I once had a short-lived fling with a french exchange student who was a housemate of mine for a while, back in the colledge days. She had a weirdly schizophrenic attitude to here own countrymen, a mixture of disgust and admiration for them every thime they did something disgusting or amoral. She'd say, "Zis is very French', half fondly, half exasperatedly.

She told me a story, she was in a traffic accident a couple of years earlier, some guy smashed into her car on the highway and it was pretty serious. Her car was a write-off and she was in alot of pain, she didn't think she could move.

The idiot who hit her got out of his car and didn't make any move to help her or see if she was okay, just got on his cell-phone and started yelling at someone. She was scared, she could smell leaking petrol, then, increadibly, the guy who hit her finished his phone converstation and lit a cigarette while he waited for the police or tow truck to arive, still ignoring her.

In pure panic, thinking she was about to go up in a fireball, she found the will to get out of the car and crawl free, getting enough distance to feel safe.

The police and tow people arived she went to hospital, then the French insurance company refused all her claims about her back injury because she had left the car herself, thus proving she wasn't all that injured. She had back problems from the crash to this day.

I asked her, "Is that very French"? I don't remember what she said.