Theodore Zeldin, although an Englishman, is considered by most to be the only person to have written about the French truthfully. This is an amazing book, and I would highly recommend reading it while you are visiting France. Here are the highlights I was able to glean:1.tThe French argue vigorously, however, they do so courteously and impersonally. 2.tEveryone observes the gradations of snobbery. 3.tWorkers: Built a shield around themselves in the form of the most elaborate collection of safeguards against dismissal devised since the collapse of the old aristocracy. There are now 3000 laws and regulations to defend them, contained in a bible of twenty volumes. (After seeing Les Miserables, is anyone surprised?)4.tFixed and impersonal rules protect the French from something they hate even more, namely favoritism. 5.tLocal dissent is more vigorous in France, because there is less party discipline; French mayors have protected their citizens more effectively against Paris than British local councils against London. (See the restaurant fight in "Paris to the Moon" for an illustration.).6.tThe French might put up enormous portraits of Rimbaud, Kafka, and Baudelaire on the outside walls of their buildings because they want to introduce imagination. 7.tThe adult visitor is of no interest to the French as he/she is already done for; he/she is already set up to live a life underdeveloped. So the focus is on the children. 8.tSarfati remembers meeting a French Catholic monk in a monestary built by a Protestant architect, he was sure, because the architect provided no space where anything could be left about untidily. The perfect symmetrical structures demanded that you should instantly pick something up and put it away. 9. The French believe that there should be no symmetrical architectural dictates in their homes. The asymmetrical buildings on the Rue de Babylone, in which no two houses are the same and where virtually everything can be found from a police barracks to an oriental pagoda is THE perfect example of what the French enjoy.
