For Americans, it is baseball.

In the summer, when we are bored out of our mind and need to pass the time, we watch baseball. We've been doing it since the end of the Civil War and we've perfected it into a 162-game season with playoffs and a cool trophy.

The French have done the same thing with work stoppages. Before I came here people told me to expect a lot of strikes and I laughed at them thinking it was an overblown stereotype like their love for cheese and wine. 1) The warnings were real. 2) They don't just strike, they full on crank up the Mardi Gras-esc parades complete with drunkenness, slogans and burning couches.

The only American comparison I can draw to a French strike, or "greve", is to combine the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade with the "World's Largest Cocktail Party" in Jacksonville. If you're imagining Al Roker doing a beer bong with frat boys dressed in seersucker you have gone too far! So check out this video for a taste of what France does best!