Intermixing

I am very positively impressed by the cultural integration in France. It is most noticeable when it comes to the interracial couples. You will rarely meet such couples in the US, even in such a diverse city as New York. Indeed, most ethnic/cultural communities in the US are rather closed - after many generations there still remain ell-defined groups of Italians, Russians, Jews, Black etc. The exceptions are Hispanic and Asian immigrants, whose identity is primarily “American” already in the second generation. (As far as I can judge.)

In Bordeaux, on the other hand, interracial couples are quite common. Not only you frequently see them, but they also can be of very different age (just yesterday I saw two teenagers kissing in a tram) and, unlike in New York, it is not always the man who is black.