* The culture expects (and until recently mandated) a 35 hour work week.

* The tax administration is a nightmare.

* The employment code is so bad that companies with just a few employees need a full-time person just to manage the forms.

* The culture shuns startups (compare VC industries, for instance, or find articles in Forbes where just 10 years ago the majority of citizens wanted jobs as civil servants).

* The culture is, like much of Europe, deeply classist, with leaders expected to graduate from an ultra-selective Ivy League of top schools.

All respect for pioneering cuisine and viticulture, but, uh, we do that stuff pretty well now too. I'll stick with Wisconsin Hooks blue and Vermont Weston cheese, and you can keep the extra 4 weeks of vacation and the 1,000 forms per employees.

There are plenty of good start-ups in France in spite of this apparent limitation (other European countries have similar laws on the books, but not all of them), in fact I think it makes it clear that both sides have rights and obligations.

Incidentally, it is possible to fire someone with cause, but not 'on a whim'. A pretty humoristic (and unfortunately very realistic) take on this: http://blog.cocagne.com/how-to-fire-in-france.htm

Btw, you know what? Chinese don't wear braids anymore.