If you really want to offend a French man, don’t ask him if you can see his wife naked – there is always the risk you will end up in one of Paris’ seedy swinging clubs. Instead, just ask him how much money he makes. That would certainly stop the conservation dead.

Overall, we are in a pretty good mood right now. Canada took gold medal against the U.S.A in men’s hockey at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, Sidney Crosby is now God, the snow is slowly melting and Spring is coming soon. In short, the country is doing fine. But eh, we still have our pet peeves, especially with both the tax season and the construction season coming soon…

On March 4th, I went to accomplish my duty as a new Canadian citizen: I voted for the first time in Canada at the provincial bylection in Ottawa West-Nepean.I drove to the polling station slightly honored I could now vote. I know, I’m weird.
By comparison, voting in France is more ceremonious. I received my carte d’électeur when I turned 18 and I couldn’t wait to use it.

In France, the saying goes that “le client est roi”. But in fact, the customer is anything but a king: at best he is an idiot, a minor annoyance in your day. As this funny article on “How to play the French service game … and win” explains: “The customer is king. But we all know what they did to their royal family. The guillotined head of Louis XVI bounced across the Place de la Concorde as a few thousand Parisians laughed at it”.

Everybody knows that Canadians are peaceful and polite people. Yet, I noticed my fellow citizens can be quite annoyed by a few things… that are Canadian in essence.

Disclaimer: this post is to be read with your morning/ afternoon coffee. It is not meant to be taken literally. I know some Canadians are going to disagree (but I’m sure they will apologize about disagreeing).