It only took them three months to issue our bank cards, and they scold her when she asks for too much cash in 100 franc bills. They run ads before movies in the movie theatre here. The most interesting ones are for cigarettes. But they aren't really for cigarettes. Obviously some kind of advertising restriction is being cleverly circumvented here.
Many men here carry purses.
For a purse to look masculine, the rule seems to be that it must be deeper than it is wide. Also, beards on men are uncommon, at least around Paris. I think the French don't consider an occasion properly done unless there are some plants or flowers about. Nor is it really proper to put in a path somewhere without a border of flowers or a hedge. Judy Bayard Cushing asked me to take a look at L'Etang la Ville where she used to live, and which is just across the river from Le Vesinet.