Paris is shocking

[Ocean11 0]

We ordered ice cream at a cafe in Paris, and my wife's choc-ice came on a pretentious little glass stand thingy (although wrapped in its cheap silver paper). When it began to ooze out the wrapper, she despaired of getting a pretentious little spoon to go with it, and began to eat it out of the wrapper as you do.

 

Then the garcon minced up like a condom with a hole in it waving the late little spoon, and declared my wife to be a 'cochonne'.

 

I had cross-cultural understanding in those days, but these days I might just give someone like that a short, sharp lesson in manners.

 

(Although it's not quite provoking enough to make one believe one is the Sun King himself.)

[damian 0]

Not sure what traps you guys go to, but the waiters at our local cafe in Paris wave at us from across the road. In fact, many people stop and have a chat.

 

My dog has developed horrendous epileptic fits, it looks like he is about to die. He has only had 4 in the last year, but one was on the street in Paris. I was not there, but complete strangers came to help and even took the dog and my girlfriend to the vet and translated.

 

Paris has some pretty clear negatives, but I have been impressed with the friendliness of some people.

 

It also has race problems. Many black guys in Paris are down right intimidating. If you stray off your path it can become unpleasant very quickly. I wonder what caused them to become like that?

[number9 0]

I thought Paris cafe waiters were famously non-Parisian (and often non-French), yeah?

[Ocean11 0]

I like Paris a great deal, and made my way there every opportunity I had. But I found people in Paris to be cold and a bit hostile. Generally speaking of course. It's strange how people's impressions differ so much.

 

I was once stopped on the street in Paris by a white French bloke from the provinces who begged me to point him to a Quartier of Paris where he could be amongst Frenchmen - he couldn't recognize his capital city as part of France. The irony of asking an Englishman appeared to be completely lost on him. That I was white seemed to be all that counted.

[bushpig 0]

9 I found the same thing.

[damian 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by Ocean11:
We ordered ice cream at a cafe in Paris, and my wife's choc-ice came on a pretentious little glass stand thingy (although wrapped in its cheap silver paper). When it began to ooze out the wrapper, she despaired of getting a pretentious little spoon to go with it, and began to eat it out of the wrapper as you do.

Then the garcon minced up like a condom with a hole in it waving the late little spoon, and declared my wife to be a 'cochonne'.

I had cross-cultural understanding in those days, but these days I might just give someone like that a short, sharp lesson in manners.

(Although it's not quite provoking enough to make one believe one is the Sun King himself.)

I should add, I do actually find this scene quite believable in Paris. It can be quite a crumby affair at times.

(Especially if you have been buying your Japanese wife ice-cream on the Champs Elysees)

[damian 0]

A few weeks ago we met some young guys doing an experiment on the street in Paris. They started the day with a worthless object and tried to trade it for another object to someone that valued it what they offered. Several items later they found themselves with a big bloody cow bone that they wanted to trade with me and my dog. I would have swapped it for my girlfriends hair clip but I didn't want to carry a friggin huge leg bone with me all day.

 

>It's strange how people's impressions differ so much.

 

I find Parisians to be much the same level of coldness as most other cities, and I don't find them to be the friendliest of any city. It generally isn't a friendly town. But at times I have just been surprised. I think what we have in our favour is that we are in a local neighbourhood just behind a more popular area, living there, have a likeable looking dog, smiling Japanese girl etc. We find it tends to open people up a lot more. And I am an inherently cold and unfriendly person with strangers anyway, so I tend not to notice so much.

 

Last weekend a Japanese worker in a ramen shop was so rude I literally stuck my finger at him and mouthed '[censored] you' so that no other customers could hear.

[torihada 2]

i'm sooo english. i simmer with rage at bad treatment or crap food and then don't leave a tip, thinking ha that'll show em. i prefer spuds silent fu treatment which i will always carry out in hindsight.

 

still in paris chewing on a day old baguette :-(

[BagOfCrisps 24]

It would be great if lots of the Japanese tourists here in the UK were to see more than the fixed itenarary places. As with everywhere they'd get a much different view.

 

Are they generally interested in that or would they prefer to keep to the fixed tours forever?

[SerreChe 2]

 Quote:

Originally posted by db le spu:

Last weekend a Japanese worker in a ramen shop was so rude I literally stuck my finger at him and mouthed '[censored] you' so that no other customers could hear.

Interesting to see how Japanese people in a french environment behave like french workers. Maybe it is not the people's fault after all but the system which is flawed.

[torihada 2]

most of the Japanese tourists in London are on package holidays. they sign up for the whole deal. most of them appeared to be at times less than interested, often ignoring the Japanese Blue Badge guides. The worst are the Japanese school kids who get dragged around the usual rosta of sights and don't even feign any interest. They're all kicking their heals till they can ditch the teacher and see the bits of London that do actually interest them.

 

I suppose if you're an oji san and don't speak Englsh, travelling independantly to the west is daunting. My father in law says it's freaks him out getting to Narita never mind London

[damian 0]

> i'm sooo english. i simmer with rage at bad treatment or crap food.

 

Well, London is hardly a beacon of light in either respect.

 

Some places in Paris can be below expectations, but places in easy to access areas with English (and other) menus can serve quite bad food. Pity you don't have a kitchen: Paris has a collection of butchers, delis and green grocers that I have not seen in other cities. Plus they stay open reasonably late. I don't know where you live, work and eat in London, but without any emotional bias that others will accuse me of, I fin Paris a much more satisfying food experience than London. I'm not talking eating out or expensive food, I'm talking |"hey, lets grab a bite!" type of food.

 

Anyway, this is Paris, go buy a baguette (not a sandwich but a baguette, from a bakery, sold from a woven cane basket full of them), some cheese and some red wine. You almost can't lose.

[Ocean11 0]

> My father in law says it's freaks him out getting to Narita never mind London

 

Narita is a freaky place. I had one of the loneliest nights of my life in a business hotel in Narita before a morning flight. It felt like waiting to be sent into permanent exile on Mars. What a horrible wasteland the 'city' of Narita is. It would strike even TS Eliot dumb.