Both of the French and American responses didn't use a lot of the same words but were associated two types of work, school work and jobs.

Both the French and the Americans related work with money and a necessity of life. However, it seems that the Americans were more focused on the difficulty of work. The French related the word work more with vacation and retirement. I do not think that the French view work as large a part of life as the Americans do. Is a 35-hour work week normal in France?

Oui! La loi impose 35 heures par semaine sans compter les heures supplémentaires qui peuvent être limitées aussi. 

Vous avez dit que les Américains définissent le mot "travail" comme étant "la difficulté du travail", en France les gens pensent déjà au vacances et la retraite à cause de cette difficulté.

Even though the French work less hours it seems as though they are just as productive with the time they do work. Seeing how there were recent strikes over the increase in retirement age in France, even though it still 5 years behind the US and no one said a peep here, it looks as though time off is considered a part of work and not necessarily a reward for it. It seems as though Americans treat work as a means to have a life while the French feel like work is getting in the way of their lives and they work because it is necessary.

Are the work environments different depending on where you work? I know that in some companies Americans have a very casual work environment, and some are super formal. Where do most environments in France fall in? or does it vary just as much as it does in the US?

On working and holidays: I remember from family living in France that their summer break was very long. Do students take on summer jobs / internships, or is that school-free period just as sacred as early retirement?

I am totally "for" this restriction of 35 hours of work/week! I think if you work less you can actually be more productive and do your work better. Also, you would enjoy it more even if it is hard because when you are tired you get annoyed by any small detail or just don't care about details that may be bad sometimes.

That is actually the rule that I am trying to set for myself. Instead of staying up all night I should go to bed early and then be faster with problem sets and be able to think more clearly. Unfortunately, it didn't work so far…I mean I don’t follow this rule yet.

@Yoana: Not to mention if you're forced to work 35 hours a week there'll actually be extra hours to hire other people ... I know lots of friends who are working basically 60+ hours a week, some of whom are parents. There's no way to enjoy life.

As for trying to set it for yourself: It works, but there are sacrifices (for me anyway... I live at home so to remove distractions I stay at the library 'till late.)

Are there any jobs that break the 35 work week? Does this restriction apply to part time workers? I ask because several of my friends from home work part time jobs. If you sum up the number of hours they work per week, it greatly exceeds 40 hours.

I wonder -- it can't possibly be that "working only because it's necessary" is true of all jobs in France. For example: I'm sure mathematicians in France, or anywhere else, do it because it's fun. Must be the same for all artists - no?

@ Danielle

Il y a des gens qui peuvent dépasser 35 heures par semaines, soit en faisant avec des heures supplémentaires, soit en exerçant des professions libérales. 

Il y a toutes les informations sur la loi des 35 heures sur cette page:

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/35_heures

En france, il y a quand même énormément de personnes qui ne font pas 35 heures, il ne faut pas croire que les français travaillent que quand c'est necessaire. Quels sont les différences entre nos mathématiciens ?

En fait la majorité des gens font 35h par semaine, seul les cadres ou encore les professions libérales comme l'a dit Mehdi dépassent les 35h par semaine,mais c'est pas très légal en fait, sauf pour les professions libérales qui font ce qu'ils veulent.

Par contre, il se peut que certaines entreprise soit restées à des horaires du genre 38h30 ou encore 40h, mais dans ce cas, les employés ont droit à ce que l'on appelle des jours de RTT (Récupération du Temps de Travail). C'est à dire que quelqu'un qui a travaillé 40h sur la semaine gagne 40-35 soit 5h de "congé". Ceux qui font 38h30 par semaine en deux semaines ont une journée de congé (RTT).

Il faut également préciser que certains cadres en France peuvent faire largement plus de 35h de travail suivant la période de l'année.