[Closed] Things the French excel at

Respectfulness and being courteousness to cyclists

Absolutely this but I love France and the French for so many things

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Making crazy running shoes 😯

Wtf are those shoes??? And nearly £300!

The motorway driving thing is massively noticeable - almost embarrassing to come back to British middle lane hogging and failing to overtake!

Making nuclear power stations

NON!!!

See Flamanville 3 in France. The first concrete was poured in 2007, and earlier this year the Financial Times stated the project was six years late and €7.2 billion over budget, it is still a longway from being operational.

Sadly, at least in my experience the respect for cyclists thing seems to be not as good as might of you might think. Several factors at play:
-relative to the U.K.
-grass is always greener ( '200' magazine recently praised the drivers in the UK compared with riding in France...based on from what I can tell they rode up the A9 corridor from Aviemore north, having ridden from Edinburgh.

I've had several incidents this year: near misses, 1 assault, being deliberately buzzed close by etc etc.

More back on thread my initial thought was:

1. Civility: they make a point of saying hello, even when walking down the street, and most people including youths hanging around are polite and remain civil at most times.
2. Eating a proper cooked lunch at lunch and not just a crappy sandwich in front of your computer in the office.

Some more:

-Most people not having credit cards
-Mortgage Interest locked in and fixed for the length of the mortgage

-MrsMugsy!

Poorly made cars that fail their 1st MOT...

limited experience but underwear. Much as they say that 90% of pants worn in the UK come from M&S, they don't have an M&S in France and therefore get underwear (lingerie) from proper underwear shops.

Not cleaning cars / repairing dents

Eminently sensible.

Doing crazy things on high buildings?

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...with a certain élan

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They daub and wiggle brushes well.

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The are leaders in couture..

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The surrendering comments boil my piss. The French were massively let down by their leaders and were heroic in resistance. Go actually read some history and learn how the French lost the Dutch, Belgium and British support through surrender and retreat ..and then their leaders who ****ed off as soon as Paris fell.

And on a lighter note, they do Camper van pitches and free parking well also everyone you meet ever says "Bonjour" and they all smell lovely.

refusing to understand their own language, if it's not spoken perfectly.

oh, and small boulangeries.

"sank pan-oh ray-zan silver-plates...? ...? oh FFS. 5 o'them please" etc.

world leaders in glueing ribons of tarmac to very steep hillsides and gorges that last more than 5 minutes.

Having ( to my mind ) idiotic rules. You can fill this tiny bar with ciagarette smoke, but that huge open plan bar .- Nope no smoking in here.

Going on holiday , Close your shutters to let the local neds know you are away on holiday and now would be a good time to break in.

Veiwing the past through rose tinted spectacles and forgetting what a cock up they made of WW2.

Having on of the best countries in europe for outdoor sports and not embracing it fully.

Brewing Pelforth Brun.

French Artisan Cider.

Making sublime bread

Having the best light / lamp shops in the world.

refusing to understand their own language, if it's not spoken perfectly.

Yes!

Mountains. Ours are tiny really.

Yes, but apart from that...

refusing to understand their own language, if it's not spoken perfectly.

Really? I can't speak French for toffee (unless I'm drunk of course when I become totally fluent). As long as I make the effort to get a BON-JAW in early enough they'll fill in the blanks for me.

I guess we might have to accept that 67 million people have varying attitudes and opinions.

Flan.

A cake made almost exclusively from custard.

Fin.

refusing to understand their own language, if it's not spoken perfectly

It's really not them, it's you. You think you're saying it right, but you're really not. Your ears just hear things differently.

Dessus/dessous

Social etiquette and diplomacy; so many of our own diplomatic terms are French words because we have no word to express the concept. I love the expression "savoir faire" meaning "knowing how things should be done".

Icons of the automotive industry

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The Citroen D Super ..3rd pic from the bottom above ..
I had one lesson only in my Dads ..40 years ago ..and that was the only driving lesson I ever had with him as we nearly came to blows ..fkn column change ..whats that all about .. 😀
Classic car though

Food.
Wine.
Unreliable but loveable cars.
Fashion.
Making rules that only they are allowed to ignore.

Got to love the French.

