Sounds like you are stereotyping Americans, not just liberal Americans that make it a point to go over there and find overly liberal French with whom to discuss US foreign policy.
Americans are the strange ones here, as we have to always put on a false face and smile all the time, for various cultural reasons. Look at our current President, who became powerful, almost entirely by his toothy smile. The French are normal and don’t “fake smile” all of the time. Many Americans take this as rude. The French people, in general are wonderful, helpful, outgoing and gregarious. Many Americans say this to feel culturally superior. This is just cultural liberalism. …
Comment?
Paris is safe and crime free: Mostly true. You will not worry about walking down that dark alley at 2 AM …
They have higher so-called “tolerance” for more frequent maintenance. Especially when it comes to the railroads, which are state-owned (funny you glossed over that part of their socialism). However, what with the socialistic way of doing things economy-wise, what ought to be the most money-making part of railroading (freight) does not make money and they do a lot more trucking.
the transportation systems are almost unbelievable …
I have never known them to be into “small cars” exclusively. Who came up with this stereotype? The Citroën DS was not what one would call a small car, although it had four-bangers for engines; neither was the SM or CX.
The French drive all of these small cars
Eh? France is in Europe, so why would they not have European cars? France themselves still have Renault, Citroën and Peugeot, who have historically been their “big three” after a fashion (and have been sold in the USA at various historical intervals); Germany is next door to France and that country basically invented the automobile, especially the internal-combustion-engined type.
There are a lot of European cars here, which I wasn’t expecting, in that I had just assumed that every (most) cars in the (western) world were made in America, which is not true …
In Europe or France? Pickup trucks are all over Europe. How many do you see in the cities over there, certain parts of which have very narrow streets?
I don't recall seeing an American style, what we Americans, would call, a “pickup truck”. Like a Ford F150, Chevrolet Silverado and Dodge Ram anywhere in Europe …
Because most people that rent cars over there want a stickshift. The average price of gas over in France ATTOW is €1.51 per liter of 95 octane RON (about 91 octane US), which is about $7.65 per US gallon, so an automatic is going to be thirstier especially in the city.
When you rent a car in France, unless you want to pay a premium, you end up with a manual transmission (a stick shift car). Why is this?
I am overwhelmed by your response to my post.
I guess that was the whole point.
Your response is very good, probably one of the best in history of FR, and I appreciate that, more than you know.
I will try to respond in kind. When I can.
You are in Pennsylvania and probably don't see that much. I encounter it constantly in the western U.S. I agree with the OP's comments on the matter.
I have never seen a Ford F1XX ever, in Paris, France.