Embarrassing English in France

[SaligoBay]

This is all getting a bit heavy about the poor old Anglais, isn't it?  They certainly aren't the noisiest people in public.   French people dislike Italian holidaymakers much more, they say they're just incredibly noisy and rude. 

My latest restaurant "embarrassment" was in the form of my son.  How glad I was that no-one was listening to the Q&A session....

Was Hitler a racist?  (easy).

How could Schrodinger's cat be dead and alive at the same time?  (bit harder   ).

What do lesbians DO?  (oh my goodness is that the time, shall we get the bill?)

[Georgina]

[quote]Have to agree with Albi, people who make generalising statements about people by what they wear are just as bad an example of the wrong elements of british culture.Bob(and no I dont have a shell suit ...[/quote]

Actually, I think John was having a laugh, well he made me laugh.

Lighten up.

Georgina

[moon]

I wasnt referring to john I was referring to you Georgina.

Also people who post "I am not a snob but........" almost always are.

Bob

[Georgina]

[quote]I wasnt referring to john I was referring to you Georgina.Also people who post "I am not a snob but........" almost always are.Bob[/quote]

Oh shoot, you found me out, okay well I admit it, I don't like shellsuits. But if you had read my posts I actually apologise for that!

Georgina

[Creusois]

Arguments aren't embarrassing - it's the people having them that are!  Englishman overheard in local Chimpona supermarket - "Eh! What's the french for baguette?"

[Russethouse]

Oh - you mean like President Bush 'the French have no word for entrepreneur'

Frightening................

[Macker]

I think that this whole thread emphasises an interesting shift in the demographic of those moving to France in recent years. The huge success of 'A place in the sun' et al has undoubtedly had a major effect on the type of people upping sticks and moving abroad. I think it is fair to say that, in previous years, most of the Brits moving here would have had some experience of the country and would probably been (on the whole) in the 'slightly older' age bracket and possibly middle class'ish whereas that is now changing rapidly. Speaking to the removal men on the way down here 20 months ago they told me that they had seen a marked change in the type of people they were moving. More young families, more young couples and (dare I say it) more 'working class' people. I personally have met a family whose only experience of France before moving here was a visit to Eurodisney and I have seen people on the telly who are moving here and elsewhere and have NEVER even visited the country!

Since we've lived here two English families have moved back to England and I think we will continue to see a more fluid movement between the two countries further encouraged by the burgeoning easy transport system. The end result? More football shirt clad families arguing in McDonalds? Definitely. More young British people and their children settling in the French countryside and forging a strengthening bond between the two countries. Yes, the huge silver lining on a very small cloud.

[letrangere]

Wendy, having given perhaps the (false) impression that I am an expert on the subject I must leap to my own defence and say that not only have I NEVER eaten at a McDonalds in France everyday for several years I signed the petition outside Concorde Metro station against a branch of this awful chain opening on the Champs Elysees.  We lost, of course.  My sympathy is with the chap who goes round France blowing them up.  Is he currently in or out of jail?  M

[SaligoBay]

José Bové is possibly out at the moment, but it's difficult to tell, he's in he's out he's appealing he's in he's out he's appealing.

Unfortunately he doesn't "go around France blowing them up"!   He tried to dismantle the Millau one (his local one), got LOTS of publicity for it, but guess what, like every other McDo in France, it's open and it's thriving, packed to the gunwales - with French people.

I've given him some thought.  He was of course right to bring the issue of junk food to the attention of the great unwashed, but in fact he was barking up the wrong tree.

Among other things, he was narked because the States was putting huge import taxes on French goods, especially Roquefort cheese (guess what, JB's local area too - poujadisme?).

BUT the difference is.... it was the US govt who were putting taxes on French goods.   JB was trying to get the French PEOPLE to boycott McDo, but he misjudged them.  They love it!  If he really wanted McDo not to be available, he should have got the French govt to find a way to tax it and price it out of people's reach, because that's the only thing that's going to stop them.

I used to boycott McDonalds, but hey, it's a lost cause!   Like every empire, they'll crumble eventually.  Ozymandias.

I think JB should stick to dealing with GM crops, that's possibly a lot more dangerous than McDo.  Or is it? 

