My wife and I are traveling in France and going soon to Germany. We enjoy France. The food is great, even in small bars – always something interesting. The coffee is wonderful. The vin ordinaire is not ordinaire. Le beurre c’est magnifique.
France works. We went into a department store. Everything is made in France.
Everything. OK, not electronics.
Textiles, dishes, everything in the store. French businesses employ French people.
So, this crap about how we cannot manufacture in the US is just a pile of shit dumped on us by the malefactors of great evil – the US (sort of) corporations. We can and should find ways to manufacture in the US. Yes, some things are made in the US. Most is not. And this is just a pile of crap that many believe because, basically, they are very stupid.
Yup.
Precisely.
AG
Enjoy your stay!!
No, I’m not going to say: “I told you so.”
What is your itinery, crossing all over the nation from Normandy through Paris to Strasburg? Or visiting the Cote d’Azur and traveling north through Lyon, Dijon to Freiburg?
In 1991, we employed a charming au pair for our children. She lives close to Quimper in far west Bretagne, and so we went to see her house, her moutons, and her poulets. Tres chic. Avec les chicks. We stayed in a small town (Ploneur-Lanvern), SW of Quimper. We visited a number of small seaside towns. Tonight, we are near Rennes. Tomorrow, we visit Chartres, and leave France for Germany on Saturday.
I always enjoy France, although je ne pas francais.
or how about je ne pas parle le francais.
Does it seem to you that more speak English than they once did?
I remember advice I was given about Quebec.
“If they think you are a Canadian, they will pretend to not know English. If they know you are American, they will speak English, because they know Americans don’t speak anything but English.”
I will add that an English friend once told me, “You Americans only think you speak English. You speak American English which is different from proper English.”
American English is in my experience more easily understood by foreign language speakers than English English.
And my Uncle made himself understood without problems in Tiajuana speaking Sicilian dialect. He said their Border Spanish was very close. He was short and dark so they may have thought he was from some other Spanish speaking country with a funny accent.
When we travel, my wife handles the Latin-derived discussions – she taught French, and is sort of capable of some Spanish. I can speak a little French, but my ability to understand others is limited.
I do the German and Slavic languages. My German is good, my slavic languages are basically “Hello, can you speak English” in Russian or Serbian/Croatian.
But many today speak English. Not enough, however. We just found that when I said “train on May 21”, the French guy thought I said “31” (“twenty” sounds a little like “tron” or 3). Fortunately, we were able to salvage the value of the tickets with no penalty. Write down numbers!
We continue to look at houses. Perhaps we will buy a small house in Bretagne. It is such a nice region.
One question: Why would you say “I told you so”? I am a great friend of European countries. I enjoy France, Germany, Austria (family history in Austria-Hungary), Serbia (family graves in Serbia), Slovenia, Croatia (going there in 3 weeks), and every other country we visit.
So, don’t confuse ME with one of those French-hating barbarians who eat deep-friend Twinkies.
So, why? The EU doesn’t have high tariff boundaries.
But they do charge VAT tax on imports as allowed by the trade treaties. The USA could charge VAT t6x and reduce the income tax, but NOooo, that would be bad for Wall Street.
A VAT tax can drive down spending and result in a trade surplus. But it doesn’t affect cross-border trade directly. If you make a pot in France and sell it in France, you pay a VAT tax. If you make a pot in China and sell it in France, you pay the same tax. It doesn’t produce an incentive to make it in France.
If you make a pot in the USA and sell it in the USA, you pay income tax. if you make a pot in China and sell it in the USA you pay NOTHING.
That’s what the income repatriation issue is about.
So you keep the profits in China and use them to build more plants in China. Or buy Chinese stock.
You sure those labels are accurate?
Back in the early days of Julia Child’s cookbook/TV show, much of the best cooking gear was made in France. Today — same brands — are made in Asia. Much lower quality if a similar product can be found at all.
Our friend made the special galette, a crepe-like pancake from buckwheat flour. It is made on a gas-fired grill which is about 18 inches in diameter. The device is made in France, and is a unique cooking device. You make the thin pancake from the buckwheat flour, crack an egg, add ham and shreaded cheese, and fold it over. This is a regional special dish. All the crockery in the stores is French-made.
