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Lol! Lyon is as large as Munich, Toulouse is as large as Dublin, and Lille is larger than Antwerp. So if France is provincial, then so is most of Europe!
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I disagree. You compare urban areas, not city populations intra muros. Yes regarding Lyon = Munich, but both Hamburg and the Ruhr urban area are more populous than Lyon. Dublin (urban pop. 1,1 million) compares roughly with Toulouse, but the point is that a large and populous country like France has no large metropolitan areas other than Paris. Other big countries like Canada, Germany, Italy and Australia will have two or more.
BTW: Belgium has the same population as Georgia, USA (10.5 million), while Ireland has roughly the same as Louisiana, USA (4.7 million). One should never compare small countries like those two with France (65 million people) -- for any statistical purposes.
Lyon (and Marseille, Toulouse and Lille) are less international and more provincial. Lyon is small potatoes compared to Hamburg (often merged with Bremen as one urban area with a larger population than what you show) and also compared to Munich (same population as Lyon, but far more dynamic and cosmopolitan than Lyon is--there's really no comparison). Hamburg is an international seaport that looks outside itself. Lyon is far more traditional and "closed." Other than Paris, French cities are smaller, less international, and they feel that way. Italy has three large metro areas, Canada has three, Germany has three, Australia has at least two, and Britain has three. France has ONE. I lived in France, and once you leave Greater Paris, France is a rather provincial place for a country of 65 million people. This has been debated in the French media, so I'm not pulling it out of thin air. It's not news.
Last edited by masonbauknight; 09-26-2015 at 09:33 AM..
I'm using Rosetta Stone to learn French (mostly because I just wanted to learn another language). I put it into overdrive before I went to Paris this summer, but I was no where near proficient, but I could get by. When I was there, I tried, and if I did ok, most people responded in French, if I stumbled then they would speak to me in English (if they spoke it). It was mostly in restaurants, but I think everyone appreciated the effort. One waitress even joked, "Hey, practice makes perfect."
So to go back to someone's previous response, I agree the lack of American men w/ French women is more based on language barrier, especially in Paris. I think the reverse is because American women do indeed have a love for French men, regardless of whether they themselves can speak French or not. If they can speak French then they have an even better chance because to a French man, an American woman would be something different from the usual. (The same would be here if an American man were out on the town and met a French/British/Australian,etc woman who spoke English)
Small potato? Lyon has a GDP of US$83 bn whereas Hamburg has a GDP of US$125 bn, so Lyon's economy is 2/3 the size of Hamburg's. That's not small potato.
Besides, the GDP per job in Lyon is $112,900 whereas in Hamburg it is $112,600. So pretty much equal.
Quote:
Originally Posted by masonbauknight
far more dynamic and cosmopolitan than Lyon
Regarding "far more dynamic", in 2011 and 2012, the last 2 years for which we have data, the economy of Lyon grew by +6.1% whereas the economy of Hamburg grew by only +3.4%.
Lyon is building skyscrapers. Where are the skyscrapers of Hamburg?
Regarding "far more cosmopolitan", at the 2011 European census, 11.6% of the residents of Greater Lyon were born outside of Europe, whereas only 9.3% of the residents of Hamburg were born outside of Europe.
Last edited by Rozenn; 11-17-2015 at 11:33 AM..
Reason: Copyright
Small potato? Lyon has a GDP of US$83 bn whereas Hamburg has a GDP of US$125 bn, so Lyon's economy is 2/3 the size of Hamburg's. That's not small potato.
Besides, the GDP per job in Lyon is $112,900 whereas in Hamburg it is $112,600. So pretty much equal.
in 2011 and 2012, the last 2 years for which we have data, the economy of Lyon grew by +6.1% whereas the economy of Hamburg grew by only +3.4%.
Lyon is building skyscrapers. Where are the skyscrapers of Hamburg?
Regarding "far more cosmopolitan", at the 2011 European census, 11.6% of the residents of Greater Lyon were born outside of Europe, whereas only 9.3% of the residents of Hamburg were born outside of Europe.
