Laid-back

0And all here wondered if there was some magic middle way that France can find to keep its way of life, and the things that matter here: family, friends, good food and enough time to enjoy them all... to keep them and yet put France back to work without turning into Britain or the US (a prospect quoted at me in horror by many on my recent travels). 02br
01b00Human side02b00 02br
00Before I moved here I had assumed that the French were rather like the British, although with nicer wine and food, more mobile faces and a better class of shrug. 02br
02br
00But I have come to realise just how Mediterranean France really is, far more like Catholic Spain or laid-back Italy than its work-obsessed northern neighbours, where time is money and time is to be raced against rather than savoured slowly. 02br
00In Paris, as I sat down for coffee with friends the other night, the waiter at my local cafe greeted me by name, and called me his "petite" - I think with a certain Parisian irony. 02br
00Even in the big city though, there is still the human side, the pleasurable dawdling along the way to enjoy a meal or a conversation. 02br
00That night, all of us joined in the anguished national debate over France's future, after the elections. 02br
00And what came up again and again was the same sense of fear and hope that I had heard in Donzy. 02br
00-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------02br
00What is the meaning of laid-back Italy here? Does it mean that Italy is an under devolped country?02br
0-