One of many cultural differences

At my cousin's BBQ today, I was talking to a French woman there who was asking me about the differences between New York and Paris and what I thought of them both. She was saying how she thinks Paris is so fast-paced, and that everyone is always in a hurry, and things move so quickly. I burst out laughing--it's amazing to me how slowly things move here. An errand that would take 10 minutes in the US often takes 40 minutes here. She says what takes 3 hours in Paris would take 3 days in Aix-en-Provence, which is where she spends a lot of her time.

One of the girls there also had a gluten intolerance, and I was talking to her about it. She said sugar is never a problem because all the sugar in France is made from beetroot, not cane sugar, and so it's totally fine. I thought that was weird.