the first most important thing is we don't greet our shop keepers with the hello miss or mr,. where in France if you don't bonjour madame, you may not be served or get the fish eye.I prefer their way.

The smiling vs. non-smiling on the street thing is the first thing that I noticed when I went to Copenhagen, and its surroundings, in the early 70s. For me, coming from L.A., it was strange seeing people walking around and not giving eye contact or if eyes did meet, then not to acknowledge the person. But, it was the same in N.Y. when I would visit friends there.

When my Danish friends would come to visit me here and we would be walking down the street and someone would greet us and I'd acknowledge the person, they'd ask where I knew the person from. I'd then mention that I didn't know the person and they'd look at me a bit strangely. I'd then have explain that it was considered polite here to do such and I had grown up doing it. Happy Travels!

Years ago the Spaniard Salvador Madariaga wrote a study on that very subject. It's called Englishmen, Frenchmen, Spaniards. Who knows? I imagine some of it still holds true as national character changes very slowly.

I would say that one big difference is that on their travel bulletin boards (Foudeur, for ex.) they do not have discussions re what to wear in NYC.

gaelle, I read a couple of books that highlight the many differences in the two cultures. Both by Polly Platt. French or Foe?, and Savoir Flair. I bought them used for a couple of bucks plus shipping from amazon.com. Good luck, ziggypop
attitude is everything

The era of the French culture ended 50 years ago. Do you hear about an important current French writer, composer, artist? Occasionally they make a good new film.

On the other hand American, writers, composers, film makers, and artists continue to influence the world and I am not referring to the pop artists.

Americans have an inferiority complex when it comes to the French and culture. But the accomplishments of Americans over the past 50 years have been extraordinary.

And the artists I know, think of most of the Impressionists as a historical reference rather than one to admire. The exception being Cezanne. This was reinforced by a Met Museum exhibit in 2003 which charted the mid- and late French painters, particularly Manet, as deriative of the Spanish.
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The French have normal meal sizes whereas in America they are ridiculously large. Americans seem addicted to ice in their drinks which is considered unnecessary in the rest of the world. Airconditioning is a big thing in America but not France. This is from someone who is neither American nor French but has visited both places a fair bit, and loves both countries but for different reasons.

Kay

'Do you hear about an important current French writer, composer, artist? '
The Nobel literature prize is probably not important ....
2008 - Jean Marie Le Clézio

The French do not walk around drinking Starbucks coffee in paper cups.

They also do not see the necessity of picking up their dogs' business when out for a walk. After all, there are workers for that!

Gaelle might have stormed off in disgust by now.

But I'd seriously suggest cultural similarities might be a more fruitful issue to discuss.

Many Americans eat and drive frugally, and many in Washington State or Maine are no more addicted to air conditioning than the people of Calais (which has a warmer climate than both, though it's north of them). There are Frenchmen who believe in free enterprise and almost any other virtue Americans think is uniquely theirs.

But both share a widely-held fundamental belief in their country's exceptionalism (which the French call l'exception francaise) that's quite unheard of in Canada, the UK or Germany. In both countries it's possible to talk about the country's global mission (la mission civilatrice in French) without being mocked to death. Both delude themselves they invented modern democracy, though the real truth is that neither country's founding revolution offered their people the rights Englishmen had grabbed for themselves a century earlier. Both have a bizarre system of rule, headed by an elected monarch of a kind only countries like North Korea and Saddam's Iraq have copied.

If you can get hold of Jonathan Meades' BBC programme "Just a Few Debts France Owes to America", it chronicles a million ways in which modern France attempts to ape the US.

'Do you hear about an important current French writer, composer, artist? '
The Nobel literature prize is probably not important ....
2008 - Jean Marie Le Clézio

_____

Yes. And thank you for bringing that up. It was second and tne only award since 1964. So you consider one writer a cultural influenc? And many books of his did the world wait for?

How many American and UK authors have won the award during that time? What has their influence been?

And what about composers and artists?

Thank you for proving my point.

