I forgot to mention the islamic angle: the most helpful person I met in Briançon in 2015 was a Moroccan supermarket worker, who spoke a bit of Dutch because he'd lived in the Netherlands. And the political debate that's most relevant for tourists is whether it's OK for French people to eat kebab instead of MacDonald's.

The most sure bet I ever made was betting on Predictious that Macron would become president. He was consistently at least 20% ahead in the polls against Le Pen, but I still made profits of 10% to 20%.