French people, cool and relax or formal and stuck up ?
France is a country of contradictions. Many countries are, but France is certainly more so than the rest.
It is a country that has for motto "Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité", and yet is the most elitist and stratified society in the Western world.
It is the country of cool French lovers, yet a nation of arrogant brainiacs.
It is the most visited place on earth, yet notoriously one of the most inhospitable and unhelpful with tourists.
French language has long been the West's lingua franca, and yet it is one of the most difficult language to learn (even for natives) and probably the most intolerant of grammatical mistakes and non-standard accents.
French people have a reputation for having a relaxed attitude to time, like other Latins. They take long lunches, arrive late at appointments, leave work early, work less than everyone else and still complain than they work too much.
Yet, at the same time, few cultures are as formal and rigid as France's. They use the formal "vous" with everyone that is not a close friend, a family member or a child, while even the Germans won't do with with the same obstination. Dress-down Friday's are mostly unheard of in France. It is still unacceptable to do business without a suit and impeccable looks.
The French care more about diplomas than almost anyone else, and it is not unusual for French students to study over 7 or 10 years at university, instead of 3 to 5 years most other countries.
The importance of the boss, and the distance with his (or exceptionally "her") employees is wider than what most English speakers could imagine possible. The boss is the boss, in France, and he is always right because he is the boss. Yet, stories of boss-employee love affairs at work are more common in France than almost anywhere else. It's almost a national sport.
French politicians typically graduate from the prestigious Hautes Ecoles, and live a world apart from the ordinary folk. Yet, in what other country of its size and economic importance can you see government ministers at variety shows and TV debates with comedians, actors, models and even rap singers ? That is common occurence in France, almost on a weekly basis. That is an opportunity to see politicians under a new light, in a much more relaxed attitude (and rather informal language) than when they make public speeches or interviews for news channels. This is not likely to happen in Britain, Germany or Japan !
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. He lectured me about the manners of the civilised[ world after poking my knee quite rudely and even though I apologized and said that "I'm sorry, we just have different it differently, I guess", he just wouldn't let it go. What amazes me, though, is that if my country is so uncivilised that we actually bother to ask people if we want them to do something instead of poking them, what kind of country does he come from? 
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