Pride and Prejudice French
I know I've been absent for the past few days.
But hey, who isn't during this period of holiday?
Woo~~!!! (Still on Holiday)
Reporting from Paris, today I have witnessed the longest queue at the Lourve in history. Two major factors: Last day of long Christmas holiday in France AND the entrance fee to the Lourve was free today (as in Sunday, January the 3rd, god knows why).
Hence skipped the tour of the Lourve entirely and decided to go back tomorrow and pay the full fee cause didn't want to cramp it up with another 23 millions people inside a 16km long concealed gallery. Besides, I've been to the Lourve many years ago.
And instead, we went to visit the biggest LV store in the world on Champs-Élysées (world's most popular high fashion street if you don't already know) and bought an LV bag (not for me if you must know).
Anyway, for my twitter updates on the 1st day of 2010, I have some interesting updates to share.
Let me log into my twitter account and copy these down here.
# I don't know about the French, but they are the rudest people in this world.
3:04 PM Jan 1st from TweetDeck
# They never smile, hardly friendly and just downright rude. Especially the males.
3:04 PM Jan 1st from TweetDeck
# Went to a fast food chain, the lady just blackened her face all the way even when we're smiling so nicely at her when buying chicken wings.
3:05 PM Jan 1st from TweetDeck
# Went to a supermarket, got cursed at and pushed aside roughly by a tall French man for standing in his way in the aisle.
3:06 PM Jan 1st from TweetDeck
# Went to a restaurant, wanted to pass a msg to d chef tht d chicken was too dry, waitress just shrugged & said: sorry we can't do anything.
3:07 PM Jan 1st from TweetDeck
# Went to Starbucks, returned a hot chocolate for a remake becoz it was too diluted, the cashier ask us to queue up again to buy another one.
3:09 PM Jan 1st from TweetDeck
# Went to a shop in Disneyland to buy sumthin, wanted to cancel an extra order, was told to leave becoz it takes time 2 make cancellation. o.O
3:11 PM Jan 1st from TweetDeck
# I mean seriously, he could have just cancel the wrong transaction and make a new purchase for us right?
3:12 PM Jan 1st from TweetDeck
# Went to a hotel we booked online, was told the price we paid on net was not d price they r going to charge us. Either we pay more or F off.
3:13 PM Jan 1st from TweetDeck
# Oh btw? the restaurant i mentioned earlier, we paid 65 euro EACH for the meal. and that was the service we got.
3:15 PM Jan 1st from TweetDeck
# what else? I can name a bundle.
3:17 PM Jan 1st from TweetDeck
# Went to a hostel in Marseille, French host never smiled at me during d 3 days I stayed there bcoz i didn't say "Bonjour".
3:17 PM Jan 1st from TweetDeck
# In fact, he let me carried my own luggage up 5 flight of stairs to my own room, which was the most expensive room in their hostel.
3:18 PM Jan 1st from TweetDeck
# Went to an apartment in the same city, another French guy just watched me lulled my heavy luggage down 5 flight of stairs too.
3:18 PM Jan 1st from TweetDeck
# Talk about UN-gentleman! RUDE and RUDE!
3:19 PM Jan 1st from TweetDeck
# Went to the tube information to ask for a direction, the lady just shrugged and declined us in French instead of trying to help us.
3:24 PM Jan 1st from TweetDeck
# Overall, Paris was lovely.
3:25 PM Jan 1st from TweetDeck
Wow! That must be the longest twitter streak I've ever done.
Little commercial break here. Try a twitter streak updates with the new package from Celcom which allows you to update unlimited times in a day/week for just RM1 per week. In fact, you can allocate five numbers to a single twitter account and update like crazy.
Think of a live twitter updates. Cool eh? Maybe the next you know, they'll create a show on twitter where the followers can "read" a performance or a match just through twitter. erm... that's an idea...
OK. Back to my point.
But honestly, I have not realised how bad the French can be until now. It's strange since this is my fourth time in Paris and it is only now that I am experiencing the sucky French attitude.
I mean, my lecturer went to Paris years ago and came back telling me how shitty the French can be, I was skeptical, afterall, I've been there, and it wasn't that bad.
BUT OH MY GOD. How wrong was I. They are bad. SO VERY HORRIBLE.
Their services sucks, their attitude sucks, their hospitality sucks, and even some of their food sucks, the worst part? You can't even criticize their food, they'll just throw shits back at you, how it is YOUR problem not knowing how to appreaciate their food. Jesus.
Not in the twitter, just yesterday as we were crossing the road, a rusty old car, which was driving on the right side of the road, suddenly swerved to the left side of the road where we were standing, intending to HIT us on purpose (I saw the driver's expression and purposeful action with my own two eyes) and then opened his mouth to curse at us inside the car.
Like what the F? Did you own the road or something? Are Asians not allowed to walk in your country or something?
Come on, stop being such nationalists because your pride for your country won't bring you any further from where you are now. Still singing about the past on how great your country once was? Well, if Napoleon was so great in the 18th century, he got defeated by the English okay? And the British are FAR NICER by a thousand times than ze French.
