aide un frere dehors..

[shunt]

The people who whine and cry like fucking babies are almost always the ones who've never even been to France. I'm fortunate to have been there several times and every trip exceeded my expectations. The culture and history are rich, the people have been courteous, and the food was outstanding nearly everywhere. Besides, they have bidets in every hotel room.

Did you try the bidet? They even have those things in their homes. Clean asses all over France.

[Dubba_Brew]

The people who whine and cry like fucking babies are almost always the ones who've never even been to France. I'm fortunate to have been there several times and every trip exceeded my expectations. The culture and history are rich, the people have been courteous, and the food was outstanding nearly everywhere. Besides, they have bidets in every hotel room.

Absolutely... I've only been to Paris once (honeymoon) and I had a great time. Never once was I treated like crap. I even got lost on the way to my hotel and stopped in a small shop to ask for directions. The guy behind the counter didn't speak any English and my French was/is really bad, but I gave it a try and he did everything he could to get me to my hotel. Got me there in 5 minutes.

Had a blast!!

[bcmaui]

I remember my first hour in France getting off the auto ferry from Newhaven in Dieppe.

It was early evening and I was touring on my bicycle, sometimes catching a ride on a train, and I came up to an elderly guy and was asking where the train station was. I had the gender incorrect, and instead of "where is the train station" (donner le gare) he thought I was asking "where is the war" (donner la guerre). After some train sound effects on my part I discovered my error and his face went from a frown (it was 1983 and he was old enough to vividly remember WWII) to a smile. Or is it donnez? Anyway whenever you make an attempt to speak the native language it can never hurt.

In school I had three years of German, two more of French and lived in Norway for 9 months - it's all pretty rusty when you don't use it very often - but nothing wrong with opening up your worldview by learning another language. I've been to most countries in Europe and have never come across one place where they were hostile to you as an American.

[Bellmer]

I remember my first hour in France getting off the auto ferry from Newhaven in Dieppe.

It was early evening and I was touring on my bicycle, sometimes catching a ride on a train, and I came up to an elderly guy and was asking where the train station was. I had the gender incorrect, and instead of "where is the train station" (donner le gare) he thought I was asking "where is the war" (donner la guerre). After some train sound effects on my part I discovered my error and his face went from a frown (it was 1983 and he was old enough to vividly remember WWII) to a smile. Or is it donnez? Anyway whenever you make an attempt to speak the native language it can never hurt.

In school I had three years of German, two more of French and lived in Norway for 9 months - it's all pretty rusty when you don't use it very often - but nothing wrong with opening up your worldview by learning another language. I've been to most countries in Europe and have never come across one place where they were hostile to you as an American.

They were pretty openly hostile to us when the US invaded Iraq. I was in London that week and we had to do the whole "fake being Canadian" thing. And that was just the English.

[bcmaui]

See I don't know how much I buy this. Every one of the four people I know who have gone to France say that all of this is true as long as you are not in Paris, but Parisians are the biggest a**holes.

Parisians have a similar reputation as New Yorkers do here. Most of the rest of France will give you a suspect glance if your vehicle's license plate has the number "75" on it.

The week I spent in Paris was with a friend, so the one time I was there I saw it from a local's perspective and had a blast.

[bcmaui]

They were pretty openly hostile to us when the US invaded Iraq. I was in London that week and we had to do the whole "fake being Canadian" thing. And that was just the English.

I recall the English were part of the multinational force that went into Iraq because of multiple violations of UN sanctions, the last straw I recall being the ejection of UN international nuclear weapon inspectors by Saddam. Maybe they were mad at themselves as well? The whole WMD thing was either a bogus prank the Saddam was pulling on the world, or possibly the materials were sumggled out of the country somewhere (Syria?), or destroyed or buried somewhere, we will probally never know which.

There was anti-Bush propaganda all around some of the large Italian cities during my last visit there, which was the same week as the bombing in London - which might have been done by a few of the protesters you saw above. Come to think of it, there is still anti-Bush Code Pink propaganda at my local high school and community college. But in general most intelligent folks can distingush between what our politcal leaders do, and that of an average citizen.

At the time 3/4 of our Senate and 2/3 of our House elected leaders voted in favor of the war and that could be what they were angry at.

http://archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/10/11/iraq.us/

[shunt]

I remember my first hour in France getting off the auto ferry from Newhaven in Dieppe.

It was early evening and I was touring on my bicycle, sometimes catching a ride on a train, and I came up to an elderly guy and was asking where the train station was. I had the gender incorrect, and instead of "where is the train station" (donner le gare) he thought I was asking "where is the war" (donner la guerre). After some train sound effects on my part I discovered my error and his face went from a frown (it was 1983 and he was old enough to vividly remember WWII) to a smile. Or is it donnez? Anyway whenever you make an attempt to speak the native language it can never hurt.

In school I had three years of German, two more of French and lived in Norway for 9 months - it's all pretty rusty when you don't use it very often - but nothing wrong with opening up your worldview by learning another language. I've been to most countries in Europe and have never come across one place where they were hostile to you as an American.

donner is give. Ou est la gare? would have been the correct thing to say. But like you said, trying to speak and communicate is the right thing to do.

[bcmaui]

donner is give. Ou est la gare? would have been the correct thing to say. But like you said, trying to speak and communicate is the right thing to do.

Donner - Ou est - yes it has been along time - they almost sound alike