Uncle Fred, I am sure you must have seen it in Vendee also, the French, in the home of the metric system, have invented a new non-metric system of distance measurement - The Minute !
All over we see direction signs to McD, Intermarché, Leclerc etc "au feu a droite, 2mn" (at the traffic signal, turn right, 2minutes) although if anybody tried to achieve those timings they would suspect that, being patriotic, they must have asked Air France to calculate the 'distance'
daved
Ah yes, the French minute--
un peu de temps! Fungible, with plasticity, without fixed interval...it has a character of its own but does add a element of relaxation to the proceedings.
Reminds me of the quote from Gustav Flaubert
Une minute--On ne se doute pas comme c'est long, une minute