On The French Relationship With Air

In a taxi home from Orly, the first thing the driver asked me was “How is the air flow?” He was adjusting the height of the windows a bit, and wanted to know if the air was on me too much. I didn’t quite know how to answer, but the way he worded the question was a sure sign I was back in France.

He didn’t ask me how the temperature was, if I was too hot or too cold (it was too hot). He wanted to know if the flow of the air was okay for me. In fact, I would have appreciated even more wind. Blasting in my face as it was, the taxi was stifling, and I prefer the air to move if it insists on being warm. I told the driver that the flow was fine. He was surprised, because most other passengers would have told him it was too much airflow, because most other passengers were French.

Why is having air in your face a bad thing in France? You might ask. That’s the thing; I wish I could tell you. After orbiting the culture for nearly 12 years, sometimes asking French people point-blank why they don’…