The first time I went to France was when I was 6 – and no I’m not telling you which year that was in – but it was a while ago.
Since then I’ve had literally dozens of wonderful holidays there, met many lovely people who I now count amongst my friends and I’ve even lived and worked there for 10 years and STILL I can’t decide if I love France or hate it
I know that there are no clear-cut answers to this question, but I thought it would throw up loads of interesting stories and amuse us all, so I thought I’d start a 'Love it or hate it' column.
Do please share your stories and thoughts with the rest of us FrancoPhiles/Phobes? Just add a comment below.
Commercialism
Love it - Napoleon called the British a nation of shopkeepers, and he was spot on. We are! Everywhere you look in the U.K. there are little business springing up like wildfire, and people trying to sell you things, probably because one income doesn’t seem to be enough these days.
Is this evidence of get-up-and-go or a sign of a deep malaise and obsession with materialism?
How wonderful that things just aren’t the same in France.
It’s so much more laid back. Shops and offices actually close at lunch time to allow staff to eat, drink and well… have a life outside work.
People talk of things other than the price of houses. They have time for each other, they take time over the meal table to chat and they seem to have a charming disregard for rules and regulations.
It sometimes seems that making money is regarded as a filthy occupation and a distraction from the real things in life.
Oh yes, the French have got their priorities right while we Brits rush around like headless chickens – more fool us.
Hate it - It must have happened to you too. It’s the same all over France.
You go into a hotel, a shop or wherever. Go up to the counter and find that the receptionist is on the telephone or on the computer. He/she doesn’t bat an eye, let alone look at you. They just carry on talking or typing.
Not a suggestion of a mouthed 'Sorry, I’ll be with you in a sec'. No such luck. They just seem to be saying to themselves, 'Can’t you see I’m busy at the moment ? You’ll just have to wait. I only do one thing at a time'.
What’s the matter with these people? I’m a customer for goodness sake. I could be wanting to place an order for £10,000 – haven’t they got any sense of service?
I remember going into a haberdashery in Epernay with my wife. 'Do you have any xxx we said in good French (no question of not being understood).
'No' came back the monosyllabic answer.
Not a 'No, but we have a very nice xxx which would be good instead' or perhaps a 'No, but we can order it for you. It’ll be here tomorrow'.
Where is their sense of commercialism ? Don’t they want to make money ?
I guess the answer is probably 'Non' and I guess that’s why I like going back to France.
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