I suppose all surprised are unexpected.

? I was in Cannes on Bastille Day after the GAIM conference and what was most impressive was the atmosphere. People were walking on the promenade till late at night, long after the fireworks. What surprised me was the tranquillity, the pleasant crowd, the lack of rowdiness, the multigenerational extended families all walking together. A French restaurant proprietor who’d obtained an MBA in Connecticut told me that everyone was so calm because France lost the World Cup, and people knew that the police would clamp down on any troublemakers. It sounds implausible.

? I’ve heard many people here say the French are more discriminatory than people in the U.S. But, as the same French MBA guy told us, you see many more couples with totally different backgrounds in France than you see in NYC.