At least your last posts are more thoughtful than your earlier one about American men not being creative enough in bed for French women. That's an improvement.
I should have said Lyon was "SMALLER potatoes" instead of "small", which has connotations of "une ville plouc" (a hick town). Lyon is anything but that. Lyon's a nice city. But the GDP yardstick is fuzzy, as higher GDP is more linked to a city's industrialization or corporate and technical presence, not its dynamic world standing. According to INSEE, Hamburg's GDP is still higher than Lyon's, and so are Frankfurt's and Munich's. Portland, in Oregon, USA, has a higher GDP than either Hamburg or Lyon. INSEE says Boston's GDP is higher than Moscow's. Yet few people would say Portland is a more vibrant (or international) city than Hamburg or Lyon. Or that Boston has a more dynamic world status than Moscow. It just doesn't. Finally, the "non-European population" in Lyon is affected by residents from France's former colonies in North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. This doesn't make Lyon more vibrant and "international" than Hamburg, which is the very definition of an open, international European city. Germany's 2nd-tier cities -- Hamburg, Munich, and Frankfurt -- are more dynamic and far less provincial than Lyon. So is Milan, Italy, or Barcelona, Spain.
Last edited by masonbauknight; 09-27-2015 at 11:06 AM..
So to go back to someone's previous response, I agree the lack of American men w/ French women is more based on language barrier, especially in Paris. I think the reverse is because American women do indeed have a love for French men, regardless of whether they themselves can speak French or not. )
Finally someone is getting us all back to the original subject: Franco-American couples living in France. Though I think you're over-romanticizing things a bit (the fluff about romantic Frenchmen is kind of dated), the language barrier might be important. If there are more American women with French boyfriends than American men with French girlfriends (and I'm not convinced there are), it's true that women can often be more adept at foreign languages than men are. A few linguists have said there might be some kind of innate female gift for language (and languages) -- or that women just apply themselves better to language mastery. That's true of Americans in France: American women I met in Paris had either mastered French or were well on their way; American men in Paris? Some had mastered French; most had not.
Finally someone is getting us all back to the original subject: Franco-American couples living in France. Though I think you're over-romanticizing things a bit (the fluff about romantic Frenchmen is kind of dated), the language barrier might be important. If there are more American women with French boyfriends than American men with French girlfriends (and I'm not convinced there are), it's true that women can often be more adept at foreign languages than men are. A few linguists have said there might be some kind of innate female gift for language (and languages) -- or that women just apply themselves better to language mastery. That's true of Americans in France: American women I met in Paris had either mastered French or were well on their way; American men in Paris? Some had mastered French; most had not.
I agree that it is not uncommon to find people with absolutely no command of french among the few Americans living in Paris. I used to know an american guy who had been living in Paris for 3 years that didn't know a word of French (!), and he is far from being a unique case. However they are able to get away with this because most people in France have some knowledge of English, despite what many people say.
People on here have been focusing on the language barrier as the main factor to explain the lack of Franco-American couples but I don't think it is accurate as nearly all French speak at least some English. This thread has been almost only talking about Americans living in France, but in reality there are far more French people living in the US than the other way around so if mixed couple were to form it would be much more likely to happen in the US. After many years spent living in Paris, and nearly a decade in the US I have only come across maybe 1 or 2 mixed couples. I don't have officials statistics in mind but unlike what many people have been saying on here there certainly aren't "many" or "lots" of French/American couples.
I used to know an american guy who had been living in Paris for 3 years that didn't know a word of French (!), and he is far from being a unique case. However they are able to get away with this because most people in France have some knowledge of English, despite what many people say.
Unfortunately, that's quite true -- and it's the same in Italy, Germany and Spain. One problem is that English has become the closest thing to an international language, most Europeans study English in school, and so native speakers of English can become lazy. Not so many Americans are taking French in school these days (especially compared to earlier decades), but you'd think that American guys would speak decent French after a year of residence in Paris. Their abysmal level of conversational and written French -- even after one, two, or three years in France -- is just embarrassing sometimes.
Wait, how true is it that French women like going for guys of minority groups compared to their anglo sisters?
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