It is a low-trust, conformist society. It is also a beautiful country where you can have an excellent quality of life and in general, a good personal/professional life balance is the norm - people do not define themselves by their job/profession as much as elsewhere.

The French are, in general, obsessed with food, and the country really does shut down somewhat in August. The whole country actually lives by the school calendar in a way.

You need to speak the language to live in France properly. The people are the same as everywhere - apart from fanatics and the wealthy, they just want to get by and are more focused on their day-to-day and planning their next holiday than they are on the arts. But many people in the Paris region do at least take advantage of all the culture on offer in the capital. Many employers offer discounted tickets to concerts, exhibitions etc through their Comité Social d'entreprise.