the social interactions is less natural and more divided by age in big cities indeed, it will mainly come from happy hours/afterwork in bars, cultural/seasonal events and clubs activities (sports, arts, etc...)

You have no idea what you are talking about in big cities. In Lyon all residents are invited to free events every summer from June to August for free or a minimum fee with no age limitations Dancing balls are organized by some associations all year long I could give you exemple of inclusive events in big cities you have no idea It’s just the scale of the community makes it that you need to find the information that’s all and the sheer amount of events is overwhelming you have no idea

@@remy2824Yea, I have no idea of France and big cities, being French and having lived 30 years in the Paris area...

​@@remy2824"a lot". A LOT. Not all. Of course there are events in big cities, but usually you won't have many interactions with many people, because there are A LOT of people, that you don't know. You'll usually stay here for the mood, with your family or friends, but that's it. In the countryside, interactions are more frequent, because there are less people. People become close more easily, you know everyone and don't have to worry about someone looking strange who might harm you. Pickpockets and all, in a small village, are easier to notice. It's easier to have fun when you don't have to worry about other things. No one said there are no events, but that a lot of the relaxed life they can live is due to the peacefulness of the countryside. Same with La Poste and deliveries. It's something they don't have to worry about. In large cities, mailmen tend to just put a letter in your mailbox saying they came but no one was there (when it's false, I was at home the whole day). In the countryside it happens less often, they actually knock at your door or at least ring the bell. Because there are less people, because they know you, because it's a house with a garden so they can hide it somewhere behind the wall... This alone gives you more peace, you don't have to worry as much

@@gsbeakyes, probably due to Parisians in general & living in a much bigger city. I live in Toulouse & so many events going on that it’s hard to.choose from & people know each other in their neighborhood probably because they shop at the local stores in the neighborhood.. I’m always bumping into friends or people who live in my small residence 🌸

regarding the shop and restaurant times, it is not that much about group behaviour, it is also respect of teh working time for the shop and restaurant workers. the cook, needs time to get the meal ready properly and the morning is teh preparation time, the waiter has to get the room ready and cleaned after for a good service. it is all about making the things right so that everybody can enjoy it. And for La Poste or the parties, this is public service or public organised, not by companies, and the people in charge striongly believe that all of the community deserve it, not just the oe that can afford it, I find it so much more interesting to allow everyone to participate if they wish so.

It an interesting perspective. As a Frenchman, I always feel like the French society is very focused on the individual, and the US one on communities. So it's interesting to see those difference and those perceptions.

@@LeSarthois I really think it depends on the location, in the United States as in France. I find this sense of community in regions like Provence or the French Alps (I've lived in both places). A "big" city (Annecy or Aix en Provence) where the whole region comes to shop, go out, participate in events, etc., and only small villages and medium-sized towns nearby where you can meet or easily chat with people. I also lived in Lille, and it was much more “Parisian” in the city center, and “Americanized” in the suburbs. More individual. I suppose we find the same thing in the US. Cities more focused on business, and others on a calmer way of life.

We used to have big billboards but they ve banned because of visual pollution.

Thank you, I'm so glad!

Well said. And thank you.

I’m ready to pack my bags!

I have lived here in France for 24 years, born in Spain, lived in England and moved in 2000. I wonder if in the US you all take advantage of working all available hours because you have to pay for healthcare, (unless you are covered by your employer ?) there's no Sécu.

And in France, it is a legal obligation for processed food and candy ads to remind people to eat fruits and vegetables daily. There are other legal obligations such as encouraging people to walk or bike when advertising for cars; limiting your alcohol consumption in beer/wine/liquor commercials; saving energy when advertising for utility companies; or to give the translation of foreign language slogans (including English first and foremost) in French. Etc.

Both of those things, but especially the first one are entirely law driven. Advertising toward kids is taking very seriously here.

The French Health ministry is very serious about food and especially advertising it You have no idea. Less than 10 years ago automatic vending machines were banned in high schools and some laws have been passed locally in the métropole de Lyon to ban advertising screen in the metro and bus stands to reduce blue light

About pharmacists it’s not totally accurate : there are chains of pharmacies like Aprium or La Fayette. But maybe they are franchisees.

Yes’ they are franchises. There are ads in France. Less than in the US, but certainly more that from other countries. Big ads panels in suburbs have started to be more regulated in the last years.

You are very optimistic about the efficiency of complaining in France. Big medias don't advertize more because it's not legal

The lack of tv advertising sounds great. Here in Australia the ad breaks in tv programmes can be 4-5 an hour. Worse than that the volume increases considerably. Do they think we’ll buy more if they try to deafen us? I just hit the mute button & make a cup of tea!

