A positive view of France from un unlikely quarter

[NormanH]

The Daily Telegraph!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/france/11160663/Why-France-is-better-than-Britain.html

[idun]

Give me strength. Someone now comparing the equivalent of horseradish and carrots.

The drunks in France, well, I have read that there are about 5million alcoholics in France and lots of direct deaths due to it. Is it really any better behind closed doors?  Is it better the maitresse turning up for afternoon classes with a breath heavy with the scent of booze and happier disposition that she started the day, kif-kif for quite a few of the mothers, all driving to school.

Restaurant food, I have had some good meals, but far outweighed by some truly mediocre meals in France over years. Some not too dear, most were.

Obviously the bit of the Rhone Alpes I lived in, never attracts british people, or british people who would write such articles.

Food in the UK. As mixed as in France, sometimes excellent and sometimes mediocre, only in general, cheaper in the UK even for the good stuff.

I've seen professional waiters.......... some are very good.............. but in Paris, usual is rude as hell. But isn't that part of the sort of Fawlty Towers thing/charm, people expect it and would be disappointed if the waiters were other than rude?

I suppose I hate this sort of thing, he said, he said. Both are right and both are wrong.

And boy oh boy have I heard far more disgusting comments from french people about la cuisine anglaise than I ever have heard any anglais say about the french or anything french.

[woolybanana]

Isn't the writer in the Telegraph a tour guide who is defending his gain pain? Says it all really.

[JSKS]

Are we to suppose that a journalist making a living in a country is going to be wholly disinterested? One person's judgement based on their need to justify their position? Doesn't strike me a as a basis for a seminal view of Anglo-French comparisons.

[Pickles]

Well, he evidently didn't see this, which happened about 100 yards from Place Comedie the other night ...

 http://www.midilibre.fr/2014/10/14/rue-de-verdun,1065724.php.

And he hasn't been around later in the night when the Amigo bus which serves the discos on the outskirts drops off its passengers in the centre. That's when the staggering, chanting and throwing-up peaks.

Look, I like Montpellier a lot, but it's a French city with all the problems that they have. Drunks? Oh yes. Violence? Oh yes. People living in the centre fed up of "tapage nocturne"? Definitely. Good restaurants? Yes, certainly. Rubbish restaurants? Quite a few of those as well.

If he didn't see any kebab places (or other "street-food" joints), he wasn't in the Montpellier that is on this planet. Likewise if he only saw "a few" beggars.

Britain doesn't have the "continental café culture" - especially not Northern England. It's the weather, see? Amongst other things.

[idun]

Pickles you really have made me laugh out loud with this little comment.

Britain doesn't have the "continental café culture" - especially not Northern England. It's the weather, see?

'The weather' never stops the girls (northern girls, I would suppose) going out half naked tottering along on platforms and high high heels though, even when it is -10° outside. They won't sit outside and drink, but happily wobble their way between bars. A sight to behold.

Love to know when that was written, as Montpellier was badly flooded very very recently.

[Pickles]

[quote user="idun"]Pickles you really have made me laugh out loud with this little comment.

Britain doesn't have the "continental café culture" - especially not Northern England. It's the weather, see?

'The weather' never stops the girls (northern girls, I would suppose) going out half naked tottering along on platforms and high high heels though, even when it is -10° outside. They won't sit outside and drink, but happily wobble their way between bars. A sight to behold.

Love to know when that was written, as Montpellier was badly flooded very very recently.

[/quote]

The "girls" may be half-naked, but as you say they aren't sitting down outside sipping coffee ...

And in France, they aren't all thrown out at around the same time at the end of the evening as tends to happen in the UK.

The flooding did not affect the old centre of Montpellier (in terms of damage) from what my neighbours say: there were some quite impressive photos of the Place Comedie being covered with flowing, cascading water during the storms but property in the centre was not flooded as such. I believe that the underground car parks in the centre were not affected in the way that they were a few years ago (when a couple of hundred cars were written off).