Text 35119, 64 rader
Skriven 2010-02-23 21:30:34 av hap newsom (1:124/311)
     Kommentar till en text av MANNY ROTHSTEIN
Ärende: RE: France
==================
Bonjour Manny!
-> -> ->
-> -> I spent a lot of time bicycling around and 
-> -> I was fortunate, I met some of the nicest
-> -> most friendly and genuinely wonderful 
-> -> French folk. The worst experiences I had
-> -> were in Spain...but Paris was a close
-> -> second! (grin) 
-> -snip-
-> -> All that being said however, I did 
-> -> upon occaision see and meet rude
-> -> folks in france, who delighted in being
-> -> rude to everyone but Americans in 
-> -> particular...Never met one like that
-> -> in Normandy though!
-> -> chat with you soon!
-> -> hap 
-> 
-> On my trip to France for the Echo Picnic, I noticed 
-> that the French made a point of being scrupulously
-> polite with each other (like the Japanese and 
-> Mexicans), lots of smiling bon jours and au revoures. 
-> So I made a point of bon jouring and so forth and 
-> got a fair number of surprised smiles and good 
-> treatment for the most part. Of course, there were 
-> some stinkers and one likely anti-semite, but most 
-> of the French that I met were nice. I think that 
-> they noticed I was trying to be observant and 
-> respectful of them and they seemed to like that. By 
-> the way, I had the same experience when I spent a 
-> week with the Inuit on Banks Island.
-> 
-> Manny

I was fortunate, that at that age I picked up
languages fairly easily and my accent was of 
the local region where we lived...which made 
Parisians look down their noses at me...but 
not for being American...rather for being a 
country bumpkin not worthy of a Parisian
accent. (grin). Most never knew I wasn't 
french!  Out in the country and away from
those attitudes, I found the French to be
very open, friendly, and helpful folk who 
were willing to be kind just for the sake
of being kind to a stranger. Not that there
weren't the exceptions to the rule however.
Most of the anti-semeticism I saw was from
the local Communist party (in the area where
I lived) which was more or less in control of the
folks who did roadwork...so almost all of the roads
around the local Temple were under construction
for the entire 4 years I was there...and oddly
enough so were the roads leading to the 
airfoce base...but a strange fact about that;
there would be ditches or trenches or barricades
of some sort across just about 3/4 of the road,
leaving a gap just wide enough for French made
cars to pass, and JUST narrow enough that most
American made cars could not pass. 
chat with you soon!
hap 
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