I think the difference in attitude that I have witnessed have to do with when and how work is done. As I said earlier lunch is pretty sacred. From about 1-230 literally nothing happens, emails and phone calls stop, and everyones out getting lunch. Plus the weekends are pretty sacred and not a ton of people come in over the weekends preferring to stay late and hammer things out during the week. Also, while I haven't witnessed it yet all my french collegues have warned me that things slow down drastically come end of July or start of August. Overall though I really love it here and think that the work culture is more relaxed and civilized. The other interns (we're not summer associates here, instead we are "Stagaires" which is the french term for an intern) are all really great people who have studied at some pretty cool and impressive universities here in France including quite a few from les grandes ecoles. What I do find interesting though is that despite the solid reputation in France and Paris of the firm I'm working at a lot of them seem to really want to try and get spots with US firms even if it is here in Paris (and many have already worked as interns in US firms).

-- AlexLawrence - 11 Jun 2008