Women who'll break your heart 🙁

Women (I am married to one)
Film
Food
Wine and other alchokic beverages
Style inc in cars and architecture
Sacracsm
The Gallic shurg
Strikes (no petrol again this week due to delivery drivers strikes)
Agressive driving and frequent use of the horn (Paris anyway)
Appalling timekeeping and associated unreliability
Bureaucracy

EXIt: extreme sports, discipline is not their thing but they do “really full on crazy” pretty well

Designing bonkers looking helmets(Urge)love all mine

Shaking hands - it takes half an hour to start work because you need to shake hands with all your colleagues that you haven't seen since yesterday

Spending the whole work day talking so you have to stay late to finish your work.

Talking very quietly on mobile phones on trains.

Engrenages

Going on holiday , Close your shutters to let the local neds know you are away on holiday and now would be a good time to break in

Hmmm. This used to worry me when I holidayed here. But, since living here, I really don't think most Brits understand shuttering. It is not used for security, well certainly not in SW France, it is used for shade. And it really is needed in Summer and Winter.

Shaking hands - it takes half an hour to start work because you need to shake hands with all your colleagues that you haven't seen since yesterday

Seasons, they have sun in the summer and cold and snow in the winter.

2 hour lunch breaks.
Joking aside, their education and healthcare are both excellent.

Having a health service that delivers the goodS.

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...and some pretty good climbers.

**** it. Let's invade...

I love shutters. They’re brilliant - especially when you’ve forgotten the stick-on-blackout-blind-that-always-falls-off for your youngster’s bedroom. 🙂

They're a right pain to keep in good condition....

...and some pretty good climbers.

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Oh yes.

Bianchi-Boy - Member
The handshake is just part of the respect shown to everyone you know. And yes it takes time, but I would argue that once work is embarked on, the French labourers are every bit as productive as the (for example) Brits.

Productivity in France is actually quite a lot higher than in the UK. 23% to be precise so the handshake thing might event be a catalyst.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/apr/05/weak-productivity-leaves-uk-trailing-other-g7-nations

https://www.ft.com/content/f372cbb8-4a96-11e7-a3f4-c742b9791d43

Ski resorts.
Motorway services, and surfaces.
Calling a shop huit a huit, but I've yet to find one open 8 till 8 without some significant break, or closing before 8!
Amazing scenery that's not been overly touristed, i.e. expensive gift shops and no access unless you buy a ticket.
Champagne.
It's the work life balance I envy the most though.

The handshake is just part of the respect shown to everyone you know.

I don't disagree with that. As a French colleague explained it, how can I work with someone if I don't recognise them as a person?

Supermarkets.

I've always been impressed by the way they get on with engineering projects. Need a new Autoroute complete with massive bridges and tunnels? Done.

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molgrips - Member

It's really not them, it's you. You think you're saying it right, but you're really not. Your ears just hear things differently.

Dessus/dessous

I'm very much aware that my French is terrible, but I'm more or less as terrible as lots of other non-french people who try.
If the French want other people to speak their language, then *they* are going to have to get used to hearing it spoken badly.

Or not, it's up to them. I work with lots of people from all over the world. We're used to hearing *really* bad English (and that's from the natives, b'dum tish)

The word Epic is overused, but this is Epic and French.
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And they are not confined to tradition forms of architecture either..
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And my last on this thread..

Appellation d'origine contrôlée

They care about food, where and why it’s grown and protect the individual nature of their products.

Splendid, what a beautiful country.

If the French want other people to speak their language, then *they* are going to have to get used to hearing it spoken badly.

I can make myself understood in French. Because I make the effort to get it right. You can't blurt out nonsense that YOU think is right and expect it to be understood just because you know what you were going for.

Something to do with how their brains learn to focus on certain vowel intonations and sounds that don't even form part of our soundscape.

Building and operating the finest high speed rail network in the world.

Hiding the fact that they have the slowest, most infrequent and most unreliable regional rail network in the world.

Building and successfully operating out-there theme parks such as Puy du Fou and Futuroscope.

Rioting, they are bloody brilliant at rioting.
Having Audrey Fleurot - the most beautiful woman on the planet 😳

Investing in and protecting their national interests, language and culture.