amount of vacation guaranteed by law is minimum 20/year, most have 25. in US this is considered as a special perk from what I heard. how about maternity leave, social support during unemployment, sickness and so on? Normal americans travel very little before retirement, they just don't have vacation for 2 or 3-week holidays every year, plus more for family visits, christmas etc. I travel consistently +-7 weeks per year, since I take my vacation when public holidays happen. Having 100% perm job. How common is this in US?

In France, you can have up to 10 weeks of paid vacation (that's a bit extreme, but they are western europe commies after all).

Not sure about pleasantness of the cities, each is different, but one feels generally safer here.