here are a few things that america really needs to follow france’s example in:

1. universal health care – this is obvious to anyone with an ounce of intelligence on their shoulders and the french think we are insane for not having it. and they are right.
2. affordable wine – we produce some good wine in america, however if you want to buy anything under $10 you run the risk of having to pour it down the sink along with all its fake oak fruity full bodied american flavors. however a recent 3,50 euro beaujolais villages kicked some serious cheap wine ass.
3. cheese – need i say more?
4. trains – they aren’t perfect and if you want to get from rural village in region a to rural village in region b it can take forever, but mostly they are fast, cheap, and environmentally friendly.
5. free education through doctorates degrees
6. super market meat departments that offer it all – pigs brains, cow tongue, veal liver, whole rabbits with eyeballs and everything. i may not be interested in eating any of these and prefer my rabbits to appear as unbunny like as possible, but i like to know that someone is making use of them. can you imagine a safeway with dead bunnies in it? i can’t…

and on the contrary, here are a few things france should emulate from america:

1. driving behavior – please slow down french drivers. unless your grandmother is dying in the hospital there is no reason to be in such a hurry.
2. international wine selections – this is one thing we do right with wine – we sell it from countries all over the world. you can buy american wine in france, however the only american wine i have seen in chaumont (aside from the bottle of oregon pinot noir i brought with me) is gallo chardonnay. what’s worse? the situation isn’t much brighter for closer international selections. chianti? gruner? rioja? nope. how about wines from the rhine in germany that i’m only a few hours away from? nope. in all fairness i am comparing a city of over 1 million people to a town of under 30,000, though i do hear american wine is hard to come by even in paris…
3. service in restaurants – it hardly exists here. i don’t like the overly attentive i-want-to-be-your-best-friend american style service, but i also don’t like being ignored when i want another drink.
4. milk/half and half – how can they do cheese so right and milk so wrong? warm shelved boxed milk is a travesty to the poor dairy cows that produced it. please stop at once.
5. mexican food – i can’t get no satisfaction…
6. portland oregon – i still love you.