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.
Those are the ones that I'm aiming at. To let the Leftists/Islamists gain France surely would be our embarrassment.
And since they, apparently, already have, it's vital to reverse the trend, just as it is here.
The French live in the past. It's gotta suck to be them...
The problem with the French is that they are ignorant more than they are stupid, as is the case with our very own Liberals. They have the gift of language, but not logic.
Give the Liberty lovers in France a voice, and they will reverse the trend "toute suite".
It's OUR job to give them that voice, just as it is our job to give Iranian Freedom fighters their voice.
what was Woody thinking as he bathed her or wiped her butt when she was little?...did the fascination start then?
it doesn't matter if they were married or not.....the baby that he was a father to, he married.....
That's even better - not married. I had assumed they were. What fine examples of parents they must have been. I still believe marrying an adopted daughted whose about half his age is SICK.
Just as sick. The again she wanted a "father figure" and you obviously wanted a "daughter figure". Sick but compatible.
Just to be clear, French losses in WWII on the battlefield were comparatively low. They surrendered quickly. In the battle to drive the Germans out, Americans and Brits did the dying.
The report below is from the Embassy of France in the US. You'll notice that WWI and WWII are combined. Clearly this is done to downplay the comparatively low number of battle losses by French troops in WWII.
10% of the active population and 3,5% of the total population died on the battlefields. As a comparison, if this were to happen now in the United States, the number of casualties would reach 10 million.
There would also be 680,000 widows and 760,000 orphans. Throughout Europe, the number of crippled soldiers amounted to 6,500,000.
Between 1914 and 1918, the drops in births in France is estimated at 1 million.
Regarding WWII, between 1939 (when war was declared by France and the United Kingdom) and 1940, 120,000 soldiers died [emphasis mine], not to mention the number of French citizens who died as war prisoners, forced laborers, deported civilians or in acts of resistence against the Nazis during the German Occupation. The amount of suffering occasioned by WWII in France is impossible to assess and should not be forgotten.
Source: Embassy of France in the U.S. - March 18, 2003
. . .I am not defending Woody Allen; simply offering a degree of irony, if you will, that people who take a certain pride living well beyond the norm of moral bindings, so to speak; still expect full measure of moral retribution/judgement'. . .
and outrage from the same people they basically told to 'get over it' in a manner of speaking. . . and then expect thet the benefit of that judgement and sympathy such as did Mia when this all erupted.
There is a Wisdom in the saying; 'live by the sword;die by the sword'. And so it is with Liberalism. . .
. . .one more thing here cherry; and again less in Woody's defense and more a statement of Mia and Woody's liberal life style.
First, I think this child was adopted when she was older than a baby; though do not know exact age; and doubt Woody ever did very much with any of the children in way of personal care as Mia and Woody maintained separate residences for most of their partnered life. . .
. . .not to say they were not together; just that they worked determinedly to maintain their independence from each other;neither would 'give up' for a Marriage. . .Another liberal 'have their cake and eat it too' kind of lifestyle.
. . .and kaboom! They all lost. . .but in the end; hard to find what in this relationship as they defined it; was in fact violated. Reap. . .sow.
LOL, works for me. I have found many guys are not asking me how I do it. They are asking to see how they can do it. You only go around once in life, so I am enjoying it.
Woody Allen!
The French know no bound to their arrogance.
In their little minds, they think Americans "worry" about being welcomed in France. Can they even conceive of the idea that Americans do not "want" to be in France?
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