Cub Driver wrote:

There are other reasons, of course, one being that (in effect, for
most purposes) there is no VFR flight.

I don't know where you get that from. VFR in France (as in whole Europe)
is not only possible but delightful.

Most European nations are, by American standards, very congested.

This is in fact one reason. First, distances are much smaller. Second,
for most missions, you are much faster using public transportation or
the car. And third, maybe, Europeans, even pilots, seem to care much
more about noise and pollution. BTW, this is another reason why Thielert
developed the Diesel, not only cost. We just see no point in burning 10
gallons an hour when we can get away with 3 using a modern engine.

It's one thing to travel in Switzerland by road, but doing it in a
lightplane must be a bit scary. French and German (never mind
Italian!) are just not that similar. Add to that the tradition that
ATC should speak in English, and that altitude is expressed in feet
when you are accustomed to meters. Even if you trust yourself to be
perfectly bi- or tri-lingual, how can you be sure that the gent you're
talking to is equally blessed?

Being Swiss myself, I can tell you that flying here is not scary at all.
Quite the opposite, flying in the Alps is one of the most wonderful
things to do, and a landing at a French altiport is just plain fun.
Airspce structure is rather complicated, but you get used to it rather
quickly. It requires good preparation of the flight, though.

And for the languages... well, ATC speaks English, and they carefully
stick to pre-defines phrases, which even pilots with a limited knowledge
of English can learn by heart (which in fact is what many do). On the
ground, though, things are a bit different, but I've never had problems
to understand people, as long as both parties really want.

Stefan