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Everyday life in France

It is difficult to define 'what the French people is',
because they have very distinctive personalities.
But I dare explain what I thought about French from my point of view.

Company life
Legal working hours in France are 35 hours.
Japanese working hours are 40, so only 5 hours difference?
The answer is no.

They don't work overtime like Japanese workers do.
Even if they still have something to do, they must go home,
otherwise, the Ministry of Labor will punish the company.

Moreover, they have 5 weeks of paid holiday.
Even we, Japanese have 20 days, we use only part of them.
But French people use 100%.
Many of them use one consecutive month in summer.

Lunch time is also longer.
In Japane, we have to run to the crowded restaurant within a short lunch break.
On the other hand, many French companies give their worker 2 hours break.
The workers can even drink wine with the lunch!

In total, their working hours are much shorter than Japanese ones.

They like to argue.
French people like to argue.
The enjoyment of the conversation is to lock horns with each other.
They never hide their opinion.

French says that it is not interesting to talk to Japanese,
because we always agree with them.
Well, unfortunately I cannot deny. We tend to say 'Yes' or 'I think so, too'.

My right, others' right

shopping street in Paris

Japanese says
'customers are gods'.
But it is not in France.

Customer and Clerk are equal.
When I was looking the goods in the shop,
the clerk told me to step away because
he wanted to restock shelves.
It never happens in Japan!

When they don't have certain goods,
Japanese clerk may say,
'I am soryy, we don't handle this goods
in our shop.'
But, French only says 'Non'.

If you ask them,
whether they speak English,
they will probably say 'Non!'.
　
But I don't want to say French clerks are very cold.
When we meet at the first time, they are like machines.
But after we get to know each other, they become friendly.
So, the relationship between us are not 'customer and clerk' but 'human and human'.

They are generous to the strike.
Even if the metro stops, French thinks it is their right,
because he also has a right of strike.
Long time ago, there was a long transport strike lasted more than a month.
They didn't complain but bought bicycles.

They don't hate inconvenience.
There is no convenience store in France.
You may find a shop like convenience store, but they don't open 24 hours.
And most of the shops close on Sunday.
In some European countries, you may find Seven Eleven,
but French government refuse them.
And French people don't complain about it.

In Japane, we can live without Seven Eleven,
because there were no convenience stores 35 years ago.

In France, there still exist a lot of old apartments which were build in 19th century.
They cannot change the facade by the law.
It is also difficult to change the inside.
You can still find very small old elevators covered by the spiral stairs.
There are many trouble of water pipes, too.

Even though, it is inconvenient to live in a old apartment,
a lot of people love to live in it.