@bearfoil;
You are dealing with a "cultural problem", and it is indicative of some attitudes that have developed over the last 40 years - or so.
This excerpt from an email, received from a French lady a few hours ago, may provide an insight into what I suspect you already know.
Do you know much about french-style education post 1968? Taking of initiatives, thinking for oneself, individual responsibility, curiosity of all things, CHECKING facts - have been deliberately educated out, the automated response and the supposition are supreme, the group action favoured. A few years ago government announced its intention of trying to return to the responsible individual attitude; put back the "jagged edge" which is the glue safeguarding democratic society, but which the unthinking have difficulty encompassing. It will be hard with more than two generations brainwashed. And then there are the "grandes écoles".
My Lebanese (but passionately pro de Gaulle) companion used to say of the French: "all the gear and no action".
Now, don't get me wrong! I'm not starting a "cultural" war.
