Questions of Economics

A few questions have been rattling around in my head for a little while:
1) Peter had told us during our van tour that Sarkozy (the French president) had enacted an monetary incentive for the French to reproduce. (Apparently, the birth rate has been steadily declining.) For every child, the French government will give the parents money to help with expenses. My question: What is the level-off point here? (My guess is 5 children.)
(Peter said that someone's already abused the system, claiming to fathered something like 60 children.)
Also, is there a differentiation between children born of a marriage and children born out of wedlock? I'm pretty sure in the US, if there wasn't a differentiation between the two, there'd be a big outcry amongst the conservatives, Christian and otherwise. It's just that since I'd heard about this, the emphasis was always on progeny, not marriage. I think I'll look into this...
2) That same day, on our van ride, we stopped at Trocadero, by the Eiffel Tower (La Tour Eiffel). There were a few people there selling souvenirs. If someone was to buy a souvenir, how would one decide who to buy it from? They're selling the same things at the same location, at the same price; how do they stay competitive? (I wanted to ask one while I was there, but couldn't remember what the verb "to stay" was.)
3) In microeconomics last year, we learned about the difference between "inferior" and "normal" goods. An "inferior" good is in demand when one's income is low; examples we discussed in class included cigarettes and public transportation. As income increases, customer demand shifts into "normal" goods, i.e. higher income begats better quality things, such as better school, cars, etc. A person can now afford to things they couldn't before, and so can leave the "inferior" goods behind.
Here, it seems everyone smokes and takes public transportation, 2 examples of what micro says are inferior goods. Yet it seems that this is the norm, rather than "inferior". So does the majority of the population over here have incomes that relegate them to partaking of "inferior" goods, or is it a matter of convenience (in the case of public transportation) and/or culture (for cigarettes and/or the buses and metros)?
Also, what is the tipping point (to borrow Malcolm Gladwell's phrase) in this kind of thing? What differentiates an "inferior" good from a cultural norm, and how is it defined? When is it defined? Is it by strict numerical estimation, or a rough estimate?
So did I learn micro last year from the point of view solely from the US point of view? If I took an economics class here, would I learn the opposite thing?