en retard is an understatement

Over the last few days, I've had several conversations about how France is behind, or "en retard", in relation to the rest of the world. It's true from the most banal of situations (the host of a talk show asking Jennifer Aniston about the possibility of a 'Friends' movie) to some that are pretty difficult to swallow from the perspective of an American student (paper registration at the university, professors absences being announced via bulletin board). There's also things like recycling (they only recycle glass, as far as I can tell), whole grain bread (impossible to find), and hybrid cars (here, almost everything still runs on diesel!). Perhaps it is linked to the sense of urgency there is here to preserve a formerly-dominant culture that is becoming less and less relevant, resulting in a reluctancy to adopt anything new (my European Union professor's words, not mine). And perhaps this is why we -- or at least I -- had always thought of France as having a sort of timeless style. The truth is, they just never changed their style.

I don't know about you, but I never really associated France as being a country that was particularly "far behind". Disorganized, yes; fashionably late, always. But I never realized that not showing up on time for a dinner party also had repercussions in wider social development. And what's even more interesting is that it took other French people alerting me to this connection for me to understand it. You see, the French are completely aware of the fact that they are a bit slow on the pick-up when it comes to newness, and are not ashamed in the slightest. I respect this a lot, considering I'm the kind of person who would totally bow to the pressure of what is shiny and cool and new and trendy. Just one of the many things France has to teach me.