Leave Us Abuse The French.......

The BBQ Pit
21

I had a nice long reply typed out. Then something happened to it. Anyway.

Parts of Paris are delightful. Parts are icky. IMHO if you want to see the cool stuff go to cathedrals or live in the French countryside (this is my preference) or take day trips to do both.

When I went to France I lived in the house in which my grandmother grew up during the 10s, 20s and 30s. 40 acres of grass, 40 cows and the servant family her family had when she was young sorta still live there. Oh, the stories . . . smuggling Jewish people around, IIRC, so they could hide from Germans (this is in Normandy) in a cave. Trying to smuggle ivory to the states by gluing it together to make a cube, then covering that in plastic to try to sneak it past customs . . . a rock quarry at one point was within walking distance . . . my father and his nephew once walked to it and lost their way back. A stream not two hundred feet from the house and another family living (sort of) across the street from us. Semi-ruins of old buildings. My great-grandfather had painted with Monet for several years, so in the “backyard” of the house were a few shallow pools with some plants and slugs around. Truly beautiful, except for the few parts German soldiers had broken up when they occupied the house, but that’s another story that’s been covered in another thread.

We walked to a market one day . . . probably the better part of five miles of the walk was through forest in a path probably made by residents before they had cars. Going to markets and seeing how food is before it gets processed and cleaned and such . . . and smelling the stuff. Going to a patisserie and boulangerie . . . I much prefered the specialty stores to the supermarket we found. Granted the prices weren’t as good, but you cannot buy a conversation with a French person about whatever the hell you’re talking about.

I don’t mean to suggest this is “the French experience” but when I go to a country I try to live as much as they do as I can, short of getting a job. That’s just my preference. I think a lot of people would agree that living simply, in a cottage or something (perhaps with an internet connection, perhaps without) and going to a market for food would be more fun than living in a hotel and going out to eat. A lot of people would disagree.

If Monet’s house hadn’t been converted into a museum, it would have been absolutely delightful. It was still lovely, but as my grandmother had been in the house when she was younger and had gone back when it was a museum, it had lost its spirit. I could feel it.

See, if you know where to go . . . :slight_smile: Sorry, got lost in a memory.

If you go to a country expecting the residents to be assholes . . . why even bother going? Let those of us who plan to have a good time go. Go somewhere in the US where you don’t have to learn another language (which I actually prefer to English in terms of the beauty of it, though I don’t know it as well).

22

And when I went to France, if they hated us they did a lousy job of showing us. We met two families who my father’s family had known for a long time . . over 40 years now for one, and 80+ years for another. If they hated us their definition of hatred is directly opposite mine. They were delightful. We spent lots of time with them. We are very American. I’d go back tomorrow. I doubt I’d have much of a problem. Sure, I might seem American, because I am. But I know the language and I’m sure there are those in France who don’t like foreigners in their country. The same thing can be said for Americans, a good number of whom are forever saying there are too many foreigners taking the jobs away from Americans. When we foreigners are in France, all we do is pay them for food and a place to stay.

So it would appear that’s . . . seven to one. I’m not going to assume anything about my father’s ten brothers and sisters, though I imagine they had largely good experiences, else they wouldn’t have gone back. My uncle ended up buying my grandmother’s house from her, which would seem to indicate that he enjoyed being in France.

23

The best known exponent of cubism, Escher, was dutch. there arent many french exponents of cubism.

24

Bosda – I know this is supposed to be a funny, but I’m not seeing an awful lot of daylight between this and the “I hate Japan” thread. Maybe I just don’t find gratuitous generalisations of other nationalities amusing.

25

One teeny weeny Q I forgot:

Bosda, have you ever been to France? If so, did you go into that trip/vacation thinking “these French are such assholes” or “this is going to be fun”?

If not, I would recommend giving us links to the aircraft carrier bit as well as the tribute to Libya. I’m not asking for a link to the wine bit because it would appear that was Austrian wine and not French wine (yes, I trust Coldfire more than you. He has shown himself, in my opinion, to be an intelligent person, and while I’d like to hear more about the wine problem I’m inclined to believe him until I have reason not to).

