a very specific one.

Driving

I'm lucky enough to be able to drive here, but still baffled that I was not required to take any sort of test or course before doing so. All I had to do was spend five minutes at AAA to get my international driver's permit. There's a right-hand yield here that I still don't entirely understand after eleven months. Sometimes you'll be driving down a road and someone will come out of nowhere, wanting to turn right, and you have to slam on your brakes to let them. It makes no sense to me and now I creep up whenever I come across an intersection. A stop sign would suffice.

Oh, the wonders of roundabouts. I've always thought roundabouts were so fun and wish there were more in America. They're incredibly frightening, I will admit that. Especially the ones in Paris, namely the one surrounding the Arc de Triomphe. It seems as though there are no rules or guidelines and there are certainly no lanes. Everyone just goes. It's absolute chaos. You take your shot, zipping into the belly of the beast, as hoards of scooters and cars come at you from your right. The good thing is that everyone knows it's insane, so people are pretty forgiving when you're stuck on the inside, trying to make it to your exit without having to make another tour around the Arc. Once you survive a couple huge roundabouts, you've conquered them all.

Highways (or freeways I never understood the difference) here have only two lanes for the most part. Maximum I've seen is four lanes. But, the French have artfully created a system that is seemingly unspoken to combat the lack of lanes. Almost everyone drives in the right-hand lane, leaving the left purely for passing. You come across someone slow in the right lane, you pass them on the left, then you go back to the right. It seems like a, "well duh" kind of thing, but it shocked me when I first got here. Driving is so streamlined! It makes perfect sense to do this, but I've only experienced driving in the left lane and getting angry when people in the supposedly fast lane aren't going all that fast. Another thing is that if you're absolutely bombing down the left lane, all you have to do is put your left blinker on and the person you're coming up on will get the hint and move to the right lane. It's beautiful to watch really.

Parking

Parking here is comical. It seems as if there are no rules. You park on the sidewalk, or any raised surface for that matter. Parking spots are merely suggestions. You park your car in the street even and just put your hazards on and you're safe! I get so scared when I park like a French person, but I've never gotten in trouble! Parking monitors seem more keen in America.

Dog Poop

French dog owners, why? Just why? You have to walk with your eyes on the ground to avoid dog poop. It's not just Paris, it's everywhere I've been in this entire country. It's as if poop bags don't exist. It's just normal here? Luckily I've only stepped in it twice or so, but I'll never get over it. In America you would get verbally assaulted if someone saw you leaving your dog poop for some poor unsuspecting soul to fall prey to.

Meals

In America, we love our big, salty breakfasts with our sausage, eggs, and hashbrowns. Here, it's all about sugar. A normal breakfast would be une tartine de nutella (bread with nutella), toast with jam, a croissant, a pre-packaged chocolate crepe with a glass of milk (what my kid has practically every morning). Usually chocolate is involved with breakfast here. Lunch and dinner are pretty much the same as the US, with minor changes. Here, we have appetizers (called apero) at about 6. We usually don't eat dinner until 7:30 or 8, which is very different to my life back home. I end up starving around 5 here. After lunch or dinner, yogurt is considered part of dessert? Dessert usually consists of yogurt, then cheese, then fruit. Always in that order. It still baffles me, but I am not complaining in the slightest! When I first came here, I didn't really eat dessert so cheese for dessert was a dream come true.

School

As I've mentioned in previous posts, elementary schools do not have school on Wednesdays. I'm still not really sure what parents do when they have to work and don't have an au pair. It kind of seems like parents get the short end of the stick on that one. Wednesdays are activity days. At the beginning of the year, everyone goes and signs up for activities in this big gymnasium, like club day or something. My child and I both signed up for hip-hop, on Wednesdays, the boy signed up for track and field, on Wednesdays, and the parents signed up for rock climbing, shocker, on Wednesdays. I guess it makes sense that the one day your kid doesn't have school, they have an activity? Contrary to the US, I feel like I had practice or something almost every day.

The girl I babysit is nine and I've noticed that her school has a lot of rules. She can't wear necklaces or have her nails painted, among other things. There are definitely a lot more rules here. The rules don't stop at school, they apply to society as a whole as well. I could wear full sweats to the grocery store, but I'll get a lot of stares. On the contrary, I could wear a short skirt or semi-revealing top, and likewise I will get a lot of stares. There are unspoken rules here as to how you should dress, look, and act. I've been told on numerous different occasions that I am not like French girls. Whether it's the way I dress, the way I will sing or dance in public if there's music playing, or the way I simply do not care how I look when I leave the house, I differ from the status quo here in most ways.

Anywho, that's enough for now. Again, these are just things I have noticed in my personal experiences and I am not saying one is better than the other in any way. Apples and oranges or whatever that saying is.

ciao!