Cultural Differences (part 2)

Now that we're home I wanted to make one more post regarding some of the major differences we noticed from European to American culture.  It was also fun for us to compare the differences between England and France.  France seemed more laidback.  France cared more about keeping their tourist attractions looking nice.  The food however, was better in England.  Would much rather dine in a pub on fish and chips then sit elbow to elbow with people I don't know eating a croque madam at a outdoor bistro.

In America I don't believe there's a single time of the year people would visit the Capital or the White House and see those attractions not looking top notch!  Pristine as can be!  I'd be willing to bet that New York City does it's absolute best to make sure Central Park looks amazing year round.  It's not that way in England folks!  The Brits could careless whether their parks or grounds surrounding the palaces look perfect all year long.  The rather famous Hyde Park in London was not a pretty sight!  Dead grass all over the place.  I'm sure it looks great in the Fall and the Spring.  Making an effort to make it look great all the time is not something the British concern themselves with. 

However, France seemed to care a bit more!  Lets say they had thought about things better.  They had thought about the fact that hoards of people will be walking towards the Louvre everyday so put down something that will look appealing yet be low upkeep.  The park in front of the Eiffel Tower looked nice to lay a blanket down and sit to gaze up at the Tower.  There's no way I was going to sit on the grass in London's Hyde Park.  Plus Hyde Park had too many dogs running around without leashes. I can't handle that!  I'm a dog owner that believes strongly in leash laws.  France did not have that problem!  No random dogs running about! 

Walking about is the way to go!  We couldn't help but notice the amount of people walking everywhere, not just tourists plenty of locals.  It's quite simply their way of life! In some American cities like New York City and Chicago walking is the way of life too.  In general though it's not the American way!  Cars are the American way!  Now one could say we didn't travel much outside of each of these cities so it's possible it's different in other areas.  However, we did travel all the way out to Wimbledon which is on the outskirts of London.  It was the same out there.  Walking is the in thing!

Now let me discuss the food.  Americans are overweight because we love big portions!  Super-size it please!  Buy in bulk it saves money!  Any of that sound familiar?  The portions in France and England are much smaller.  There are no refills of drinks.  And good luck finding butter for the bread they might serve at the beginning of the meal.  We both came home a few pounds lighter!  Earlier today Brad told me to serve him a "European portion" for dinner tonight. Oh and in France tshey eat everything with a knife and fork.  We even saw people cut up a burger and using their fork to eat it. While in France we did our best to eat the French way...we ate our fries with a fork! The food in both countries was much more simple, as in simpler tasting.  No overkill with seasonings!

Definitely some things I liked better about Europe.  Smaller portions was one of those things. Not feeling stuffed when you leave a restaurant was kind of nice!  And to tell you the truth I never missed the butter for my bread!  I also enjoyed the walking and the subway. It was a different way to live for a brief time.  That being said....there's plenty of things I'm happy to have again now that we're home, like American TV, driving our pathfinder, popcorn, and eating certain foods with my fingers without it feeling culturally unacceptable! LOL!