>Okay, I'll be specific. (1) The homme manning the "information" desk at the railway station near Charles de Gaulle airport. (2) The ticket collector on the train from there to the Gare du Nord. (3) The gendarme who I asked for directions. (4) NOT the couple in the tavern, neither of whom spoke English (unlike the first three), but who tried to be helpful. But they weren't French, so that probably doesn't count ... and that was just the first hour in Paris in 1998. Now, going back to 1974, ...<
CapK, are you talking about the French, or the Parisians?
I'm going to get myself into trouble by denouncing people for using stereotypical generalisations and then doing it myself... ...but actually, when I went back and read them this time, the comments struck me far less strongly. And I thought use of emoticons helped! Hence I put one in above to show that this was not a serious comment about all Parisians!
For the record, I didn't ever believe anyone meant to be derogatory, but we started off with a discussion of the shortcomings of language policing and ended up with 'the French are logical, but stupid'. I don't quite know what to make of this, but I noticed it and it's hard to see it as positive.
