The Berkeley Guides:
Berkeley Guide to Europe:
France:
Background Information for
France
France sits squarely in the middle of Western Europe; according to many of the French and assorted Francophiles, it might just as well be the center of the universe. France has been a center of European intellectual life ever since the founding of the Sorbonne in Paris in the 13th century. Over the next few centuries, the entire Western world began to adopt the French language and aspects of French culture. Then, with the French Revolution of 1789 and Napoléon's frolic over the European continent, France established herself as a world political, as well as cultural, power--a fact the proud French obviously have not forgotten, although the rest of the world may have.
In more recent years, the tables have turned, and foreign cultures have been invading France. Young French people often emulate foreigners in the way they dress, the music they listen to, and even in their manner of speaking. The French pay exorbitantly for American clothes in thrift stores; old American Levis are the current fashion passion. Buskers sing Bob Dylan tunes in the streets and American blues bands brood in the bars. The French even give their nightclubs pseudo-English names: Le Crazy Boy, Le Nickel Chrome, Studio Circus, Le Manhattan. Increasingly, the French are abandoning baguettes for Big Macs; there are currently more than 100 McDonald's in France, including a 400-seater on the Champs-Elysées.
But the French also fear the movement toward what Europeans call the Coca-Cola civilization. The older generation in particular sees the infiltration of American fads and the country's integration into the European Union (EU) as eroding traditional French ways of life. If they aren't bemoaning the decline of traditional French music, they worry about what one writer has called "the Cheez Whiz factor," the decline of the production of pungent regional cheese. Apparently, young French people as well as the Americans and Germans who eat French cheese prefer blander, creamier varieties. When Euro Disney opened in April 1992, the French gnashed their teeth and wondered what the world was coming to. Would Parisians actually strap on mouse ears by day and sleep in a hotel with a Wild West theme by night? Yes and no: After losing millions in its first three years, Euro Disney changed its name to Disneyland Paris and has started to break even, thanks to larger crowds and some cultural concessions (the park changed its no-alcohol policy in 1993 and now serves wine).
France's geography is as diverse as the people who inhabit it. The Riviera attracts an international jet-set crowd to its famous strips of sand. In the south you'll find lots of recent immigrants, especially Algerians, who sometimes face hostility from members of the Front National, France's ultraright party. In the southwest, along the Spanish border, the Basque people struggle to preserve their culture and their unique language, Euskaldunak, in the face of trends toward centralization. Alsace-Lorraine, on the eastern edge of France, is almost as German as it is French. And in Brittany, one of the last regions to be incorporated into France, people still occasionally speak Breton and celebrate their Celtic heritage (believe it or not, the Breton and Welsh languages are so similar that native speakers can actually hold a conversation with one another).
To see France in its purest, most regional forms, you obviously must travel outside of Paris. In the country's small villages, you'll be surprised at how relaxed the pace is, at how much care goes into preparing a meal, at how rugged and raw the mountains can be. Both the Pyrénées at the Spanish border and the Alps at France's eastern edge offer skiing and mountain biking to the people willing to venture off the EurailPass trail. The flat farmland of the north doesn't have a lot in the way of dramatic vistas, but you will find plenty of locals willing to listen to your fumbling French and show you what living in France is all about.
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