France, early thirties, I can. Automatics are still pretty new on the market, most people I know cannot operate one. It's easier of course, but kinda throws you off at first. My wife owns one and it's great for traffic and keeping a low fuel consumption, since the thing is made to shift gears exactly when necessary. The tradeoff is no sportsy driving, of course, but I can live with that for some time.
At one time, manual transmissions were more efficient than automatic. But that's been almost half a century ago now, and you still hear people in the US saying that manual is more efficient.
It's not half a century ago, more like 10-15 years. Basically the old style with 3-4 speeds and a torque converter wasted power, and I still had one of those (brand new) from '06 to '09. Most automatics now have mostly the same innards as a manual, often a 6 speed, but with automatic actuators.