Hate the French ?

[rogerroger]

Why do our tabloids insist we hate the French?

I holiday there often and have enjoyed sailing to Cherbourg and around the N. Brittany coast.

I took a day trip to Calais yesterday and headed straight to Ardres to buy wine. We found a tiny cafe and were the only people eating there (starter, steak, cheese, coffee & a drink for £6.50). Over the course of our meal two Frenchmen walked in abot 20 mins apart, both of whom walked over to myself and my friend, bid us "bonjour", shook us both by the hand before proceding to the bar to order whatever.

Not only on this occasion have I been treated with so much welcoming courtesy in France that I think we have a lot to learn. What are the chances of this happening over 'ere?


... and please, no jokes about tight black leather trousers, the Blue Oyster Club etc !



Roger Holden
www.first-magnitude.co.uk

 

[cynthia]

We're Francophiles too. Love the country, love the people. The only complaints we have ever had are about beaurocracy - seem to undergo a personality transplant (the French - not me) once in uniform. Have now decided this is all part of the charm of that nation.

Vive la France!

 

[David2452]

It's not the French, it's the Parisienes.

David

 

[oldgit]

Most of the red top news?papers are both written and read by morons.They cling to the past along with their readership.
You will be treated exactly the same as you treat other people.
If you treat everyone in a civil manner no matter what their nationality the favour will be normally be returned.
Ps shouting does not help but learning a language does.

 

[roger]

Whether travelling by boat or car we've found France and the French wonderful.
If you have the time you'll have a much better time on the Normandy and Brittany coasts than in the UK. The marinas are cheaper, the food is amazingly better. We'll be off again as soon as we can.

 

[claymore]

Have had an apartment in Courchevel for the past 18 years. The French are people just like us - some good, some bad, some grumpy, some funny. Their culture is wonderful and their sense of identity is assured - hence the failure of EuroDisney and the culture of 'ave a nice day' to connect with the majority of French people. I think we could learn many lessons from them in courtesy - the shaking hands routine is a good example - perhaps if we could move away from our "British" identity - football hooliganism, shirts outside our trousers, shaven heads, tatoos, morris dancers, distrust of all things european - we might be better for it?

 

[tcm]

Re: all agreed

cept our morris dancers? Oh, and in the Odeon leicester sq there's a real organ player who goes down into the floor. That's good too.

 

[Guest]

Frogs and morons

As it happens, the journalists working for the red-tops, especially the sub-editors, are far from being morons - they're very highly skilled and respected in the industry. Would you rather have 400 words to explain something (Grauniad) or 40 (Sun)? Could you come up with those headlines day after day, however moronic you may think them?

The political 'bias' (or whatever you want to call it) of any paper comes from far too high up for any journalist to affect it. The line is laid down and you produce the goods or get sacked. Make a moral stand and your income's gone, you don't know where your kids' next meal is coming from, and there are people queuing round the block to fill the vacancy.

The only decision then is whether you want to take your 30 pieces of silver from Murdoch and company. But everyone has to earn a living somewhere - and with the current climate in newspaper industry, that can mean making a lot of compromises. Which of the newspaper proprietors or big newspaper-owning conglomerates is truly without sin?

So, before you dismiss these people as morons, will you try walking a mile in their shoes? It's said that the true price of a free press is that you get the papers you deserve. The red-tops print all the stuff they print because the resulting product walks off the newsagents' shelves by the shed load.

I'm no apologist for the tabloids, and I don't choose to work for them. But I do know that the situation is a lot more complex than you are giving it credit for.

In fact, isn't generalising about these 'morons' every bit as bad as generalising about those 'frogs' over the water?

A slightly interesting footnote that I've just thought of. The Mirror, following its recent road-to-Damascus conversion to actually printing news, (I'm a little bit cynical about this) is rumoured to be contemplating a change of colour for its masthead - possibly to black?- to get away from the red-top image.

 

[cgull]

I know a frenchman called Phillipe Fallop

 

[claymore]

Re: Frogs and morons

You should write more often - Fruitbat - you spoke more sense there than could be seen in a hundred days of tabloid journalism
regards
JS

 

[bedouin]

As a nation - the French are a right pain in the [censored]. Their constant flouting of EU laws offends the British, who feel that all EU laws should be followed slavishly. I'm not sure which is the more sensible approach, but the contrast certainly causes friction!

The gutter press want to bang the drum / fly the flag and so like nothing more than to whip up Xenophobic sentiments. The French need not think that they are discriminated against - the press are equally prejudiced against all Europeans.

Individually, the French can be very hospitable. In my limited experience I have found that Normandy/Brittany is a lot more friendly than Paris/South of France.

 

[Viking]

Because I havnt yet met a french skipper who uses 'shore lines!

 

[DanTribe]

I was talking to my sons French friends and admitted refering to them as frogs and asked what the called us, rosbifs?.After an embarrassed paused they said "no, le f***koffs. Why? because thats what the mostly hear from groups of visiting Brits.Unfortunately I can understand their viewpoint.

 

[billmacfarlane]

I've been sailing in France for the best part of 20 years and have met with nothing but courtesy and friendliness from French yotties. Helps if you can manage a "bonjour". French officialdom is another matter. I've only had customs aboard once and they were fine. Other people I know have found French Customs very stroppy and difficult to deal with.

 

[Stemar]

I must be francophile, because I married one!

As has been mentioned before, the way the French government plays fast and loose with EU rules (and their own laws, when it suits them) is pretty gobsmacking. My favourite example is the way Chirac did all the nuclear tests he wanted, then suddenly had a Road to Damascas conversion and started preaching test bans. As a people, the French are at least a cynical about their government as we are.

Generalisations are always dangerous, but here goes. Mr (or Mrs, or Miss) Froggy isn't a great fan of foreigners who come to their country and make no effort to adapt to their way of lift or language, but if you make an attempt to communicate in French, no matter how fractured, they'll go out of their way to help you.

 

[Guest]

My sister has lived and worked in Paris for the last 10 years and would whole heartedly agree with you on that one.

Tim Eades
http://www.btinternet.com/~tim.eades/

 

[Guest]

Not sure I like their habit of frying lamb in the middle of the road all that much. Have any of you been held up at a Channel port for 2 or 3 days while they have one of their blockades about something which is nothing to do with us? I can see why so many people who have had these sorts of experiences are none too friendly towards the French - but having said that I have usually found them OK as individuals, especially the Celtic Bretons if I say I come from Cornwall.

 

[claymore]

I rather admire that - its a shame we are not so demonstrative - if we were we might still have a fishing industry and an agricultural industry that was worth something.

 

[syd]

Re: LOVE the French. Often.

Hi all,
I've been travelling back and forth to France for the past thirty some years and have always been treated with courtesy and friendliness. The service you get in restaurants and shops far out does the sometimes surly attitude we put up with in our own fair country. In fact I am so impressed, like Stemar, I married a lass of french origen. (hence love the french often! he he).
Next time any of you are in Calais pop in and see a couple of my french friends who own The Javana Bar, just past the memorial on the left. John and Lolo will soon convert you into frenchy likers I'm sure.
Cheers all
Sid

 

[oldgit]

Re: Frogs and morons

The papers you defend encourage zenophobia and pander to unthinking prejudice of the worst sort.Always choose a soft target least able to defend itself appears to have replaced journalism with these rags.This lot are stuck so far back in the past you need a telescope to see them and their readers.
Uk LTD must look to the future not cling to the past.IMHO