In our first 2 weeks here, some of what struck us—besides the obvious language difference
–organizing official things takes a long time, for example, getting Rod’s INRA badge, and ‘official things’ are very important
–the trains are frequent, well-used and run on time
–many cars are small, and park tightly along the curbs. Scooters and motor bikes are prolific and are parked in huge masses (gas is expensive—around €1.30/liter) 
Click pic for bigger image 
–lunch is an important meal and people take time to savor it
–most cafes, bistros and restaurants advertise a ‘formule’ or two (fixed price menu) and many are really excellent value
–we see many people walking with baguettes, often holding them in the middle with a small strip of paper
–many excellent quality French wines are very well-priced, some even down-right cheap
–in the supermarkets, good cheeses are cheap
–meat is generally expensive, and there’s ‘viande de cheval’ (horse meat) packaged for sale in even the suburban supermarkets
–lots of stores (even famous ones like Berthillon) are closed for the summer ‘vacances’ or ‘les conges annuels’
–I’m always greeted with ‘Bonjour Madame’ and then ‘Bonne Journee’ (have a good day). So far, I’ve not met the supposed unfriendly or surly Parisien/ne—my smile is always returned.
–dogs on leashes are common, especially little dogs, which accompany their owners everywhere, including on the trains, to bistros and cafes
And the Reverse—
WE KNOW WE’RE NOT IN THE USA WHEN/BECAUSE…
–serving sizes are much smaller
–no-one tries to hurry us from the table when we’ve finished our coffee/beer/meal
–when you order ‘un cafe’ you get a small espresso, the standard at any eatery, coffee shop or bar. A Parisienne at the lab told us that many French think the standard American coffee (the regular, refill variety) is like ***** water!!
–tipping is not common, except in really upscale places
–you enter the building on the ground floor (1st floor in USA), then walk up the stairs to the 1st floor (2nd floor in USA) and so on
–we have no car, so we are catching trains and walking everywhere, including up 2 flights of stairs (no lifts in our temporary studio). We’re also carrying bags of groceries almost every day, as we can only buy what we can carry
Hi!
I fell on this blog entry rather randomly and I just wanted to comment on one thing… (and it has probably changed since this was written in mid 2007) but the cheese thing, you can’t possibly have good cheese for cheap in supermarkets. My parents desperately try to find good comte and emmental and beaufort in supermarkets when they forget to get some at the marche/traiteur and so far (so it’s been quite a number of years) no luck at all, even when they take the highest priced ones you can have “a la coupe”, they still don’t have the proper taste. The only exception I saw was when I was living in a tiny village next to Geneva (on the French side) and there was one supermarket that had good Bleu de Gex, but at a not-so-reasonable price.
Anyway, I read some of your recent entries too, looks like you’re enjoying Paris and France!
Gali
Hi Gail,
Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment—feedback is always good.
Sounds like you also live/have lived in France.
Perhaps I should rephrase that comment I made—to say rather that in our small local Intermarche we could find good cheese. We never had a problem there, and were very happy about that.
Vivienne