Posted on 08/03/2004 6:37:36 AM PDT by Hemingway's Ghost
PARIS -- Since at least the 19th century, the French have heard much talk about their decline. Of course, the French have never believed it.
"Pas du tout! (Not at all!)" they might exclaim with a trademark shrug of the shoulders.
But these days, judging by several best-selling books in France and the tone of a self-effacing discourse on national radio and television and in newspapers, the country has begun to again broach the subject of its own decline. The discussion touches on the loss of influence in the spheres of politics, economics, art, film, diplomacy, and even language.
Even topics once considered sacred are now on the table: Candid appraisals among French specialists indicate that the country's wines are slipping in comparison to what the French have always derisively termed New World vintages from such places as California and Australia.
This broad recognition of a collective sense of falling has occurred under the harsh light of a country exposing its own contradictions and self-deceptions. There is agreement these days that a national rigidity and an aversion to risk have stunted France's development.
Nicolas Baverez, a Paris lawyer, was a largely unknown classical historian until last year when his first book, a treatise titled "The Decline of France," surprised the publishing industry by becoming a bestseller.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Decline from what?
It's wrong to be French.
The reason for France's decline is that nobody pays much attention to self-important, pompous fools who bloviate about how great their culture is but can't even muster up the courage to defend that great way of life when someone tries to take over their country. What wimps.
A few more decades, and North Algeria can look forward to being the third most influential Muslim state.
I take it your visit to Paris fell in line with the images of rude people in an unclean city.
Full disclosure: I've got a French surname. But my ancestors are Acadian, and have been since 1700.
Basically, Americans don't even pay attention to France unless they open their collective yap against us.
The average American doesn't sulk and say: "O, woe is me! I need to be more American and less French!"
And TEXAS!!
I thought it was bravo sierra myself until I saw it first-hand. I'll qualify my statement just a bit, though: no Parisian was outright rude to us, and the tourists, especially one Spanish tourgroup in the Louvre, were typically even ruder and more obnoxious than the Parisians, or, for that matter, most Americans you see in any major American city. And I saw many Americans make complete asses of themselves in Paris, too. Nothing makes you more embarrassed for your fellow countrymen than to see a pair of them sitting in a Paris cafe, dressed like the Griswald family, shouting at the waiter in English, figuring the waiter will understand their English better if only they talked louder.
I stayed in Bayeux for a short while last April & agree with you completely about the Normans. Very likeable folks.
Yup. I've heard this too. The farther you get from Paris, the nicer people are to foreign strangers.
But you know, I wonder if we might make the same comparison to the US. I mean, as you go from the heart of major cities into the suburbs and then into rural areas, would you say that, in general, people become friendlier?
I never spent any time in France- only drove through it on the way to Spain. Stopped at a rest stop/Esso station long enough to have a pissing match with some flunky but that's another story.
Canada should just send their 12 man army to France, take it over, and be done with it.
From when they were occupied by Germany.
On a driving tour of the great Southwest a few years back, we encountered a group of French tourists. My girlfriend, normally a peaceable young woman, was very insistent that I go over and kick them in the shins!
She'd traveled through France after college, and had formed a lasting impression of the French...
I'd say that was true. I live in a mostly urban area of New England, and people tend to be quite stand-offish to strangers by nature. I find the further south and west in this country you go, the friendlier the people get. The people down South get my vote as the friendliest people to strangers in the country.
Jefferson loved 'em.
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