Perhaps someone who has
been to Paris recently would care to comment.

Had lunch there this past Sunday, nice cafe near the Eiffel Tower. Waitress
was quite polite, even spoke a fair bit of English. Food was great, house
bordeaux likewise. Even the cabbie back to CDG was indulgent of my rather
rusty French. So much for the myths repeated by those that don't actually
travel...

Now, the tragedy was having to go to Miami Wed-Friday, what a cesspool.

An example:

Several visiting dignitaries were hosted at a feast to which the
public were invited in a town Nasrudin happened to be visiting. As his
robes were old and patched, he was placed at a table where he realised
it was going to take a long time to be served, and with not the best
of cuisine. He went to his friend's house and borrowed a magnificent
robe and turban and returned to the feast. He was ushered respectfully
to the head table and plied with delicious dishes such as peacock
tongues in aspic and the like. After every few mouthfuls, he would rub
some of the food onto his garments and turban.

Entranced by this, someone asked in a respectful manner "Effendi, we
cannot help but notice that you must be from a different place and
thus have eating habits which appear strange to us. Would you be so
kind as to explain why you smear food on your clothing?".

Nasrudin replied between mouthfuls "The clothes got me in here, surely
they deserve a share of the food?"

Bill Shakespeare got it wrong.

cheers
Peter

Hi Peter,

Apparently Nasrudin was the type of person you
would not want to lend your clothing to. ;-)

Don W.

I've been to and through France many times. Only once, on one day at on
place did I ever meet what so many - who have never been to France -
claim is a "typical French attitude".

IMExperiencedO, you will find what you expect. I expect to meet nice
people and I do, all the time.