FRANCE GIVES A CRITICAL LOOK AT ITS FALLING INFLUENCE

The Boston Globe ^ | 03 August 2004 | Charles M. Sennott

[Hemingway's Ghost]

A little schadenfreude . . . ha ha ha! My wife and I did Paris on our honeymoon; on the whole, a disappointment. But I have to say we enjoyed a day excursion to Normandy, and found the people in the countryside a thousand times more pleasant and receptive than were the people in Paris.

[KellyAdmirer]

Decline from what?

[Drango]

It's wrong to be French.

[stockpirate]

Should not this say France's increasing "flatulence"?

[TheBigB]

I've heard this over and over...Parisians are the snooty ones. Outside of Paris, OTOH, the French are warm and hospitable, especially to Americans.

[AQGeiger]

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.

[malakhi]

A few more decades, and North Algeria can look forward to being the third most influential Muslim state.

[KJacob]

I went to Moscow a few years ago and expected to find a dirty city full of anti-american sentiment. I found instead a very nice city full of friendly people.

I take it your visit to Paris fell in line with the images of rude people in an unclean city.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

It's wrong to be French.

Full disclosure: I've got a French surname. But my ancestors are Acadian, and have been since 1700.

[wideawake]

It's interesting that even the French citizens who seem to feel that France is declining because of its own mistakes still think that the way out for France is to define itself against America.

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!"

[ladtx]

...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.

And TEXAS!!

[Hemingway's Ghost]

I've heard this over and over...Parisians are the snooty ones. Outside of Paris, OTOH, the French are warm and hospitable, especially to Americans.

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.

[skeeter]

But I have to say we enjoyed a day excursion to Normandy, and found the people in the countryside a thousand times more pleasant and receptive than were the people in Paris.

I stayed in Bayeux for a short while last April & agree with you completely about the Normans. Very likeable folks.

[Gefreiter]

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.

[1Old Pro]

Canada should just send their 12 man army to France, take it over, and be done with it.

[Always Right]

Decline from what?

From when they were occupied by Germany.

[Redbob]

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...

[Hemingway's Ghost]

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'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.

[Red Badger]

Since when has France EVER had influence?

[Hemingway's Ghost]

Since when has France EVER had influence?

Jefferson loved 'em.