See, we in America point with pride to our military history as well. Right now we’re trying to bring a civil-war submarine, which is undoubtably older than this aircraft carrier of which you speak . . . so I guess in that sense our military pride is even more unfounded.

[quote]
Originally posted by Bosda di’Chi of Tricor
** . . . grape stomping, wine sucking, snail-scarfing . . . **

Could someone maybe point out to me how stamping on grapes, sucking on wine and eating snails is an insult? It’s part of their cuisine. I don’t see any problem with it, and I daresay a good number of “zee obnoxious Ameri’cains” of whom you talk don’t either, else they wouldn’t order the stuff in restaurants, and as such these things wouldn’t be on the menus of restaurants.

Or am I trying to apply reason where reason is useless?

26

I have been to France twice, many years ago (like, 22 years). The first trip was to Paris; the second was to a small village near Nice, where we stayed with the parents of the French wife of a major in my dad’s battalion.

To the best of my recollection, we were treated politely by the French on both times. They were very accommodating, even when my father asked for directions in his fractured Berlitz Guide Book French. The trip to Nice was somewhat, well, nicer, just because of the picturesque area and the company.

Didn’t a French doctor contribute heavily to the early research that discovered the HIV-AIDS connection?

27

Nor between this and I hate black people / Jews / Hispanics, etc.

But then again, whereas many Americans are extremely sensitive to racial discrimination against other classes of American, they believe that all non-Americans are subhuman.

Bosda, you’re a racist fuck.

28

Another one… Cousteau.

29

Thank god someone started this thread, if only to give me a minor segway (sp?) into a little rant. Let me preface all this by saying that, being from NYC, I hate all tourists. We need them, they feed our economy like nobody’s business, and I’m no xenophope, but…I dunno. There’s no real way to say that w/o sounding (being?) ignorant, but those of you who have to deal with map-carrying photo-taking slow-walking BO-reeking (sorry, but its true)generally annoying and rude tourists know what its like to wish you were one of those guys driving the green taxis in Mexico who take tourists to the city limits and take their money and give them a merciful one in the back of the head. So when they ask for directions, esp. in the Village, I am the asshole who points in the wrong direction and says “it’s five blocks that way, you can’t miss it.”

So anyway, my brother is working over in Germany (god bless Germans. They may be clueless, but at least they know it.) and he seems to be racking up favors on his little weekend excursions. He knows someone here who has relatives in France, and he stayed with them for a WEEKEND. I stress the weekend part b/c it has great relevance. Anyway, those goddamn frogs decide they can collect on the favor. Perfectly legit, my German relatives (see why I like Germans now?) stay w/ us all the time whenever they come over to NYC. I think about half of Fulda has been in my apartment. But they know the golden rule: guests are like fish. After three days they stink.

So anyway, the frogs send their annoyoing ass kid (19 yrs old) over here, for an indefinite amount of time. Now, keep in mind, they people who my brother knew in the first place are this kid’s UNCLE and AUNT. They live in NYC. but they don’t wanna deal with a guest, so they shuffle him onto me. He has been in my house for six weeks. SIX GODDAMN MOTHERFUCKING WEEKS! I couldn’t even handle a German for that long, much less a froggie.
He smells. Literally, my apartment smells like a French bordello. BO and cheap cologne.
He eats my food. I have stopped buying food that is not single serving. I take it out and eat in front of him.
He is in my house. Let me stress this. The motherfucker is in my house. There is no avoiding him. I get home, and he is there. I turn on the TV, and he walks into the room. I change the channel to PBS just so he leaves the fucking room and then I go back to the Simpsons.

So for all these reasons, I hate the FRENCH. If they were closer to the coast I would wish they just slid into the Atlantic, but as it is I just sorta wish they slid down and made a lake, if that makes any sense at all.

