Last thoughts on my recent trip to northern France

I took about 1,200 photos and will post the best ones as soon as I can. The smallest cities are the most beautiful and all have beautiful historic centers. The castles, despite their different architecture, are similar inside and out. They have beautiful solid wood and inlaid furniture, canopy beds, separate bedrooms for the couple, numerous fireplaces, and enormous colorful tapestries that warmed the cold rooms. I've never seen a bathroom; it's said that Louis XIV bathed twice in his entire life. They used lace to cleanse their mouths, and when they smelled too bad, they anointed themselves with perfume; that's why they became masters in this field. Unfortunately, I no longer see the beautiful, elegant women I remember from my first distant travels. Even though they wear skirts more than Italians, they mostly wear baggy, shapeless jeans. The French are less obese and fat than us Italians, perhaps because they don't usually eat first courses, especially pasta, but rather rice as a side dish. There's a lot of tourism, especially Italian, Spanish, German, and English. France gets one hundred milion tourists versus sixty of Italy. The mixed presence of Arabs from former French colonies, but also Asians and South Americans, is very striking. Sometimes they outnumber white French people. But I have doubts about integration; you see sometimes mixed couples, but mostly they don't mix. I haven't noticed any arrogant French people, nor any snobbish ones despite some Europeans have these thoughts about them, Even in Paris, where they seem annoyed by the many tourists, a couple busy with their children explained to me twice which trains I needed to take and which stations I needed to change. France is much more advanced in technology and automation; you can pay everywhere by credit card. Sometimes you arrive at a hotel and there's no one at reception, but you find a plastic card that gives you access to your room after they've verified the payment. Everything is done online; you pay for parking by credit card or mobile phone using the provided app. The French are very kind and patient, perhaps because they understand that tourism is their biggest industry.