Author of quotes: France

The French driver considers it his moral duty to never give way, to park in such a way that his car causes maximum inconvenience to others.

When a snake bites a man, the man dies, and when she bites a woman, the snake dies.

The French spend as much on their stomachs as the British spend on cars.

Electricity is the essence of science and logic. Classical music is the essence of art and logic. They have one factor in common. And when you listen to a harmonious and impeccably logical symphony of Mozart, the conclusion suggests itself: Mozart would make a great electrician.

Self-confident boors are always unpleasant, but still, if you are abroad and he is your compatriot, you feel some responsibility for him.

We do not expect anything good from phone calls: they tend to be heard at the most inopportune moment, take us by surprise and involve us in a dialogue that is completely unnecessary for us.

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There is no creature in the world more thick-skinned than a person thirsting for the sun and free housing: the usual secular hints are useless here.

The architect, our former compatriot, and now a Parisian, peduprated that the construction work in Provence is like a trench war: long periods of inactivity and boredom are interspersed with explosions of frenzied and noisy activity.

There were no pictures from the countryside because the countryside was out of reach of press photographers. The nearest snowplow was working north of Lyon, three hundred kilometers from us, and even the most desperate journalists in Provence know that the best way to avoid dangerous drifts on an icy road is to stay at home or sit out the bad weather in the nearest bar.

As a rule, the first page of our newspaper "Le Provecal" is devoted to the vissivities of the fate of the local football team, self-praise of small politicians, dramatic reports of a supermarket robbery.

The French have the same passion for cooking that other nations have for sports or politics.

Our neighbors were clearly not among those gentlemen farmers who spend the winter on their own yacht in the Caribbean or on a snowy alpine slope. They preferred to rest where they lived.

In the countryside, as we soon found out, neighbors have a much greater influence on your life than in the city. You can live in the same apartment in New York or London for years and never talk to people who live behind a thin wall, some six inches from you.