The U.S. versus France: a comparison

Good news first: J'ai reussi mon examen! That is to say, I succeeded in my French exam. Au revoir, Level 3. Bonjour, Level 4. The second semester should be starting sometime at the end of the month of February.

The written part of the exam was Monday; the oral part was today. The oral part consisted of drawing one of several pieces of paper from a hat which had a topic on it and you had to spontaneously talk about the subject demanded of you. Mine was the question (paraphrased in English of course): What are some of the advantages of disadvantages of living in France? How does it compare with your home country? Speak of your personal experiences.

I've been meaning to do this for awhile, and probably at the end of my stay in France I will do something more comprehensive, but for now, allow me to break things down Nate-style: a comparison of life in the U.S. of A. versus la vie en France into the three most important categories in a guy's life: food, sports, and women. Let's do it.

1. Food (overall). Advantage: France. Although I will often whine about not being able to find a decent hamburger or the utter absence of peanut butter in this country, I have to admit that there are not a lot of food items from the U.S. that I miss. Not only do the French have their decadent pastries and sumptious quiches and soufflés, but even the simple stuff like ham sandwiches that you can buy on the street taste a million times better than their American counterparts.

2. Sports. Advantage: U.S. It's hard not to be biased here since I'm not a huge soccer fan, but the U.S. has a definite edge as far as being a sports fan. Although there are several hard-core soccer fans around, the drop-off after soccer is considerable. What's the number 2 sport in France? Rugby? Tennis? Swimming? Grand Prix Quto Racing? I just don't get the impression that they're very popular apart from the fans who are truly devoted. In the U.S. , the Super Bowl is a cultural event viewed by many who don't regularly follow football, and there's a variety of secondary sports (basketball, baseball, and arguably hockey, golf, tennis, and NASCAR) which comprise an important part of the collective consciousness.

3. Women. Advantage: slight edge to France. Granted, I've never lived in the mythical lands of California or Florida known for their beautiful babes, but in general I've found the caliber of attractive women to be overall higher in France than in the 'States. It was perhaps more obvious to me during the summer months upon my initial arrival when the ladies were more scantily clad than now in the middle of winter, but I think it's still true. Besides, how could I vote for the American women when my beautiful and lovely wife sings the Marseillaise?

So there you have it. France 2, U.S. 1 for now. We'll do this again sometime with more categories.

French For The Day: related to my story about the "gendarmes" from a recent blog post, instead of using the derogatory term "pigs" to describe cops, they instead using the term "poulet" (chicken). So apparantly, when encountering members of the law enforcement profession, rather than slyly asking the question, "Do you smell bacon?", French people will instead make clucking noises to express their disdain for the police. I feel that you people need to know these things.