I’d be willing to bet a dollar you aren’t 6’4" and 220 lbs though.
France can be a lot of fun, but it all depends on the situation. Patience and Understanding can work miracles, but don’t hit on the women, don’t brag about ‘home’ and do try to take in the experiance.
My worst European experiance with host rudeness wasn’t even in France; It was at the Casino Du Loc outside of Lake Geneva. They kept switching Black Jack dealers on my wife. Granted, we were up almost a grand at the time, so we forgave them and still left about 600 up.
Many years ago we were skiing Copper Mountain in Colorado and I’d gotten slightly behind our group near one of the lifts. A group of French skiers hailed me, “Excuse me, do you mind to take our picture?”
“Not at all” I replied.
Then I pulled my camera from my jacket pocket, snapped a quick picture of a very puzzled looking group of French, then swooshed down the trail to catch up with my group.
I know it was evil, and they had done nothing wrong, but I just couldn’t resist baffling some foreigners. I hope that they at least got a good story and a laugh out of it as well.
If you Brits had only won the Hundred Years’ War, you wouldn’t be having this problem, would you? You had longbows and Henry V, but you got your tails kicked by a crazy French girl. Nice work.
The French don’t owe you any respect, nancy-boy. Be glad that they don’t point and laugh every time a Britisher crosses the channel.
I spent last winter in Bordeaux, and found people helpful and friendly… (It might have been all the wine at every meal though… I no longer cared that I sounded like an American trying to speak French…) I dealt with people on a daily basis, and during that short time got to know many people in the neighborhood I was staying in - and thought they were charming.
And I have to say that people in Paris are much **more ** friendly than in Bordeaux… I took the train from Bordeaux to Paris about 7 times last winter, and even on the TGV people were willing to help me out when I wasn’t sure of how to ask for things when buying food on the train. I had people explaining how to make sure my luggage was safe on the train, where I should visit in Paris, and asked about life in North America.
Just sitting in the Gare Montparnasse in Paris having a cafe au lait, I ended up striking up a conversation with a man and his son who were waiting for the TGV too. I think we sat for a couple of hours talking about everything under the sun until we had to leave to catch our respective trains.
I’d been to Paris several times as a teenager/young adult, and didn’t get it at all… It wasn’t until last winter that I finally **got **what a great city Paris really is. If I could afford to buy a place bigger than a postage stamp, I’d move there in a minute.
I’d just like to chime in that I’ve never, and I mean never, had a French person, inside or outside of France, be rude, arrogant, unhelpful, standoffish, sarcastic or anything else in that vein, and I’ve been more times than I care to admit.
New York, on the other hand… All part of the local charm!
I’ve only been to Paris once, but found the people charming and helpful. I had heard stories of rude shopkeepers and hoteliers, but didn’t run into any myself. I did try to speak the language whenever possible (I’m told my accent isn’t bad, my vocabulary passable, but I’ve always had trouble with conjugating verbs).
I remember early on in the visit, at a cafe, being shocked to discover that the two small Diet Cokes I had with the meal cost as much as the rest of the meal. The waiter saw my face and asked me if there was a problem. I said “No, no problem, I was just surprised at the cost of the beverages.” He wanted to assure me that he wasn’t overcharging me and offered to show me the menu again, so that I could see that the price was listed on the menu the same as what I was billed. I repeated, “No, no problem, I believe you, I was just surprised.” Given the reputation of French waiters, I would have expected a “that’s the price around here, dummy” look, but he was quite solicitous, not wanting me to think that I was being overcharged.
Let’s get something quite clear here, We British hate the froggies, it’s a national thing, part of our heritage, culture and natural dislike for the miserable hairy-armpitted, garlic munching, cheese eating surrender monkeys
LouisB- I am not a violent cat, in most circumstances, although it seems most of the French desperately need a good smack sometimes, although I’m sure they would have simply surrendered.
Sefton- I am not a British nancy-boy; I am an American. Too fucking right the French owe the tiniest little bit of respect, for what my Grandfather and his whole generation did for them.
ShibbOleth- Now if only you had done that, then hit them over the head with your skis, I would have been quite happy
Giraffe- I take public transport all the time. On this particular trip, I went
from my house to Waterloo on SW trains,
from Waterloo to St Pancras on the Northern Line,
St Pancras to Bourg St Maurice on the Eurostar,
returning from Bourg St Maurice to Paris (Gare du Lyon) on the TGV,
Gare du Lyon to Gare Du Nord,
Gare du Nord to St Pancras on the Eurostar,
St Pancras to Vauxhall on the Victoria Line,
finally Vauxhall to home on SW trains.
The only stretches of this trip that were unpleasant were sections 4,5, and 6 that started or finished in France; the English portions of the trip, in the underground and on the overground rail network, were nothing like as bad.
The service industry fucks with your personality, no matter where you go. I’m so incredibly sick of Mexicans that I actually groan inside when I see one approach me with an obvious “I’m about to ask you a question, and I have no idea what I want” look. I had no problems with Mexicans before I got a job in the service industry, and I’m sure that they think I’m rude when I talk to them. I can’t help it!
Speak for yourself… well… yourself and quite a lot of other British people, admittedly. I’ve never met a French person I disliked - and I have met quite a few.
I’m sure they have their share of assholes, but obviously they don’t have a monopoly on it.
Yes indeedy France has their share of assholes and while they may not have a monopoly on it they do have more than their fair share.
I’ve travelled quite extensively and in no other country have I met such an insular,and totally miserable load of fuckers as those in France.
That’s one place I’ll never visit again. Matter of fact I’d rather crawl through 2 miles of broken glass just to stick pins in a dog turd than go back to that shithouse of a country
See, this attitude is entirely why the French think that the Brits are a load of fuckers.
Frankly, I’ve met more insular fuckers in the UK than I ever have in France. No one, and I mean no one, has told me personally* to “go back to where you came from, Paki” in France. :rolleyes:
*Yes, I admit there’s a fuckload of racism in France, but I’ve not had any directed personally at me. Far cry from my experiences in the UK though.
