Unless I were to go to India or Africa, I would be hard pressed to find two more different places than France and Southern California. I suppose nothing makes you feel like you are finally beginning to feel at home somewhere than to visit your own country and have it feel totally alien. (Given, California is like its own country). Driving down the 405 highway during rush hour coming from LAX was a horrifying experience, and made me joyous that I wasn't the one driving. My hotel was on a normal city street, one that happened to have 8 lanes of traffic and a speed limit of 55 miles per hour. The fact that I didn't have a car seemed to perplex a lot of people (which actually would explain the brown haze I descended into as I landed at the airport), and there wasn't much within walking distance at all. In fact, when I had to cross said 8 lanes of traffic, the cross/do not cross sign was so far away it looked like a little dot on the horizon. I worried I wouldn't be able to make it across in the street in the allotted time I had. So far to go!
So, I got to see only a small fraction of LA. The beach wasn't that far away, but it seemed horribly out of reach, given that to walk there would probably take a few hours and I would have to cross half a dozen highways, and as far as I know, there is no public transportation where I was in LA.
(I hear there are metro systems in other parts of LA - good for it. Let's hope that things like that continue to get funded and support through time.)
Ha that is so funny, especially the picture of the cross walk sign that truly was as you described! Yes, America loves its automobiles...zoom zoom! Land of the Free and Home of the single person in a car with bumper to bumper traffic and no one in the car pool lane.... God Bless America and long may she blaze a path to Independence!!!!
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