He visits Germany regularly, and thought about the possibility of hiring an aircraft whilst in Germany. One of the reasons why he hasn't done so yet is that, despite German being his mother-tongue, as he puts it "I don't know what the German for 'downwind' is!"
I seem to remember being told by a german pilot when discussing flying in Germany that " if you fly up to Germany and talk English on the Radio, then everyone else on Frequency will also switch to English, so dont worry.." or something to that effect anyway. I have no reason to dis-believe him.
No way that would happen in France.....
Regards, SD..