text by JEFF RIAN I’ve been living in paris for ten years. It took the first two years to get used to kissing everybody and the slowness of doing everything, from sitting for a coffee (instead of getting one to go) to waiting politely for just about anything. Other things took longer to adjust to: the strikes, which I first saw as national get-togethers, the cigars and sidewalk pet droppings, the closed stores on holidays, and even the 39 days of vacation (compared to America’s 12). France is a socialist state run by functionaries, but treats lunch as a two-hour mini-holiday. What I liked right off was the food I could buy, the public transportation, traveling through the Grant Wood countryside by train or rented car, and an acceptance of identity detached from income. Business supports life here rather than rules it, even if the entire country is bureaucratic…