I don’t like coments like eggo made, but I see how his, and Bosda’s can easily come about. Right now, If I had a button, I would press it, after sending this shithead home and making sure he lived on a big X. Its too bad he has become his country’s emmisary to my opinion.

Really, I’m no xenophobe.

30

You are just as much a racist, Spider.

Ignorant, xenophobic, neanderthal bullshit. You say a lot more about yourself by spouting this crap than you do about any nation on earth. You meet one ill-mannered person, and you respond by slurring his entire nation and patronising another?

Oh, and by the way:

  • it’s not “true” just because you think it is
  • what the fuck else do you expect tourists to do? Hurry around ignoring the sights and magically “knowing” how to get around?
31

Gee, I live just outside one of the biggest tourist-attraction cities in the United States, Washington D.C., and all the “map-carrying photo-taking slow-walking BO-reeking (sorry, but its true)generally annoying and rude tourists” are good-ol’ Americans.

32

Why do people think that piddling personal experiences can support sweeping generalizations? How stupid are you people who meet one asshole Frenchman and condemn the entire country? I suppose I just don’t enjoy wallowing in my own ignorance. Bosda, Spider, the whole lot of you are babies giggling in barrels of shit. Typical fucking Americans.

MR

33

Spider

Maybe it’s time you suggested – strongly, like maybe with a baseball bat – that it is time he either goes back to France or to his aunt and uncle’s place. It’s your house and there are limits to being a gracious host. You don’t owe him anything. I think his folks owe you big-time.

By the way, I would have taken it as a clue that his aunt and uncle didn’t want him to stay at their place. I don’t believe it was just because they didn’t feel like having guests. (And let’s face it, the guest-who-would-not-leave is not a French-specific malady.)

34

Spider, I do hope you’re joking. If not, you’re making a somewhat common mistake . . . taking an extreme example and using it to define a nation of diverse people.

So your nephew (I think?) is about as pleasant a houseguest as a hemmorhoid. Does that mean every single French person is that way?

Yeah, the OP invited you to rant about French people. It also was factually incorrect to the point where I’m not surprised Bosda hasn’t come back. But for every French person who is or resembles your nephew, come on! There’s an American, and a German, and an Englishman, and a Chinese man, and a Brazilian, and a Venezuelan, and a Russian . . . you get the idea. Any country you go to, there are going to be assholes. If you dwell on those people you’re never going to meet the ones who aren’t assholes. And if you think about all French people in the context of this one boy you’re just going to keep looking for the evil in people. An that’s neither fair nor fun.

And how would you feel if you were in another country and needed directions and someone deliberately gives you incorrect directions? Doesn’t seem so cool coming the other way does it? Oh, but I suppose you already know your way around the entire world, and are thus perfect. You NEVER ask for help from anyone!

How are they clueless? And if they knew they were clueless, wouldn’t they, by default, not be clueless? Please explain.

How do you know what a French bordello smells like? Have you ever lived in one?

BTW you didn’t mention trying to get this “annoying ass kid” sent back home, IIRC. Or was that a thread I missed?

I, along with pldennison, live near enough to DC that I worked there a summer ago. Lots of tourists. Lots of people who lived in DC and carried maps anyway. Would you rather they carry a map or ask you for directions? Because it’s probably going to be one or the other.

Have you ever been a tourist? Would you like to be thought of as indicative of the entire population of NYC or the USA? I would prefer not to be known as “one of the guys like Spider”. There are many, many French people nothing like the kid staying in your apartment.

[nitpicking mode]Also BTW, it helps to remember where you live. Apartment or house? You say you live in both.[/nitpicking mode]

Once again, I REALLY hope this is an attempt at sarcasm . . . in which case you should have indicated so with [sarcasm][/sarcasm].

