Herewith, Things We Have Learned on Our 2009 Trip (because we were too unobservant to have picked up on them in 2008):
French McDonalds are just like the ones in America, except they sell beer.
The French teenagers in French McDonalds are just like the ones in America, too.
The larger the French grocery store, the stronger the smell of fish.
American '60s rock is the music of choice in French restaurants and bars.
We are going to be soooo bored when we get back to Minnesota.
Both men and women in Italy wear tiny swimsuits. Most of them shouldn't.
You can buy eucalyptus-scented dish soap in France. Don't.
In a French town, when you run like mad to catch a bus from the campground just as it's pulling away, and the door opens for you and you stagger onboard, out of breath, and gasp "Does this bus go to the city center?"--but in French--the driver will give you a look of longsuffering and remind you of how you are supposed to begin every interchange: "Bon jour, monsieur."
When you want directions to the nearest McDonalds because there's free WiFi there, and you ask the attendant at the campground office, "Where is McDo?"--but in French--she will give you a look of longsuffering and say--in English--"We also have good restaurants in France."
The French do longsuffering really well.
Two-thirds of the people at some French campgrounds are from Holland, at least before the French start their vacations in July.