We often hear people say that travel broadens the mind: If you stay in your own country your whole life, your ideas remain narrow; if you travel abroad you see new customs, meet new people, eat new food, do new things, and come back home more broad-minded.

But does this always happen? An acquaintance of mine who lives in England had never been abroad; until last summer he decided to go to France for a trip. When he returned, I asked him how he liked it. "Terrible," was his answer. "I couldn't get a nice cup of tea anywhere. Thank goodness I'm back." I asked him whether he had any good food while he was there. "Oh, the dinners were all right," he said. "I found a little place where they made quite good fish and chips. Not as good as ours, mind you, but they were acceptable. But the breakfasts were terrible: no bacon or kippers. I had fried eggs and chips, but it was quite an effort getting them to make them. They expected me to eat rolls. And when I asked for marmalade, they brought strawberry jam. And do you know, they insisted that it was marmalade? The trouble is they don't know English."