@@MrMf92 yes but it's not legal because people fought not to let advertisers get unchecked

In case of advert, I zap.

Nous aimons râler oui. Mais n'est ce pas aussi ce qui, peut-être, fait aussi parti du charme français?. :)

When the package is small and does not require a signature, if you are away, the delivery person will put it in the mailbox if there is enough space (this is the case for amazon packages). If you are absent, you can ask for the package to be dropped off at a relay point, there are some in local shops near you. I live in the countryside, I know my postman and she is also very helpful

Merci! 😊

don't vote RN. They will destroy France if they get a chance

Yes!! We love French Sunday. I couldn't go back to living without them.

Aussi La sainte messe!

​@@michaelgray5137every dimanches mornings or samedi evenings 🙏🏻✝️

I’m Franco-American & I love how my city is a whole different place on sunday.. the only people you encounter in the street in the morning are people going to get their bread & croissants for the family breakfast time.

Culture and leisure have always been developed in France more than in other countries because France is due to its temperate climate and its abundance of water with many rivers and rivers, a fertile country and rich in agriculture, its inhabitants had no difficulty in feeding themselves and were thus not obliged to work constantly to survive the difference of inhabitants of other countries whose soil was poor , so that the French who were assured of being able to feed themselves easily could devote more free time to other occupations than work. the Germans have a saying "Happy as God in France." The fertility of its land being able to feed all its inhabitants, this explains that the French emigrate very little unlike inhabitants of other countries whose poorer soil cannot feed all the popilation like the Italians, Portuguese, Spanish, Irish, Scandinavian countries. The fertility of its land has made itthis in history have often been coveted by the neighboring countries of France from where many wars suffered by France which has been invaded many times in its history because it is not protected naturally by the sea and the oceans like the United Kingdom or United States which on the map, have had no powerful neighbors like Scotland for England or Mexico and Canada for the United States while France had to face the Middle Ages to the English whose kings of French origin had hereditary lands in France and wanted expands France,and the Holy Roman Empire then Germany or Spain with its huge colonial empire in the 16-17th century .

@@domitiusafer thanks for your interesting comment. I would add that the laws in France do protect our way of life. They keep the Sunday off as often as possible, it bans excess commercials, it promotes small businesses. The US have a liberal economy that promotes business, the strongest, fastest wins…living behind some businesses and the environment. Many French have a minimum of 5 weeks, but often it is around 7 to even 9 weeks off (my wife has 11 weeks off as a university lecturer researcher).

@@lepouldukerzellec1149 It depends on the profession in fact but the State in France pays its officials in days off to compensate for low salaries. Thus French officials were granted 15 days of paid leave by Napoleon III in 1853, a measure that will not be extended to all French people until 1936 by the socialist government.This French practice of remunerating employees by days off so as not to increase salaries is still ongoing with the law of 2001 establishing the 35 weekly hours of work which allowed French employers to lower salaries in France in order to meet foreign competition because minimum salaries previously calculated on the basis of 39 hours per week are now calculated on 35 hours weekly which makes them mechanically lower, people who accepted this cut because of the extra days off. No entrepreneur or politician in France wants to question the 35 hours a week as much as employers have obtained the elimination of breaks and the possibility of making it easier to work on weekendsin rotating team the employees which allows to amortize the machines which turn thus 7 days out of 7 which explains that the productivity was not affected in France by the 35 hours weekly In fact the French now have half as many days off as they had before 1789 under the former royal regime with Sundays and Catholic religious holidays because the anti-Catholic revolutionaries abolished religious holidays and the days of associated rest and Sunday rest day , Robespierre suppresses the 7-day Christian week with Sunday rest and replaces it with the 10-day week the decade..; The Sunday rest day and the 7-day Christian week will be reinstated by Napoleon in 1802 with the Concordat signed with the Pope but the 3rd Republic will remove the Sunday rest day in 1880 so that people in France will work non-stop in France without a day of rest, except on secular holidays such as 1 May or 14 July, which is declared a national holiday. The day of rest on Sunday would not be re-established until 1906 in order to reconcile the Catholic population hostile to the implementation of the 1905 laws establishing the separation of Church and State with laïcité which is too often confused abroad with securitism.The laïcité is also a characteristic typically French poorly understood by foreigners. Republican politician Gambetta said that "French secularism is not an export article."This detachment, indifference or even contempt or mockery of the vast majority of French with respect to religions inherited from the French philosophers of the 18th century in particular from Voltaire can surprise and shock foreigners attached to religion

​@@domitiusafer Very well explained. Thank you.

