Two items are always big in the French news: Weather and vacation traffic. It seems that many conversations either begin with or eventually touch on the weather. Every one tunes in for the weather report at the end of the news. Vacation traffic is rarely brought up in my conversations with Parisians. But when it is time to talk about the traffic on the news, the maps take up the entire television screen. All eyes and ears look for the color coordinates. The travelers make plans for a 3 a.m. departure. Routes are shown. The red-outline triangle signs with the exclamation mark are dotted around crucial arteries. The newspaper offers…