American culture is really strange from the point of view of an outsider (I am Catalan). We have been bombed all our lives with american culture by movies, TV, etc and it seems close to Europeans, but once in the States, american culture is waaaay more different than expected, mostly in subtleties of social behavior.

I got to experience first the american culture, and later the British culture, and I realized where most of american behavior traits come from!

Turns out that he was of Catalan ascent (Pujol is a known catalan surname). His parents migrated to Marseille from Mataró, a city near Barcelona. This is funny because Catalan culture is said to be scatological.
see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJxHHP-aTOc

Another bit of trivia: the regent of the Moulin Rouge at that time, who signed in Pujol for the show, was also Catalan (from the city of Reus).