In reply to johnlc:
> Sometimes little things tell you a lot about a nation.
> Last summer I was seated by the side of the path in the French Alps with a baguette, a salami, a lump of cheese and a pen knife.
> Almost everyone who passed said 'bon apetit'.
> I have never known any sort of reverence for a simple meal in this country.
My wife and I experienced this cycle touring in France last year, whenever we stopped for a meal, a cheery Bon Appétit.
I have been with a lot of Europeans the last few weeks, and at shared meals, often a Bon Appétit, and at one an Italian asked what we say in England, and could think of nothing really.
It's strange also, involve food, and the French are Bon Appétit crazy, but no food involved, and generally they are the most stand offish of traveller's, I was walking up a track in Lao, and two people approached and I looked at them to give maybe a greeting, but they resolutely kept talking with each other in French, and sailed past as if I was not there.
I mentioned this to a French man I got friendly with, and said they were perhaps not French but Parisians.