Observations on France

Have now been here about five days, enough to appreciate what I find appealing and what less so. Paris definitely conveys a very charming ambience.  People pretty much all live in apartments, nearly all less than ten floors.  Balconies seem common.  Penthouses seem common.  A business as the downstairs tenant seems the norm.  There are a lot of cars, but there are also advantages to bicycling and not all that powerful motorcycles or motor scooters.  The government will subsidize an expensive bicycle.  Apparently the streets are cluttered by commuters who travel less than 5km to work.  I presume they have parking arrangements.  Considering the very limited utility of a personal car, I saw very few auto rental agencies on the streets our tour bus traveled.  Doubt if any tourist would want to do that.

There is a vast subway, easy to navigate with their signs, long walks between transfer stations.  There are also a lot of buses, though speed very limited by other vehicular traffic.

Streets lined with small retail.  Probably more eating places per capita than any other place I've visited.  Restaurants with sidewalk seating, stands selling fruit on the outside and small groceries on the inside.  A lot of pharmacies, no American mega-chains.  A lot of small shops selling clothing, styling hair.  I did not encounter nearly as many places of medical care as this very large population would require.  Likely consolidated into a few very large regional centers, much the way America has become.  Yet to pass a hospital.  And heritage is everywhere, in the world-class museums, historical sites, monuments to the victims of their many wars and to their ruling megalomaniacs.

Charley Hebdo seems to have changed policies.  Gendarmes in public attractions position themselves outside with Uzi's or some variant.  French tradition gets serious transgressors Blonaparte.  Any museum or public building has metal screening and x-ray detection of packages.  No Open Carry here.

Population very diverse.  Large African presence.  Slavery here was a pittance of what it was in America.  Yet French West Africa and Caribbean colonies created some attachment to the Mother Country.  The Black population is largely French by birth.  The Islamic presence, often in its militant form, is also rather large.  Many originated from the colonies of Algeria and Morocco with descendants native French, but there is also a large immigration component. I would have expected a larger Indo-Chinese presence than what I encountered, as France also once colonized that part of the world, whose inhabitants later had some very compelling reasons to relocate.  Despite the EU's open borders with member states, I do not see a lot of settlement here from other parts of Europe.

Lifestyle different.  Was referred to a department store near where we were touring.  Couldn't find it.  Have yet to see a supermarket on a par with where we shop in America.  There are interesting tacit agreements that people maintain.  Garage doors of shops generously spray-painted with graffiti.  The buildings themselves are not.  Apparently no laws require this.  Helmet laws for bikes and motorcycles don't seem to exist. Litter far less than American cities, at least in the Northeast.  People walked their dogs. I did not see any carrying gloves or scoops, yet I encountered no dog waste.  People seem to be willing to be decent citizens even if not mandated by public law.

Admittedly, France is a big place with agriculture that we could see from the plane, tourism that extends far beyond the confines of its capital city, probably some industry, two great universities that have a much lower profile than regional universities in America seem to have.  Much of this seems foreign.  

Would I want to be a Parisian or any other kind of Frenchman?  It's a pleasant place to be, for sure.  And the absence of American style antagonism adds to its attraction.  While I don't like seeing Uzi's on peace officers, the ability to act vigorously and unequivocally to public threats is why we have government.  But we also don't have people who feel a need to protect themselves with personal weapons.  And I've not encountered a violent criminal element either as witness or on the news.  And from every professional survey I've encountered, the French now have the most effective health care system in the world with universal accessibility and high quality outcomes.

But I also like having my own house, a car that transports me over great distances at will, a Walmart, Shop-Rite, and IKEA all with ample parking.  Having the dominant language of the world as my native tongue gives me tremendous advantage.  So while the antagonisms and indignities of living in America are ever present and largely unwelcome, giving these things up to live as French does not seem the optimal trade-off.