In an art supply store in the heart of Paris, in my broken French, I negotiated for some water color paper and then for some brushes. When it came to paints I selected some acrylics. The woman was aghast! She called out in French to the man in the back of the store, 'One can not use acrylics on this paper, can one?' 'No,' he replied, also in French, 'the absorption is all wrong.' I said to her, 'But I use acrylics on water color papers all the time in America.' And she replied, indignantly, in English, 'Not in France!'"