Gingersarah: I'm not very well-placed to compare, really, not having worked in the UK. I think the French system is, in many sectors (banking, computing, law, insurance, etc.), like the British in that people are expected to work very hard. Hence my DH getting back at 4am last week, because he had to finish a case urgently.
But globally, I think there is maybe a slight difference in that the whole consumer rush to spend, spend, spend never reached the heights here that it did in the UK. People are still attached to spending their weekends with the family, to enjoying a meal with friends and relatives, etc. The 35-hr working week led many people to adopt a more distanced attitude to work than in the UK, though of course the current gvmt scrapped that straight away.
And while many people pay attention to clothes and the way their house looks, I think there is less pressure to have the latest gadgets (satnav, blackberries, bread makers, to quote but a very random few) than in the UK. Kids want mobiles, i-pods, etc., but adults are perhaps under less pressure to acquire things.
But I could be wrong; I live in the provinces and I tend to frequent/be friends with people who are not v materialistic, whereas if you read the posts written by Anna8888/Bonsoir Anna (she recently name-changed), you get a glimpse into a whole other moneyed, Parisian lifestyle that seems very demanding, stressful and pressurised indeed.
There is quite a lot of opposition to gvmt plans to allow people, particularly in retail, to work on Sundays. And many shops, chemists, offices have a long (2hr or more) lunch break where they are closed to the public.
However, there is a clear assumption that people, including women, will work: childcare provision, in the form of rebates, is pretty good, but getting parental leave is less easy. You get 500 euros a month allowance for parental leave, which basically means that for most people it's not a viable option. And maternity leave isn't very flexible: it's 16 weeks, and then you have to negotiate very hard to obtain a reduced workload or any extra leave.