This page is one of the annex pages of www.understandfrance.org, the foremost site on Franco-American intercultural differences. It contains documents, facts and figures illustrating the content of some of its pages.

Facts & figures

This page contains Facts and Figures about France and the French. Some are significant, other less so.... Various aspects of the French cultural values Quotes about France and the French

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French cultural values
Cultural misunderstandings : the case of Eurodisney. Basically, Disney expected the Europeans to act like Americans and spend vacations in the park (several days) but for Europeans, it is a (very good) show i.e. a one-day visit. Therefore, visitors spend much less than expected. In addition to this initial mistake, Disney made several big mistakes when transposing blindly American concepts without even imagining that the Europeans could be different. Among them : There was no WINE in the restaurant on Main Street (at the opening : it had to be changed after a few months...) ! They thought Europeans would be impressed to sleep in (expensive) hotels faking medieval castles (in Europe, we have plenty of AUTHENTIC medieval castles) For Chrismas, they imported at great expense real REINDEERS from Scandinavia : but in Latin Europe, a reindeer does not mean much and Christmas being very mild, they lost their horns, thinking Spring was early that year, and they had to perform with plastic horns. They wanted cast members to cut their moustache (and wear deodorants...) which was considered a violation of labor rights! Etc... The Loi (Law) Toubon (August 4, 1994) was designed for the protection of the French language, mostly against an excessive or not needed use of English. Its provisions for foreign companies operating in France include that the following documents MUST be written in French : individual work contract Règlement Intérieur (a document which specifies employees obligations, safety rules, etc..) collective labor contracts signed with unions any corporate procedure which include a compulsory provision for the employee such as accounting procedures, maintenance manuals, etc...		Most successful (outside France) French films since 1990 (source : Nouvel Observateur 2005): Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain (Jean-Pierre Jeunet), with Audrey Tautou, 22,2 million viewers Asterix et Obelix contre Cesar (Claude Zidi), 15,3 million Asterix et Obelix : Mission Cléopatre (Alain Chabat), 10 m Le Pacte des Loups, 7,4 m La Double Vie de Véronique, 6,9 m Les Rivières Pourpres (Mathieu Kassovitz), 6,4 m Delicatessen, 5,5 m Taxi 2 (Luc Besson), 5 m Le Peuple Migrateur (Jacques Perrin), 4,8 m Huit Femmes (François Ozon), 4,4 m Le Placard, 4,2 m Les Choristes (Christophe Barratier), 4 m Taxi 3 (Luc Besson), 3,9 m Les Rivières Pourpres 2 (Mathieu Kassovitz), 3,8 m Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles (Jean-Pierre Jeunet), 3,7 m More about movies The most successful film in France are (source : filmsdefrance) Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis (Dany Boon, 2008) : 20 m+ La grande vadrouille (Gérard Oury, 1966), 17 m+ Asterix et Obelix : Mission Cléopatre (Alain Chabat, 2002), 15 m. Les visiteurs (Jean-Marie Poiré, 1993) Le corniaud (Gérard Oury, 1965), 9 m. Taxi 2 (Luc Besson, 2000), 11 m. Trois hommes et un couffin (Coline Serreau, 1985) (poorly adapted as Three Men and a Baby) Les Misérables (Jean-Paul Le Chanois, 1957) La guerre des boutons (Yves Robert, 1962) L'ours (Jean Jacques Annaud, 1988) Le grand bleu (Luc Besson, 1988) Asterix et Obelix contre Cesar (Claude Zidi, 1999) Emmanuelle (Just Jaeckin, 1973), 9 m. Le dîner de cons (Francis Veber, 1998) Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001) Back to French movies.
"Compagnonnage" is a tradition which goes back to the Middle-Ages. Highly skilled workers travel and work in different places in order to acquire the knowledge of their specialty from a master ("maître") ; their field can be anything from carpentry to cooking, pastry, plumbing, ironworks, stone-cutting, etc... Moving from one employer to another, they make their "Tour de France" and progress from "apprenti" to "compagnon" and finally "master". This is a medieval tradition going back to the time of the builders of Gothic cathedrals. The Compagnons du Tour de France stay in specific hotels for young workers, called "cayenne", managed by a woman, "la mère" who takes care of them. To become a "master" of the Compagnons du Devoir (founded 1347), they have to realize a "chef d'oeuvre", which is something professionally very difficult, submitted to a college of masters. Needless to say that this is extremely close to free-masonry. All famous chefs in French restaurants have been through this cursus and can use the title "Meilleur Ouvrier de France" which is its classical expression, but your plumber can also be a "Meilleur Ouvrier de France" and, in this case, you can be sure he is a good plumber. In Paris, you can admire a sample of very impressive "chefs d'oeuvres" in the Maison du Compagnonnage, 2 rue de Brosse 75004, along the Seine, facing Ile Saint Louis. Compagnonnage is a fascinating world of highly skilled professionals with very high technical and ethical standards grounded in a very ancient tradition. Each of them is given a name which includes his region and a moral characteristic (for instance : Tourangeau la Vertu or Périgord Coeur-Loyal).   An example of a chef d'oeuvre (a wooden staircase)		Private high schools students, globally, come from richer families (Source : Ministry of Education, 2002)  Income  Private (%)  Public (%)  Low  26,7  40,5  Average  28,9  25,2  High  15,4  15,6  Very High  29,0  18,7
Quotes about France and the French
Charles Gaulle about the strengths and weaknesses of the French (in Peyrefitte's C'était de Gaulle) : " You must trust their strengths and protect them from their weaknesses. They have not changed since Julius Caesar described them. Their strengths are bravery, generosity, unselfishness, impetuosity, curiosity, creativity, the gift they have to adjust to extreme situations. Their weaknesses are a clanic spirit, mutual intolerance, brusque anger, internecine quarrels, the jealousy they feel for the advantages that the others have" "The French need to feel pride in their country. Otherwise, they crawl around in mediocrity, they fight among themselves and they take a shortcut to the nearest "bistrot". More about the French and the Gauls.
To related pages : more facts & figures, figures on Europe, etc...

To table of contents To top of the page  Back to home page	Harriet Welty Rochefort writes articles and books about France and the French. Order her books: "French Toast, An American in Paris Celebrates The Maddening Mysteries of the French", St.Martin's Press, New York, 1999 "French Fried, The Culinary Capers of An American in Paris", St.Martin's Press, New York, 2001 More on Harriet's books (excerpts, upcoming events, testimonials, etc..)
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