Word: french
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...anything. It seems the inevitable extension of the consumer age. The old Puritan Ethic might have built this place, but it's the old play-now, pay-whenever attitude that keeps everything running. It's all very pleasant. New cars wall-to-wall, French-blended food, and Mork and Mindy whenever you want them--but there is a seedier side to all of this . . . just wait until...
...village still retains a few bastions of tradition. A French village wedding, for example, is nothing to trifle with. It begins in the afternoon with a civil service, immediately followed by a church wedding. After that comes a huge dance party, held either inside or outside, with dancing, drinking, and laughter continuing all night long...
Everybody dances together, young and old alike, and every now and then the whole party forms a giant human chain which cavorts about before ending in a hopeless jumble of arms and legs. The music and dancing vary from French folk to American rock. Even my patron, M. Vallet, tried boogeying to the strains of Saturday Night Fever...
...weaving their small cars around other small cars, usually at the most dangerous intersections. European drivers have discovered that three cars will just fit on a two-lane road, so they often pass even when another car is coming, knowing that they can probably still squeeze by. White-haired French grandmothers drive like American teenagers, and as for the French teenagers--their driving makes the Grand Prix look like a drivers' safety course...
First, they taught me that life as a French peasant is just as honorable as life as a Wall Street banker. Second, with their cheerfulness and optimism, they taught me that happiness is more a product of a person's mind than of his circumstances...