@@helycrisea8189If France has long benefited from the agricultural fertility of its soil that allowed it to have a population largest in Europe until"'at the beginning of the 19th century, which allowed it to have large fiscal resources and a large number of soldiers and to defeat alone several coalitions of European states enemies, some economists explain that this advantage gradually turned into a handicap at the time of the industrial revolution in the late 18th and 19th centuries .The importance of the French population meant that companies with cheap labour paid very low wages and therefore had no interest in investing in the mechanization of the industrial tool, hence a delay taken by France in the industrial revolution compared to Great Britain where the population is less numerous, Companies had to pay more for workers and invested in the mechanization of the industrial tool to reduce production costs. In addition, the higher wages in Britain than in France have allowed a consumer society to develop.Secondly, a large population unoccupied because not exclusively engaged in working to survive generates the bubbling of ideas and many revolts . Hence the political choice of the leaders so deliberate to keep low wages in France in order to occupy enough time at work to earn their living people and the refusal by Consequently, to facilitate mechanization that could give more free templs to the French to deal with politics or revolt instead of spending their time working to earn their life. The whole policy of the French governments for centuries has therefore consisted in reducing the duration of the free time of the French considered too important because of the ease to feed themselves due The soil fertility and therefore dangerous for the forest, to avoid them challenging the government in place ;Thus this explains that the demand for free time in France with particularly the reduction of working time is part of a political struggle for centuries of the population against its rulers. Finally, the state in France having to use its resources to protect its territory from its enemy neighbors was forced to invest massively in military expenditures at the expense of The United States and Great Britain are naturally protected from land invasions by sea , and the"The United States and Great Britain , with no powerful neighbours, needed only a navy and did not need strong land armies, so they were able to invest primarily in their industry.

You'll be welcome !

that also sounds like a lovely reason to head into town - and enjoy a cup of coffee, perhaps a sweet treat, and chat with neighbors.

It's a small world...I (Raina) grew up in Greenville and went to school at Trinity Valley for my associates in Nursing. Go Cardinals! Good luck with your research! Spain is absolutely lovely, but we are team 🇫🇷 to live 😁

en general quand tu n'est pas la il dépose de toute façon le colis dans un point relais proche, du moins c'est comme ça que ca c'est toujours passé quand j'ai commandé un coli et que je n'étais pas la a la réception, mais je suis peut-etre juste chanceux x)

Carrefour aussi sera heureux de dépanner.

Je suis dans les Yvelines , Ile de France , l'Auchan près de chez moi est ouvert 7 j/7j d'innombrables magasins de bricolage , électroménager , jardineries etc .. idem , seuls les tout petit commerces sont fermés le dimanche après midi

@@gerarddaclin542 et parfois, dans les campagnes, y a des marchés le dimanche, comme en ville.

​@@padriandusk7107dimanche matin seulement

And a very SENSIBLE French law.!! We are bombarded with enough advertising, let alone all along the roads!

She clearly said "29 hundred" people, not 29 thousand! It's between a big village and a very small town, isn't it?

@@st-ex8506 Oh, ok, fair enough. I have a hard time with the dozens of hundreds which we don't use often in french. :) Yes, 2900 will be a big village, or still a small town.

@@delphzouzou4520 It's actually a little noticed difference between UK English and American English. In the UK we would be much more likely to say 'two thousand nine hundred'. Americans talk much more often in hundreds even when it's into the thousands. It can even confuse us Brits at times when they do it.

😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊

Gavarnie département des Hautes Pyrénées (65). Did you go to the "Cirque de Garvarnie" ? Very gorgeous place.

@@ggousier Yes, we hiked the Cirque de Garvanie. The day with no dinner was a partial hike of Breche de Roland. We could only go so far because there was still snow near the top. Such a beautiful area!

Well may be at 6 pm restaurants were not open yet, most of the time restaurants open at 7 pm.

Yes, you have to be aware, especially in rural areas, that shops & restaurants are closed because by law the employees need to have 2 or at least 1 1/2 consecutive days to rest.

Hé oui, à cette heure ci c' est fermé, la nourriture, la vraie, ça se cuisine et ça prend des heures pas comme celle de vos fast food qui nous gâchent la vie et le paysage !🤬

We also have a great facteur and post office. Colissimo is delivered at our usual delivery time between 11:00 and 13:00. Chronopost gives you a specific time slot for delivery + signature. Give your facteur a key to your letter box for small boxes. You should always be able to select the option "if no response, leave at the post office". You can often re-programme deliveries. Relais colis (often a supermarket or garage, or tabac) is a great option for large parcels. I use Relais colis a lot.