I completely disagree with you about the coffee.
Bur France is wonderful, and the people are very friendly.
Wait until you get to Germany. You will not see a non-german car.
Have been in some bad traffic jams around Dusseldorf though.
How is it possible to not like French coffee? Yes, it comes one cup at a time. Yes, it is more expensive. But the flavor is more concentrated.
Mississippi Mud.
It’s terrible. Just awful. UK coffee used to be worse.
I have been staying with a good friend who lives in the Rue De Bellchasse for years. One year I found on my bed a pour over coffee device.
She was sick of me whining.
The French call American coffee filtered coffee. Even in Starbuck in Paris they think coffee in the US is an Americano.
Anyway my delightful friend solved a problem and I can now enjoy the delights of France properly caffeinated.
And it certainly makes a good ugly American story, one she takes great pleasure in telling.
And about the cars here – all the cars are French. I have yet to see a non-French car. There is no cachet for non-French cars. Similarly with the food. We bought dinner at the supermarchet – wine at E 5.5!! Wow. The meat case said “All the meat is French”. There is little interest in non-French products. We are starting with a Montbazillac (375 ml, sweet white Sauterne-like wine, E 3.8). We will switch to a Chateau Latour Camblanes, E 6.5, a Bordeaux. We have bread, little ham rolls, cheese, and a packaged salad. C’est bonne.
I saw plenty of Mercedes in France….
No one does lunch on the go like the French.
I am out in the sticks, in Bretagne, in far western France. In Paris, larger cities, things are certainly difference. However, no one would have an American car. Only small American cars would be able to drive here.
IIRC, Ford used to try to sell their cars in Europe. GM was smarter and just went ahead and bought Opel.
Oh, I just remembered a Jay Leno joke from when Ford bought Volvo: “Does this mean Ford is going to start building cars that look like big chunks of Scandinavian cheese? Or will Volvo start building cars that don’t run very well?”
Well, I’m fond of France. I spent 4-1/2 months there with family in 2011 when I was fortunate enough to get a Fulbright fellowship to help defray expenses. My ability with the language is far less than I wish it were, but I got by.
In terms of shopping, right, most of what one buys is indeed made domestically. But prices are high, and there are rarely sales. In fact, department stores (as one example) are by law allowed to have sales only a couple of times annually, on prescribed dates. I had to buy a suit to wear for a weekend in Paris at some formal gatherings of Fulbright fellowship recipients, and I paid through the nose, because I couldn’t wait for one of those sales periods. Interpret that however you wish. All I will say is that French culture is not one with the intense commercialism of US culture.
The French idea of a sandwich is a meager amount of filling on a baguette. But the baguette is damn fine. An interesting observation I made is that nobody is walking around eating or drinking except perhaps tourists. (I was in a town with hardly any tourists.) And outdoors eating and drinking is seemingly confined to picnics and restaurants. One evening on the way to my français langue étrangère (French for foreigners) class, I bought some juice and a small quiche, and started eating them before class, sitting in front of the university building where the class would be held. People began staring at me and shaking the heads. Finally I caught on that what I was doing might be perfectly normal in the US, but simply wasn’t done in France. I put away my food and finished it when I got back to my apartment after class.
A few observations about French supermarkets: (1) Breakfast cereal is non-existent. (2) The dairy products are amazing. (3) There’s very little in the way of prepared frozen foods.
I had several bakeries within a 5 minute walk of our apartment, one of which sold North African style baked goods.
The French pharmacy is an interesting, perhaps better said intimidating, place. Nothing in the way of pharmaceuticals was sold off the shelf, not even non-prescription goods. The expectation, as I learned, is that one waits in line to talk to the pharmacist, describes one’s symptoms, and is then handed what the pharmacist thinks is best.
Oh, and the formalities. One always greets and takes leave of sales people (say) with formal, set phrases. Not to do so marks one as rude.
When I traveled when my children were small I made a point to buy my children something.
Toys in France are ABSURDLY expensive. Just crazy.
FWIW.