G Farris wrote:

It's amazing how prejudices and misinformation fly.

I read an article by a French guy - supposed to be a world-famous schol=
ar -
about cultural differences between French and Americans. He said (I
paraphrase) "France is basically an agricultural society, so French und=
erstand
that it can't rain every day, and that a good year is likely to be foll=
owed by
a poorer year, hence their conservatism - Americans slaughtered the I=
ndians
and that explains everything you need to know about them".

Many French really believe that blacks are not admitted to US hospitals=
, and
if you check in with ten bullets in the chest, but don't have cash to =
pay
they throw you back out in the alley to bleed. At the same time, they w=
ill
tell you their health care is "free" - they don't seem to worry about t=
he fact
that a flat-rate 21% comes off every paycheck - even the poorest - to p=
ay for
it and it's still running up colossal deficits.

For all of these differences, flying in France is not that different fr=
om the
US - except for the fuel price, that is. For the recreational and VFR p=
ilot,
most of France is class "G" - below 11500ft - above this it is "D", and=

they'll never let you in under VFR. But stay below that and you go pret=
ty much
where you want. Airspace restrictions require you to call for clearance=
s
pretty often - but I've never had a request refused, and this keeps you=
in
contact almost constantly with someone or other - because information s=
ervices
(particularly weather reporting) are poor to non-existant. Once you get=
into
IFR and commercial operations costs are much higher than in the US, and=
there
are a lot of regulations. Only about 15% of PPL's in France are IFR rat=
ed,
against roughly 50% in the US. Typical cost for an IR rating is $20K (f=
rom
PPL). Night flying is not included in the standard PPL, and requires a =
logbook
endorsement - there are special routes to follow, usually related to no=
ise
abatement. Rental rates reflect the high fuel cost, but they include a =
sort of
"nationalized" insurance which I understand is not bad (never had to us=
e it).
Landing and parking fees are ubiquitous, but moderate. A $100 hamburger=

becomes a $200 Cote de Boeuf. The country is very beautiful, and despit=
e its
rather small size contains an astonishing wealth and variety of differe=
nt
conditions - from blue/green seacoast to mountains higher than any in t=
he US,
to vinyards and vast farmlands, gorges and valleys. Weather in the nort=
h is a
bit of a problem

Yes, France is very beautiful country. But what French mountain is high=
er then
6194 metres?

- through nine months of the year VFR conditions are the
exception, which makes basic VFR training longer and more expensive tha=
n in
Florida or California. Private airplane use for transportation is much =
less
common than in the US, but this is not only due to the cost, but to the=
fact
that other forms of transportation are much more developed. It's hard t=
o
justify a 180nm business trip from Paris to Poitiers, in any plane, whe=
n the
train has you there in 90 minutes flat, and it's $80 round trip.

French trains are very nice, but they don't always go where you want to g=
o, and
they get very expensive when you are moving a family around often. Then =
there's
the p=E9ages (a French word roughly translated means "bend over") on the
autoroutes. France gets accused of being socialist, but it's interesting=
that
it's autoroute system has largely been privatized (unlike the USA), and
privatization and socialism go together like water and avgas.