Two brits four wheels

October 2009

Having spent two months in France I was looking forward to some more French speaking and life in Switzerland. However Switzerland is three peoples: French, German and Italian influenced. Switzerland is organised around a system of cantons and it retains cultural differences within its borders. Think of the UK, it has the English, Welsh, Scots and Irish. The UK is a state of unified differences too. We were only in the country for a week so the analysis is limited. Unfortunately we did not spend any time in the Italian area to make a thorough comparison:

• Driving: we were told by locals and Brits alike that ‘you do not break the law in Switzerland!’. Thus people tend to stick to the rules there. I was also told that the Swiss levy driving offences as a percentage of annual income. Ouch! They do not have an endorsement points system though. Throughout the country drivers did not tend to drift across the middle line of the road as the did in the Alps of France and were a little more patient to hang behind the vehicle on the bendy roads. There were little signs of drivers wanting to speed or drive carelessly.
• Shopping and getting things done: In the French speaking area of Lausanne it was easy: go to the Office du Tourisme and get on with things. It was all good. However when I went to Gstaad in the German area I went to the Coop to make a purchase. Oh what an experience this was. Now, let me give some context: in France, Portugal and some extent in Spain people generally are polite and do say ‘Hello’. However, not everyone does. So, that morning, I was focusing on helping the cashier and when it was my turn rather than say ‘Good morning’ I mentioned something about the shopping. The cashier got really miffed because I had not said ‘Hello’ and let me know by saying ‘GOOD MORNING!’ in a rebuking way. Then she threw my purchases down the conveyor belt. Finally, when I handed her my debit card (as some shops want the shopper to insert them and some want the cashier to do so) she got up and stuffed it in the card reader so hard she almost broke it. Well, I reached my limit and exclaimed ‘What’s your problem’, to which the lady responded in a Germanic twang ‘I have no problem. I have no problem’. Jeez!! SO much stress before 8.30 in the morning! I then discovered that most of my encounters in the German area would be high tension. The German culture was very, very different to the French..
• Smoking: No observations in this respect.
• Families and groups: No observations in this respect.
• Food: French food was like the French whereas the German seemed more staid and less interesting.
• Attitude: See the shopping section above!
• Respect for the environment:No observations in this respect.
• Languages: both the French and the German areas have good English language on the whole.