Posted on 06/14/2003 9:59:39 AM PDT by lilylangtree
CANAL DU MIDI, France--It's high summer in France: bikinis blossom on the beach at St. Tropez and lovers stroll in lingering twilight beneath the Eiffel Tower.
The only things missing from these postcard-perfect scenes are Americans.
Still fuming over French President Jacques Chirac's active opposition to the war in Iraq, Americans are taking out their ire by staying home or vacationing elsewhere.
"I doubt I'll ever set foot in France again," a hawkish friend from Kansas e-mailed me.
Other friends who are veterans echoed the same sentiment.
"France?" You couldn't pay me to go there!" snorted one.
Well, somebody did pay me to go to France, and so here I am, conducting a writing workshop arranged by Americans, for Americans, on a canal barge owned by a woman raised in America. As we cruise between Bordeaux and Provence we practically have the canal to ourselves. Barge trip bookings are off as much as 70 percent and fancy restaurants catering to American tourists are empty. The question on every merchant's lips is no longer "Where are they?" but "Will they ever come back?"
At least one of them did, when the No. 1 Yak recently dropped in for a short visit. President George W. Bush was in Evian for the G-8 summit of industrialized nations, but he landed and slept over the border in Switzerland. His refusal to meet one-on-one with Chirac and their frosty photo op did nothing to diffuse Americans' anger at France for refusing to join U.S., British and other coalition forces in toppling Saddam Hussein.
The fallout from this diplomatic quarrel with our oldest ally is causing economic pain in the country now disdainfully dismissed as part of "Old Europe" by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Economic protest by their best-spending tourists is hurting the pocketbooks of bakers in Normandy, designers in Paris and three-star chefs in Provence.
"All our eggs are in the American basket and now Bush and Chirac have made an omelet out of them," said a French canal pilot.
While I sipped a smooth Bordeaux and ate aged camembert on a fresh baguette, a half-dozen crew members of various European nationalities lamented their lack of work.
"Our bookings are down 70 percent this season," said one barge owner, a British citizen. A marketing expert who works for a Burgundy vintner estimates her company's overseas sales are off by at least 15 percent, and will drop further "because people in America aren't buying French wine." Compounding their tourism woes is the fall of the dollar against the European Union currency.
However, there are bargains gallore in France as hoteliers and tour brokers try to salvage expenses.
Even the government--increasingly feeling the ire of its citizens for Chirac's arrogance and insults toward the Bush administration--is officially encouraging the unthinkable toward visitors. It's urging the French to say "BONJOUR!" with a smile.
If you go to Nice make sure to go to the marine park there. The head killer whale trainer was a friend of ours when she worked at Seaworld, Orlando (that assumes she's still in Nice). Her name is Lindsey Rubincam. I'll guarantee you that she doesn't work with the whales topless, however. Nice to look at in her wet suit, though, and what she and whales do when they perform the stunts is truly beautiful to watch.
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