*huff puff huff puff*
At least the lady at the LV store today was nice to us. And she's French born Chinese. *roll eyes* (Speaking of which, there was this really nice guy who let us through on the street today and when we smiled at the driver, we realised the car number plate was from England *more eyes rolling*)
Still thinking I'm being racist? Really. I have more than enough cases to back my facts up. Even the immigrants here admit that the French has one of the most sub-standard (this is an understated phrase, I'm trying to be nice here) hospitality services one can find in any first world country.
Need black and white. Fine. Go to hostelworld.com and check the best hostel/budget hotel/guesthouse you can find in Paris, the highest rating you can find is 82%.
And this is bad because the best hostel in one of the top tourist destinations in the world shouldn't contain these sort of reviews!
Tell me about it dude. Same shit happened to me.
This is understantable, some hostels don't offer this sort of services. But stil, staying in the same room without cleaning. ew...
Oh.. sleazy and rude? That's such a typical French.
Rude and ignorant. What is new?
And then there's this retarded overly "nice" customer who gave a 90% when two of the three comments he left was negative.
Basically, the food was shitty. You can read about that part in other people's reviews. But I can't access them now and can't be bothered.
Well do you want to live in a dirty unclean hostel with rude staff that serves sucky breakfast and running the risk of your laptop and ipod stolen from your room because the staff can't be bothered to fix the dodgy door or care about your lost?
(if you're able to go to the previous page of the review section, you'll be able to read all those stuff, not sure why but when I try to load the second page of review today, it just won't work)
What about the good reviews you say?
That I can't be biased and just show you all the bad reviews? Well, here are the good ones, and I'm not particularly choosy since I can't access the second page of the review though I could yesterday. So these were the latest feedback as this post was written.
Generally, the good reviews were short and sweet. In fact, too short for comfort for a feedback percentage as good as 90%. I won't be surprised if most of them are ghost comment leavers by the staff of these hostels themselves. Not something surprising and definitely something very common.
So maybe you can think that no one is perfect. People makes mistake sometimes. Right. Then tell me how did all these hotels can do it? Check out rating for best hotel in Portugal.
The reviews are mostly very refreshing, nice, good natured and VERY informative, if not detailed. I stayed there few weeks back, and I LOVED IT!
Even Singapore can do so much better.
No, in fact, even services in developing country Malaysia can top that of Paris.
Well, that's French attitude to you.
They don't care what happen to you, and it is your problem that shit happens to you even when you are dining in their restaurants, staying in their hotels or walking on "their" streets!
Speaking of which, I have finally covered the final Disneyland around the world! Yay~~ *pops champagne*
That's LA Disneyland, Hong Kong Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, & Paris Disneyland! Am I missing any one out?
So that's only leaves me Disney World in Florida and Disney Sea in Tokyo. *rubs hand*
ps// It's not that I have not met nice and friendly French people, but the ratio of somewhat a 1 out of 10 you meet. I'm serious. The seemingly nice ones can be really fake.
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30 kissed Nicole
HI NIcole, I'm about to commit and sign an offer letter from a French company. One of my friend is working there and he had told me all about the French..
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your post, i really need to think again but then they give really good offer.. wtf..
Is this a sign/ signal god sending me?!
haha. Nice ranting Nicole. Last time I went there, most French ppl that I had to deal with were nice. Probably I stayed too short of a time I didn't really get to see it. But then, I couldn't agree more on the hostel conditions. Most of our local hostels/hotels are even much better.
ReplyDeletewhoa... you almost complete your great disney world tour. btw, i guess, the situation may change and be good if you can speak their native language.
ReplyDeleteAwesome rant!
ReplyDeleteNo wonder you fit in well in the UK with hatred like that for the French :-)
They've been our neighbours forever! Singaporeans don't seem so bad now do they? ;-)
The funny thing is they can't back up their attitude either, cheese eating surrender monkeys.
Was expecting such treatment during my 2 weeks business and leisure trip there but instead most of the ppl we bump into was nice especially those in the 20s. The only pain in the ass was the older generations.
ReplyDeleteas far as i know, the entrance to The Lourve is always free on sundays...
ReplyDeleteIt's weird but I had a great time in Paris during my short vacation. They weren't extremely sweet but I (thank god) I did not meet any rude ones.
ReplyDeleteI guess I was jus lucky then!
well caucasian always have this thing against chinc i suppose
ReplyDeleteThe nice French are outside of Paris. I went to Paris with my wife last year and met a bunch of stupid ass damn rude Parisian. Now tell me who's uncivilize? This is a city which existed for so fucking long and yet the ppl behave like fucking idiots. But I have to say that Paris is gorgeous. And yes, there's 1 good Parisians out of 10 fucking idiotic Parisians. FUCK THEM !!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI just can't stop cursing...you know what? It's really stupid of them. Look who's visiting who's country and who's stuck in Paris? Why are they so cocky? We Asians fly around the world man. What about them?
