Made me think: why does this seem so obviously not French?
A: The frosted glass. Seeing passing potential objects of one's desire, and having them able to see you, is too important 
I didn't pick up on that at all - no lasting memories of many French bars! But, the fact the guy was wearing a hat touched the blue paper in my head, as did the solitary state. I haven't seen anyone wearing that sort of hat in decades. The nearest wearers are musos, but they count yet don't count, if you see what I mean. Such interior images were once a staple of the Paris crowd.
Perhaps the frosting acted as a safety barrier in the days when the wives would gather outside the pubs by the factories in efforts to extract housekeeping money from the husband's wage packet before he drank it all way; them wuz the days, as some say...
