In learning French in Montpellier in 1985 and Villefranche in 1986 I:

1. Knew a French doctor who said the US has the best healthcare for the doctors, while France had the best healthcare for the patients.

2. Met rich French people send their kids to public schools.

3. Good public infrastructure benefits everybody and squalid public spaces hurt everybody.

4. Learned it's a great country for NY Jews because the French love a good, rhetorically rich intellectual debate about real issues. In Kansas, the nearest decent argument is 1500 miles away.

5. Learned that the French revolution and civil war of 1789-1871 and 1934-47 is ongoing. Only the labels change.

6. Discovered that the student rebels of May '68 went home for lunch. Nothing gets in the way of good food in France.

The American dream now lives abroad. The USA has the second lowest index of social mobility in the OECD. From how my architect brother lives in NJ I see how the overhead and leverage that goes with the American way of life is killing the middle class. It's neo-feudal capitalism's enserfment process.

Bon appetit from Latvia.....with Medoc.