ReplyDeletethat's typical of them. my cousin is living in France now and has been for the past 10-ish years.
ReplyDeleteshe tells me that they are rude towards foreigners. their pride for their own race, language and culture is what causes it. but if you take the time to learn a bit of their language and try to converse with them in french, they will treat you a lot better. coz it shows that u respect them. that's a trick my cousin shared with me. try to speak french with them, and then ask if they can speak with you in english instead =)
apparently the younger, more educated French are okay to deal with too.
i can add more to your list:
ReplyDelete1. A supermarket cashier threw our change back to us, instead of politely placing it on our hand (which we saw him doing it to other customers) in Reims, France.
2. We stopped by a cafe on the highway to Paris, when my husband politely asked the girl who served the breakfast, she shouted at him. (I doubted she didnt understand us)
3. We were driving a bit slowly (GPS directing our road, still we got a bit lost), the fellow who drove behind us honked us, and when he cut in front of us, he made a rude gesture to us before he went off.
They think too highly of themselves. I would not rate France as the best destination I've ever been. In fact, given a chance, i wont even think i want to go back.
Nicole, i've been living here for past few years, i seconded to what sara mentioned. Sadly to say,most of the french population couldnt converse in basic english, and the best they can do to a foreigner shrug their shoulder with "pftt" sound(very frenchie). French hardly racist in any way(my encounter), they're just discriminate towards those who don't speak french, and moment they heard anglais(english), boommm, defensive mode turn on, and etc. Learning couple of sentence or basic words would help you in getting better service, and french love you more when you get as sturrbon as they were, and fought towards the end.. A la française!
ReplyDeleteOMG Nicole. Gonna think twice if I want to migrate to France. Can't believe French are so rude and unfriendly...
ReplyDeleteHaiz, I think I need to depend on myself or tell people to get ready to face such things on vacations in France.
Haha, all French are rude, no matter what country i.e Tahiti, Vanuatu, Monaco, French Poly... all the same!! semua memang sombong and ciplak!! Experienced all... sigh. But once you start conversing in French they're all nice. Seriously nice man. Invite you to their house, party etc. I'm lucky I guess.
ReplyDeleteHaving been in France for almost 7 years, I'd still like to speak up for them... Sure, there are some rotten apples (maybe more in Paris?? I wouldn't really know), but most of them are pretty much okay...some are really polite, and some are just "passably not rude".
ReplyDeleteAn example:
Once a guy living in my apartment building was coming out and saw me coming back with 2 shopping bags (while I was still across the street) and held the door open for me so that I wouldn't have to punch in the entry code.
And lots of cars stop to let me cross the road (even though some do zoom by)
So if you're thinking of coming to France for anything, you shouldn't let some "horror stories" about bad encounters scare you away; there are good and bad people in every country.
Oh yeah, and come to think of it, I think entrance to the Louvre is free every first Sunday of the month or something like that. (not sure though, just think I heard it before)
Да уж. По поводу коментариев - навеяла на меня где-то услышанная фраза:
ReplyDeleteМы живем в самой прекрасной стране на свете, а все остальные страны нам завидуют.
forget french. comeback to bolehland already lah.
ReplyDeletenice post. thanks.
ReplyDeleteU must really hate the French. About the Brits, I totally agree with you. They are more courteous.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you! I was in Europe in Sept/Oct and Paris rates the worst in my list. Not only are they stuck-up, their contempt towards those who don't speak French is really unreasonable, especially in this day and age of globalisation and borderless world.
ReplyDeleteI understand the need to feel proud towards your own language/culture/identity etc, but to the extend of being super rude to foreigners is really too much. They have to realise the world does not begin or end with them.
Oh and their level of cleanliness is not great either. Paris stink of dogs' poo, even at the tourist spots. Was at Eiffel Tower and nearly gag from the horrendous smell. The subway is stuffy and stinky and you could sweat buckets in the middle of a cool autumn night.
i totally agree. somehow you need accept. trust ur self. is faith could change to possible....bla bla bla....
ReplyDeletehintergrundbilder
ReplyDeletehsfh d & tk 34
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ReplyDeletei used to have a lecturer from french too.. he said you have to speak in french when you meet them, then knowing that you are foreigner they will reply in english...
ReplyDeleteyour trip seems pretty fun.. is there any particular place that you would recommend?
i used to have a lecturer from french too.. he said you have to speak in french when you meet them, then knowing that you are foreigner they will reply in english...
ReplyDeleteyour trip seems pretty fun.. is there any particular place that you would recommend?
This is a shock piece of info for me! I always think France people is nice!
ReplyDeleteI'm French and I cannot disagree with you. But may be you are talking about Parisian people which are the top for rude people in France. I'm Parisian too but living in Australia may be for the same reasons... I can't bear them.
ReplyDeleteBut may I'm sure you can find nice Frenchies, outside of France...
ReplyDeletei totally agree. they really are rude but some of them are really nice once you get to know them = )
ReplyDelete