Le si classique avis de passage

@@elizzy8754 you don't need to leave a key to the postman/woman as the letterbox should be a certain official standard and the post has a pass for it, same for certain delivery services.

@@elizzy8754 The Introduction of Relay colis really saved my sanity. I don't know if the service is very beneficial to the shops that host them, but to me it's a life changer (well I may be overenthusiastic, but you get the drift)

La poste dans les grande ville et dans les village/petite ville c'est 2 monde diffèrent, d'expériences je dirais que dans tous les village (et petite ville de moins de 10 000 habitant) on se rapproche plus, de ce qu'ils raconte dans la vidéo :)

Thos made us laugh...because we understand now being in a place without them! Allez blues!!

yep I do the same, everything post related or colissimo I take home delivery and get it dirrectly or at my post office if i'm not availlable..all other kind of delivery I do it at the closest "relai" to grab it whenever it's convinient for me.

Yeah, far better. I have tried only once to have something delivered at home, what a hassle, took at least 3 weeks of "we went to your home without notice at 10am and you weren't there" like what a surprise ! I'm in school you know, I have things to do during the day !! And when you ask for a date an hour to deliver a package they can't plan it. They tell you that they will come SOMETIME in the day. I'll never do that again (unless I have no other choice).

Ah, marrant de te recroiser sur une vidéo qui n'a rien à voir !

@@Mozz78000 nous nous sommes croisés ou ? Marrant que tu aies retenu mon pseudo.

@@SeawolfSpirit sur la chaîne de Marc Bluersky, on parlait de Survivor. J'ai surtout reconnu ton avatar.

@@Mozz78000 lol, trop drôle.

Wow, thank you for the kind encouragement!

France is the first market for amazon in Europe

You may grow out of your habit of ordering from Amazon..it can truly become an unconscious vice just because it exists. I’d rather take time looking through the local stores first, which are usually cheaper and/or can be of better quality than order from Amazon. Also because I’d rather give my money to the local community than to the multi-millionaire Bezos.. I can understand however that if you’re living in a small rural area, it is a convenient choice.

You’ll see that you will just don’t need it that much anymore…if you do? we still have it…

Wow! Yes, our first year we were in a commune of around 500, and it just felt too small for the daily life we wanted (even thought it was beautiful and our neighbors were lovely). May we all find the right corner of France for us. 🥂

I'm so glad - it's a big part of the quality of life here, I think.

Well that might have something to do with the fact that France is among the biggest countries in Europe

When it comes to the post, as you did, if you can, you need to get to know your postman and build a relationship of friendship and trust. It's nicer and can be helpful if she knows your habits. At the end of the year, the postwoman comes to sell a new calendar, it's not mandatory to buy it but if you can, it's good to do it. I always give her extra money to thank her and that makes her happy. These are New Year's Eve

Yes. We didn't understand before but now we do. I think before as Americans, that approach is like a checklist and you're just racing through to check off as much as possible so you can say you did it. Part of the reason for that thoigh is how little vacation time Americans get. Two weeks a year is pretty common. So a week for a summer vacation, à little time around the holidays and there's not much left. So you have to cram it in!

@@BaguetteBound Yeah I'm aware of the small amount of vacation time people tend to have in the US. Also the fact that your boss can call at any time outside of work hours and you're supposed to be ready? That is a huge cultural difference with us in France. Now I'm not saying we're better, I agree that there is a place for focusing on business/money and the US is all about that, and that's great. In France quality of life takes a larger place, even though we're rarely satisfied with it lol.

There are billboards by the roads in France, some of them awful

@@lioneldemun6033the law is changing in France where the amount or every billboard is being taken down.

@@helenemurard1215 not at all there are more billboards than before only they are from the Decaux® brand who has a state monopoly on electric billboards!

😯?? There is Amazon in France too !

@@LizzieJaneBennet I was referring to the delivery issue, not necessarily the existence of a particular vendor.

Vous trouverez tout ce qu'il vous faut sans problème. Les Français sont le peuple européen qui possède le plus grand nombre d'animaux de compagnie.

Merci beaucoup ! Vous me pouvez dire où précisément s’il vous plaît ?

@@BP-nn7tq Chez les vétérinaires ou dans les animaleries. Même dans les grands supermarchés.

Merci beaucoup😊

They're banned out of built-up areas.