Q&A: Do the French Ever Work/Do They Hate Work/Are They Lazy? (Given the 35 Hour Week, Holidays, Vacation . . .)

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Q&A: Do the French Drink All of the Time?

There are still random amusing things that happen during day-to-day life here, even when I'm mostly stuck at home with an injury.  For example, it took PB four weeks of me not driving before it occurred to him to ask how I was managing to keep food in my pantry.  Fortunately, he's not the main person in France who I turn to for help anymore or I *might* have starved.😂

I really have great co-workers in general though.  L’américaine provided work transportation most days, took me to pick up groceries and out to a few social activities.  PB provided the rest of my work transportation, plus took me for groceries & to the pharmacy; YV drove me to the doctor; SB called the doctor and nurses several times because the secretaries often don't speak English (even if the doctors or nurses do) and CB would have taken me to work every day this week, but my knee was finally healed enough to drive short distances!

And Alexis remains a great (and reliable) friend - I'm lucky to have met him.

Q&A on French Drinking
Since life with a knee injury hasn't been very exciting, I thought I'd post another Q&A.  I've been asked by several people if the French drink "all of the time" or a lot more than Americans.

The best I can say about total consumption is that I read something somewhere (really precise, right?) that said the French drink about the same amount as Americans, but spread out through the whole week, whereas Americans tend to drink their full consumption as "binge drinking" on Friday and Saturday night.

And again, when there aren't particular photos, you get examples of great French food.  Note: there technically *is* wine in the upper right corner.

From personal experience, here are the main differences that I've noticed:

• It is not a big deal to drink during lunch on a workday.  Most tables seem to have a bottle to share (4+ people) or a glass each.  My company seems to be a little more conservative, so the managers who eat out for lunch typically only drink on Fridays.  L’américaine and I have adopted this habit and we have a pineau per week on "fancy lunch" Fridays.
• It is nearly impossible to discipline or fire somebody for drinking, unless they are injured on the job or there is some other major incident that can be attributed to their drinking.  You can (and possibly will) have at least one co-worker who smells like they bathed in a bottle of booze, but if they're a functional alcoholic, nothing can be done about it.
• Most of the French I know do not drink every day.  If they do, it is a glass of wine with lunch or dinner.  The only time I've seen them have multiple drinks in one sitting is at a nice dinner out (pre-dinner cocktail, wine with the starter and wine with the meal usually) or a nice dinner at home with friends (same 2-3 drinks).
• Beer seems to be consumed only on rare occasions and not often with a meal, usually it's a pre-dinner drink or completely separate from eating.
• Hard liquor is also consumed much less than in the US.  Most of the stronger alcohol is consumed as a pre- or post-dinner drink, one small serving only and not as a mixed drink.  It is something like a pineau (local specialty), cognac or a good whiskey.  I don't recall seeing a French person have a mixed drink the entire time that I've been here (this is not to say that they don't drink them, just that it is uncommon in my experience).
• The French seem to be very conscientious about drinking and driving.  Too many people joke about it in the US and don't seem to take it seriously (unless they get caught).  Here, my French friends and colleagues very clearly drink less when they are the driver than if they are at home or not driving.

Q&A: Are French People Accepting of You?

This week has been busy with close, so I'm publishing a culture blog that I had in reserve!  I'll be back with the last of Innsbruck and Vienna's NYE celebration soon!  Since I've had several people ask me the same questions, I thought my cultural posts could include answers to these questions (since others may find them interesting as well).

The first is: Are French People Accepting of You?  And the answer is, generally, yes.  There are a handful of French people (one co-worker, the doctor and maybe one or two random people) who clearly had an issue with the fact that I live here and do not speak fluent French though.

How could the French not love me with my super jolie French shopping basket!

Outside of those people, most of the French people I've met have been reserved, but polite.  Once I became a "regular" locally, they were more than just polite - the cashier at my usual grocery store always shakes my hand now (we're not quite at cheek kissing yet), the servers at the local restaurants know what I can't eat and advise me on what to order, the ladies at the bakery helpfully correct my French, the waitress at the beer bar made sure to catch my attention and smile when greeting me and even the servers at the pizza place remember me and seemed pleasantly surprised by my improvements in French when I last went in.  Becoming a "regular" is clearly helpful as it seems to take French people longer to warm up to you than it does Americans.  Once they do though, it feels much more genuine - you actually had to earn it a little!

While the majority of the French are in that middle ground of politeness, there are also a handful of French people who seem fascinated by the idea of actually knowing an American.  They think our accented French is "cute" and are curious about what the US is really like (vs what they see on TV) or they want to improve their English with a native English-speaker.  There could be more French people who actually fall into this category, but it isn't culturally acceptable here for a French person to approach a stranger and say, "Hey, are you speaking English?  Oh, you're American though?  How cool!  Why are you in France?"  If a French person is curious about you, the odds are that you won't find that out until you've become friendly over time.

I can't say that my experience will be the experience for everyone though.  When I mentioned being concerned about anti-immigrant sentiment in France right now, several people responded with some variation of "you're clearly not North African" or "you don't look Muslim" or "you look like you could be French" with a shrug or "your name is good since it's English" and so I have nothing to worry about.  Of course, this implies that if I did look North African or Muslim or somehow "not French" or had a different sort of foreign name that I could have something to worry about.

While this is sad, it clearly is not specific to France.  Even in the US, there are "desirable" immigrants with "sexy" accents and there are other immigrant groups that are frequently called out as "undesirable" or at least subject to constant controversy.  The irony, of course, is that these groups of "undesirables" change - at one point, the Irish were looked down upon in the US and now we love them and they clearly fall into the "sexy accent" category.

It is also fortunate that our general manager doesn't seem to care about any of this.  Since I've been here, he's hired virtually anyone he thinks is qualified for the job - young, old, male, female, Middle Eastern-sounding name and even a non-French-speaking American! (poor guy)😂