Not just a question for sxleksaker (though the first bit probably is)...
As I sit hear listening to an Agnes Obel CD, I'm wondering about regional accents. Here in the UK you can travel less than 50 miles and find the regional accents are vastly different (take Liverpool/Manchester for example).
I've been to Iceland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (twice) and apart from Icelandic which is very different, the differences between Danish and Swedish are very subtle to my untrained ears.
I guess to a local it must be much the same as in the UK though?
I am in the US and we have a lot of regional accents here the most pronounced are the Southern accents and I love the New Ehgland sound too.
The extremes of American accents are pretty easy to spot, e.g. Boston vs a Texan drawl... but then American cities are quite spread out, no? Are regional dialects apparent in nearby cities ? :)
it's the same in Canada I guess. It's a vast country and people in the west don't speak like people in east. there are also a few french speakers through the english speaking Canada but a province where french is the first language. I know the different french accents in Quebec (the french province) better because it's easier for me to distinguish them (they are also different than in the rest of Canada) and it is more famous accents than others (for example in la région de la Gaspésie or in Saguenay / Lac-saint-jean or in Montreal)
And us Canadians are also known for our different accent (saying "eh" and "aboat" etc)
Being more used to the north american (CA + US) accents I can distinguish the more extrem one (ex the south accent) but I wouldn't be able to distinguish the accent of two people living in england or in australia for instance
Most accents are quite subtle (but still noticible) in Sweden, but closest to Denmark is a region called Skåne where the accent is very pronounced, it's like a mixture of Swedish and Danish. I have no problem understanding people from Norway, but can't understand much from Danish people at all ;) They speak so fast and like they are drunk, Swedish is more calm and clear lol :)
In Germany it's as in the UK: Accents, dialect and even language (Plattdeutsch is recognized as its own language) change from one area to the next. People from North Germany used to complain about tv transmissions of Bavarian theater plays because they didn't understand anything. Travelling in the Kaiserslautern region I asked for directions, had really trouble understanding the answer, figured "oh well, foreigners everywhere", asked again a few km further, had the same problem and realized that I was the foreigner here! TV is smoothing out the differences, and obviously everybody understands standard German - the language movies are dubbed in (there's a German version of 'Babe" (the talking piglet) and an Austrian one).
I'm not sure whether the differences in France are as big, but that may be because as I'm obviously foreign people make an effort when talking to me. Or because I'm lucky to live in the area where modern standard French originated. On the other hand, the French government has spent centuries trying to uniformize the country, and there is a national eduction system (in Germany it's regional), that may have contributed to standardizing language. Still, the differences are big enough that tv sometimes had subtitles when people with accents were talking (which even I did not always judge necessary!)
I can confirm that it's the same in france, but you jave to be a native speaker to hear the difference. They have a large range of accebts going from the marseillan one to the parisian one and everyone compaires their accents with others. Also france and Canada have two very different accents (sone french can't even understand cadanian, but that's also cause they're snob)
I'm French and have lived in different parts of France. The Southern France accent is the strongest and most recognisable one, but people from the very North of the country also have an accent and many of them still speak their regional language, one of my friends comes from this region and taught me a few words, but I could never have a conversation in this language!
I grew up in the Alps and I think I have a little accent, as when I moved down south, people would sometimes say "oh it's funny how you say this". My dad's accent is quite unique, as he grew up in the Alps but his parents are from the South and have the Southern accent, so he ended up with a blend of both accents which is sometimes quite funny to hear!
French is also spoken in Belgium, where the accent is different too, close to the Northern accent but still different.
As Mamz says, Canadian French is very different, it's not only the accent, a lot of expressions are different as well, but I personally love the Canadian accent 
I have now lived in the UK for 3 years, in the West Midlands, and although I can recognise a Liverpool accent, I am still not sure if I can tell the difference between the Black country accent and the Brummy accent as they sound quite similar to me, I will probably need a few more years x)