"It was second and tne only award since 1964."
No, you forget Claude SImon in 1985

Since 0901, 10 French Nobel Litterature Prizes - 9 American
Not bad for a country of less than 60 million people

Other contemporary French authors

Annie Ernaux, Jean Echenoz, Michel Houellebecq, Erick Orsenna, Alice Ferney, Laurence Tardieu, Bernard henry Lévy,
Michel Onfray, Michel Tournier, Patrick Modiano, Michel del Castillo,Pierre Michon, Emmanuel Carrère, Daniel Pennac, Michel Bézu, Yann Queffelec, Dominique Fernandez, Patrick Grainville, Philippe Solers, Jean François Ruffin,
Françoise Mallet-Joris, Gabriel Matzneff, Annie Saumont...
Pourquoi pas Philippe Delerm, Sylvie Germain, EE Schmitt,
Pascal ou Alexandre Jardin,Lydie Salvayre, Richard Millet,
Pierre Jourde, ME Nabe, Antoine Volodine, Percy Kemp,
Zagdanski, Philippe Claudel, Pierre Assouline, Eliette Abécasssis, Yasmina Khadra, Pierre Péju; Françoise Chandernaggor, Max Gallo, etc.........


French composers :
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat%C3%..._fran%C3%A7ais

French artists (painters and sculptors)
http://www.paintings-directory.com/c...hp?CATEGORIE=2

"Both have a bizarre system of rule, headed by an elected monarch of a kind only countries like North Korea and Saddam's Iraq have copied."

I thought all of the Kims did a great job in the debates.

Pvoyageuse

You can laundry list all the French writers you choose, every society can, it is was what they are doing. What is there influence. It ended 50 years ago with Gide, Sartre, Camus, and de Beauvoir.

French artists have not influenced the world, since the Arp and Duchamp and the Americans have changed art with everyone from Pollack through Warhol to Cuck Close.

And as far as Nobel are concerned, Americans have won four for literature since 1964, which is not bad for a country the French hold in such low cultural esteem.

The point remains that Western cultural owes a great debt to the French, but that their infuence is minimal and relies on the past.

There is a very interesting article in the NY Times today which in many way mirrors, the political/cultural changes in the US and France.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/wo...e%20pen&st=cse

glad to see this post has got some interesting thoughts... i was nervous to click in for ages in case it had turned big arguments but pleasantly surprised to find some interesting stuff

i doo agree with the French work to live comment. I have been there numerous times and completely see it.

I actually think this is a really good way of life

Don't know so much about whether the americans live to work as have not spent a lot of time there. I am sure lots do fall into that category but not as much so as the french work to live in my opinion.

The French are just cooler.

Guetta is French. He has more impact on culture now than Steinbeck, Bellow and Lessing combined. Ask anyone under the age of 120.

By the way, the cut off date 1960something is totally braindead as not every Nobel laureate gets the prize during the height of his or her work.

As we speak of literature. The French read their authors. Americans wait for the HBO mini series.

You get more nudity on French network TV. Actually you get only nudity.
Even TV presenters are nude, seriously. At least by the standards of the FCC and my great-grandmother.

French women have sex. Not necessarily with their men.
American women have therapists.
French men have sex. Caveat see above.
American men play golf. Or stand in a river, bathing a fly on a hook.

Just to adjust the slight bias:
Americans make pretty cool sports cars. French make Citroëns and Renaults.
Americans drive their cars from the suburbs to the workplace. French burn their cars in the suburbs.

The French extended so many acts of kindness to DH and I in our several trips to Paris.

I still think that our geographic differences can "explain" some of the differences in the way we act. Perhaps Americans are more careless about manners because there are so many of us and we're always in a hurry! Most of the clerks aren't trained to initiate any conversation beyond "Can I help you?"

On the other hand, a French family with a guide book was sitting outside a grocery store here in the U.S. When I asked in French if I could be of help, they all gave me dirty looks. So I said sorry to intrude and walked away, then someone in the group followed and thanked me for offering.

The dog poo issue confuses me. Wouldn't you think that cleaning it up would make more sense in a smaller area? Do the street cleaners do it? I noticed doggie trash cans in Monte Carlo, Fr. and Spoleto, It.

Cowboy, French men stand in rivers too, at least in the Périgord they do. Or rather, they line the river banks. Actually standing in the rivers would make it hard to drink and smoke.

Not only that, they take to the woods in droves during huntin season with cases of wine and Gauloises and shoot everything in sight, including each other.

Sir, I have never been so insulted as be confused with a golfer. Have you no shame! And that statement comes directly after you state Frenchmen have sex with caveats. Don't we all!!!
_________

Guetta is French

Yikes a pop singer who has sung with Snoop and Ludacris.
How did I confuse his intellectual prowess with Saul Bellow. My bad.
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When someone who produces dance music and sings with rappers whose stock in trade is doggerel, you have made my point incontrovertible.