French vs. American men

I thought young Italian women looked sexier than French ones too. Partly it's because the women in Rome (when I was there) wore tiny mini-skirts and stiletto heels, while the Parisian women dressed stylishly but more on the classic/elegant side. Also, I'm told that breast implants are very popular among women in Rome, which might explain why so many of them are notably curvaceous.

The distinction between French and American men that I'm referring to has nothing to do with table manners and everything to do with honesty. The young French men I encountered when I was in my twenties and traveling solo in Paris (decades ago) were all very smooth, excessively on the make, and all the while covert and manipulative. I couldn't stand their bogus act and found it tedious to have to be on guard with them. Yes, they were romantic and polished and had the better lines -- but they weren't real. In contrast, the American guys I met while traveling were refreshingly natural and not put-on. They were just themselves -- bumps, blunders and all -- and it was fun and relaxing to hang out with them, even if they too hoped to get laid. So they're not as polished and elegant as their French counterparts, but they're more honest. This generalization is of course based on my personal experiences many years ago, but I did meet lots of men, French and American, on that trip, and truly observed these patterns.

To be fair, the vast majority of American guys have perfectly acceptable table manners -- that pig you described is such an extreme case. And G. Depardieu notwithstanding, the average French guy is smaller than the average American guy. My hair salon is full of French employees and the skinny wasp-waisted men outnumber the Depardieu's ten to one! That may not bother some women, but I prefer a man who is larger than me.

So overall, based on my experiences with both, I prefer American to French men. That said, I can readily come up with lots of complaints about American guys . . .