Perception.

The French are amazing.

Their food is delicious, their women are beautiful, and their language literally melts you when one of those sultry women open their mouths. Oh, and everyone dresses well too, I mean everyone.

The French are disgusting.

I have never seen so many people smoke before, from your average 50 year old man with a pot belly and balding hair, to the female executives in their business attire, they;re smoking, outside buildings, in bathrooms, outside the Cathedral of Notre Dame. How do people live?

It gets really sketchy when you see a girl who can't be more than 16 walking by you with her Mom, cigarette in hand. No, not the Mom, the teenage girl.

What is their obsession with smoking? I don't get it! What makes everyone smoke in rain, in shine, in your face?!! I really think the French are wonderful, I really do. They've been really nice, except for the snotty receptionist that checked us in at our hotel.

A cigarette tree, an example of many on Parisian streets, this one right by St. Michel's Blvd.

I just wish they would cut down on their smoking. I think it would help them plenty. Maybe Sarkozy would stay in power then, huh? His brain wouldn't be so muddled by the smoke he breathes in from his citizens.

No, not their cars, themselves.