- Some Paris/France waiters are brutal, I pretty much had the same personal experience. But just be light hearted about it and know it's a bit of a game and it all works out. If he had actaully sat down and said, where's my water, I'm sure everyone would have loved it. Also coming from US? at a young age he probably had never been exposed to this type of social behaviour so was a bit of a shock to him. Plus don't forget how many annoying tourists these waiters see each day... (24million/year)
- Be prepared to be missunderstood when speaking to service people (waiters, cab drivers), even if you have impeccible non-Paris French.
- And if ever working with the French, it helped me a lot to learn, when a French person says it is impossible, that it is the beginning of the conversation vs if a US/CAD person says it, it means the end of the conversation.
And if you ever go to Paris, hit the catacombs, pretty cool:
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phanto (Short Spike)
Assholes are overrepresented in the Parisian population and the servers there are notoriously rude. The French people in the rest of the country are fine.
I find it sad that most people who visit France only visit Paris. Not only they get the wrong idea about French people but they also completely miss a ton of eye-wateringly beautiful landscapes. There is so much more to see and do outside of that crappy city. Go take a hike in the Champs de Provence. Go visit and have a swim at the Cote d'Azur. Go up a mountain in the Vosges and visit some old castle ruins that are on top of almost every mountain there. Go visit vineyards. Go ski at Chamonix. Just don't lock yourself in Paris unless looking at old stuff a and putting up with the locals who are sick and tired of the continuous wave of tourists you are being part of is something you love to do.
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(Old Spike)
So a couple of things:
- Paris does not equal France.
- Some Paris/France waiters are brutal, I pretty much had the same personal experience. But just be light hearted about it and know it's a bit of a game and it all works out. If he had actaully sat down and said, where's my water, I'm sure everyone would have loved it. Also coming from US? at a young age he probably had never been exposed to this type of social behaviour so was a bit of a shock to him. Plus don't forget how many annoying tourists these waiters see each day... (24million/year)
- Be prepared to be missunderstood when speaking to service people (waiters, cab drivers), even if you have impeccible non-Paris French.
- And if ever working with the French, it helped me a lot to learn, when a French person says it is impossible, that it is the beginning of the conversation vs if a US/CAD person says it, it means the end of the conversation.
And if you ever go to Paris, hit the catacombs, pretty cool:
(Short Spike)
Assholes are overrepresented in the Parisian population and the servers there are notoriously rude. The French people in the rest of the country are fine.
I find it sad that most people who visit France only visit Paris. Not only they get the wrong idea about French people but they also completely miss a ton of eye-wateringly beautiful landscapes. There is so much more to see and do outside of that crappy city. Go take a hike in the Champs de Provence. Go visit and have a swim at the Cote d'Azur. Go up a mountain in the Vosges and visit some old castle ruins that are on top of almost every mountain there. Go visit vineyards. Go ski at Chamonix. Just don't lock yourself in Paris unless looking at old stuff a and putting up with the locals who are sick and tired of the continuous wave of tourists you are being part of is something you love to do.
(Old Spike)
Everybody hates the french.