The French are drinking tap water, fashion-conscious Italians have turned to second-hand clothes and car-loving Americans are taking the train.

Around the world the credit crunch is prompting the middle classes to make some often painful changes.

Across the Channel, the French bourgeoisie are giving up some of their most cherished habits as they turn to sandwiches as a result of their declining pouvoir d'achat (purchasing power).

Restaurants have reported a drop of about 30 per cent in takings over the summer, according to one survey. while many middle-class holidaymakers skipped lunch altogether, or ate a sandwich on the beach rather than the traditional three-course répas de midi.

Times Online, 1965: The shopping revolution

Retailing is in the throes of such far-reaching changes that many a shopkeeper will find the gap between happiness and misery narrowing sharply

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Even sales of expensive mineral water such as Evian and Vittel - once a necessity for any self-respecting French gastronome - are plummeting.

In Italy, lovers of style are feeling the pinch, forcing them to abandon boutiques selling the latest designer clothes and shop instead at factory and even second-hand clothing stores.

As for food, with pasta prices up by 30 per cent since the start of the year and bread up by 13 per cent, many families are switching to low-cost supermarkets.

On the other side of the Atlantic the economic slowdown is changing the way of life for Middle America - from the ball game, to the sportsbar to the shopping mall. With 455,000 people a week losing their jobs and petrol running at a record $4 a gallon in some states, the inhabitants of a country long known for its love affair with the car are taking the train in record numbers. Amtrak, the national rail network, is carrying a record 25 million passengers a year.

When Americans do use their cars, they are driving them differently, taking fewer short trips. They are also turning to larger format stores such as Wal-Mart, which saw sales jump by 3.7 per cent in the six months to the end of July.

McDonald's, which launched its “dollar menunaire” to allow customers to buy a meal for less than $1, saw sales across the States jump by 4.5 per cent in August alone.

However, in at least one country harder times are proving to be something of a liberation.

The Neue Sparsamkeit - or the new frugality - has the German middle classes in its thrall. Until last year, shopping at Aldi and Lidl was a badge of shame for many Germans, who would typically transfer the cheap goods into a posh bag before leaving the shop. Now it is about that old bourgeois value, good housekeeping.

Nine per cent fewer Germans took foreign holidays this summer, while, typically, a family of teachers will return by car from their skiing holidays via the Bavarian village of Herzogenaurach to visit the adidas and Puma factories where children's trainers can be found for half-price.

As in Britain, garden allotments and home-grown vegetables are also back in fashion.

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