Frenchism Part 1

France is a country struggling to maintain its rich history and regional traditions while at the same time unifying and adapting in a world that is becoming increasingly small. Owing to a past filled with numerous stories of conquest by invaders, each region has a culture (and in some cases a language) all its own. There's Celtic Brittany in the north, the Catalonian/Basque region along the border with Spain in the south and, of course, the Germanic Alsace-Lorraine in the east. You can liken it to the United States but there's really no comparison. While all the French are French, they are quick to give their regional name as well. For example, Provençal(e), Breton(ne), Alsacien(ne). Me? I'm Berrichonne. It's like saying, "I'm a Michigander/Michiganian," but with a sense of pride seldom heard back home. These regions are fiercely proud of their heritage and work hard to protect it against another sort of invader.
Consumerism (mainly in the form of American companies) has crept into French society and you now see McDonalds and supermarkets cropping up where little family-owned restaurants and stores used to be. American bands are favored over their French counterparts and at the cinema, it's the American blockbusters that people want to see. But it's not just the foreign invaders that have been un-Frenching the French. In an effort to become more unified as a country, the French government has gone to great lengths to extinguish regional differences, going so far as to prohibit non-French names on birth certificates.
Over the last couple of decades things have loosened up a bit. Regional dialects are working their way back into the schools and the 80s and 90s saw the birth of local news reports. The damage has been done, however. Regional dialects are frequently only spoken by the elderly behind closed doors and local festivals are often moreso a show for tourists than a celebration of tradition. This is not to say that France has lost its regional authenticity but that it struggles to maintain it. As the world becomes increasingly smaller - what does the future hold for the French?