CultureMcDonalds in France

There are over 800 McDonalds in France, and José Bové (the farmer turned activist who in an act of civil disobedience drove a tractor into a McDonalds) aside, the French just love McDo (pronounced Mac Dough) as it's called in France. The first McDonalds in France was built in 1979 and is located in Strasbourg's Les Hall shopping center.

The French did at one time have a love/hate relationship with McDonalds; it was seen as part of an American cultural invasion. That seems to be past as McDonalds has so become a part of French culture that it's not seen as an American import any longer, but wholly French. In short, McDonalds has grown on the French just like in so many other countries.

I've been to a few McDonalds in France and, except for one in Strasbourg that looks from the outside to be built in the traditional Alsacien style, all McDonalds in France that I have seen look no different than their American counterparts.

Yes, there are those that still curse McDo (They are now a very small group and mostly ignored.) as the symbol of the Americanization of France and who also see it as France losing its uniqueness in terms of cuisine. The menu in a French McDonalds is almost an exact copy of what you would find in any McDonalds in the United States. It struck me as a bit odd that I could order as I would in the United States, that is in English, with the odd French preposition thrown in.

If truth were told, the French who eat at McDonalds are just as much at home there as any American could be.