[The Riff-Raff Element]

[quote]José Bové is possibly out at the moment, but it's difficult to tell, he's in he's out he's appealing he's in he's out he's appealing. Unfortunately he doesn't "go around France blowing them up"! He...[/quote]

"Unfortunately he doesn't "go around France blowing them up"! He tried to dismantle the Millau one (his local one), got LOTS of publicity for it, but guess what, like every other McDo in France, it's open and it's thriving, packed to the gunwales - with French people."

Not EVERY McD is France is heaving, though I agree that many are. The two nearest us (on the edge of small towns) do passable imitations of the Marie Celeste. In one case I can almost rationalise the lack of custom - it was built opposite a large routier that enjoys an enviable reputation for quality and value (always packed), and it is several km outside the town centre. (In both towns the chain was refused permission to open in the centres, I am told, and are therefore located in retail parks.)

In the case of the other...I just don't know. The location in some ways looks ideal - main road into town from the motorway, located in a supermarket carpark in an area where the only other food provision is via a truely awful Intermarché café (which is also deserted). If I were going to build a junk food outlet, this is where I would do so.

Personally I have not set foot in a McD or any other fast food outlet since 2001. This is nothing to do with food snobbery and everything to do with a book called Fast Food Nation by an American bloke called Eric Schlosser, which someone was kind enough to buy for me. My sister-in-law thinks me foolish (and possibly guilty of some kind of cruelty) for not indulging my children with a tasty morsel or two from Ronald. She thinks that this will build resentment in my children and they will sneak off to McD at every opportunity. My responses to this have been:

A) Not until they learn to drive, because that is the only way of reaching these places;

B) Extending her logic, I might as well start sourcing illegal drugs for them to consume at home so I can avoid having them take them behind my back.

Mind you, I'm also in the doghouse with her for refusing to take the children to Eurodisney on the basis that its a load of over commercialised c**p and for telling my five-year-old (in answer to a direct question) that no, there was not really a father Christmas, this on the basis that I refused to tell my children outright lies (long-term trust building thing). Just can't win.

[Teamedup]

I prefer the Quick's to MacDo's. I like their Fish thing.

[Georgina]

[quote]Is it just my impression or does everyone on this forum eat at McDonalds? It seems to pop up all the time. I know I'm a bit of a fuddy-duddy but doesn't it seem perverse to eat this stuff in France? ...[/quote]

You quite obviously don't have children!  I would not set foot in the place but for them. Some things we have to endure.... oh well, back to picking up this morning's breakfast from the floor.  It might be better just to serve it from there tomorrow.

Georgina

[JohnM]

The good thing about McD's is that, on days when ones confidence on ones french is low, one can point at the menu and just say "uN, eT uN eT ducks, si vous plait" and be pretty sure to get something edible.

 

[hoverfrog]

I weaned my kids off McD's by making them read 'Fast Food Nation' before taking them there - they all declined when I suggested it later (just testing them of course!)

McDonalds in Hong Kong serves the best iced tea out - according to two (Singapore) friends, shame they don't do it anywhere else as I was looking forward to it when I got home, having avoided McD's for years

Perhaps the chap in the original post thought he could 'let go' because he didn't think anyone could understand him. But then, some people pride themselves on being the same in any situation.

I appreciated the post recently on one of the other forums where the person was bad mouthed at ?Dartford tunnel for having to get out of their LHD car to pay the toll - my Dad could speak many languages and used to commute on the tube in London, and after having to listen to some tourists slanging off all and sundry was moved to leave with a cutting remark in their own language!

Did anyone see the publicity recently about the drunken brits in Prague? It was all blamed on the cheap flights from Ryan Air - but the locals thought that the drunken tourists from other nations were worse

You are what you are, and maybe if some who behave in a restrained manor were not so reluctant to own up to being British they could offset the minority who behave badly, and leave the 'natives' with a more balanced perspective.

2c spent

[Georgina]

[quote]"You quite obviously don't have children!" I had two the last time I looked. And I'd rather take them to the bottom of the sea than to McDonalds.[/quote]

Rather extreme statement me thinks....... actually McDs is not about food it's about other children. For mine anyhow.  The food is unimportant to them, it's the experience. In fact they hardly touch the food, they just like the fact that other kids are around them having a good time.

Actually, you can get more healthier food in France McD's if you wish.

Georgina