35

sigh
I hate ALL tourists. American, foreign, whatever. It makes no difference to me. I made it perfectly clear that I understand the need for them (they’re like mosquitos, nobody likes them, but if we kill 'em all the big 'ol wheel of life breaks b/c we need the spoke) but I will still send them in the wrong direction. I hope nobody does it to me when I’m on vacation of course, but I’m a hypocrite like that. Flame me all you want for being a jerk to the tourists my city depends on for scratch. I always liked those bumber stickers that say “If it’s tourist season, why can’t we shoot them?” and if I ever motivated my city-born ass into learning how to drive and then get a car for some crazy reason, I would get one. But that’s a lot of trouble to go to just to show what a superior person I am because I live in NYC.

HOWEVER…I am pissed at ONE person. One fucking assface who will not leave my apartment. He can be from california or Jersey or wherever, and if he was I would wish that state became a lake/ slid into the atlantic, and I would call him a Califuckhead or a Jersey B&T or whatever instead of calling my particular guest a “frog”. Note where I said “It’s too bad he has become his country’s emissary to my opinion,” as I thought that showed I was making big statements about that particular frogface, and how he is my problem, not his freakin’ country. Clearly, I do not wish the entire population of france to drown or whatever, I just thought that that was one way to get fuckhead out of my apartment. MattK, you are one thick man. Lemme guess, you don’t laugh much.

And as far as Germans go, I am German. I said that when I talked about my German relatives. 'Scuse me for cheering for my side.

MattK, congrats, you just joined my unwelcome houseguest on that big X.

And as far as BO goes, I smell prettier than anyone else. I am the petunia in the onion patch. Really. :rolleyes:

36

Friend, I agree with ALMOST all of what you said. To recap:

  1. Don’t make generalizations.

  2. Bosda and Spider, you’re numbskulls.

  3. You’re so typical of Americans.

Be careful you don’t say one thing and do another, Maeglin. It sounds an awful lot to this American as though you’re making a sweeping generalization about Americans from two of them.

[SARCASM]Typical fucking posters whose screen names start with M.[/SARCASM]

37

Spider – well, that’s ruined my life, then.

Oh, and I laugh plenty, thankyou. Just not at xenophobes or racists.

Let’s recap: you’ve got an unwelcome houseguest. Fine. No argument from me there. Maybe he smells, maybe he’s incredibly rude. So…therefore all French people do too, and should all drown/be blown up?

Yeah. Real funny.

38

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Spider *
Clearly, I do not wish the entire population of france to drown or whatever, I just thought that that was one way to get fuckhead out of my apartment.

You know . . . these comments seem to contradict eachother.

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Spider *
And as far as Germans go, I am German. I said that when I talked about my German relatives. 'Scuse me for cheering for my side.

I suppose we shouldn’t ask about if you were French?

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Spider *
But that’s a lot of trouble to go to just to show what a superior person I am because I live in NYC.

[SARCASM]Yes . . . superior people live in NYC. Remind me next time I’m there to find you so I can give you a blowjob. OTOH, you probably wouldn’t let me because I’m part French, and as such I must be exactly like the kid you have staying in your house/apartment.[/SARCASM]

It’s a good thing I don’t think every NYer is like you, else I might think that superior people are all assholes and xenophobic. Then I think I would want to be as far away from both NYC and superior as possible.

Oh. mattk, mind if I join you on that X? I rather prefer the company there to the company Spider’s nephew has right now.

39

Cheers, iampunha, you’re welcome.

40

You know, among all these educated people, its kind of sad to find individuals who need :rolleyes: or [sarcasm] to tell them how to interpret something. If you really believe I am a xenophobe or racist, hey, whatever. In my opinion, racists have one purpose: septic tank liners.

Anybody who understands I have a problem with a houseguest and not genocidal tendencies, you get props.

Anybody who thinks I really believe I am superior in any way to anybody else b/c I live in NYC, go chase yourself.

I really can’t believe I’m getting more flak for my anti-french-guy-in-my-apartment than I am for my clearly hypocritical stance on tourists.

Iampunha, comeon, you’re smarter than this.
Mattk, comeon.