http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1491567,00.html

genius is of course meant sarcastically... sarcasm being so hard to convey online.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1491567,00.html

genius is of course meant sarcastically... sarcasm being so hard to convey online.


No irony there.  We did go to war with no justification, but that's no reason not to STILL hate the French!
;D

No irony there.  We did go to war with no justification, but that's no reason not to STILL hate the French!
;D


Hating the French is the national past time in England, nothing wrong there.  So long as we hate them for the right reasons.

I think it's interesting how quickly he waffles on an issue as serious as the war, once public image of the war begins to waver.

"I voted for the war before I voted against it." Hmmmm. Sounds familar. It is amazing when the Dems say something like this, the Rep jump all over them. But, when the Rep say something like this, there is not a peep.





Cat

Actually, I was rather glad about this flack.  With everyone hating the French, their wine sales went way down, and all the sellers put them on sale at greatly reduced prices.  While I'm usually partial to Concha y Torro Chilean wine, we did drain serveral bottles of the French at last year's "Bastille Day" party.  :D  ;)

J'adore le pomme frites et j'adore Paris au printemps.  :)

Actually, I was rather glad about this flack. With everyone hating the French, their wine sales went way down, and all the sellers put them on sale at greatly reduced prices. While I'm usually partial to Concha y Torro Chilean wine, we did drain serveral bottles of the French at last year's "Bastille Day" party. :D ;)

French wine's taking a lot of a battering recently: a large number of small vinyards are going bankrupt.  The French are drinking less, and they can't compete on price with the large-scale new world wine businesses, so exports are being hit.  In typical French fashion, they were demonstrating today, with some of the more, er, fractious elements throwing molotov cocktails... makes their farmers seem positively low-key.

J'adore le pomme frites et j'adore Paris au printemps.  :)


J'aime  le pomme frites en Juin,que diriez-vous de vous?
J'aime un air Gershwin avec le ketchup, que diriez-vous de vous?
:-\\

J'adore le pomme frites et j'adore Paris au printemps.  :)




Moi, aussi.




Cat

Now that's irony......  ;D

French wine's taking a lot of a battering recently: a large number of small vinyards are going bankrupt.  The French are drinking less, and they can't compete on price with the large-scale new world wine businesses, so exports are being hit.  In typical French fashion, they were demonstrating today, with some of the more, er, fractious elements throwing molotov cocktails... makes their farmers seem positively low-key.
Well,Napa is a good wine place,and vacation place too.But it's hard to get Tv there,you need cable or satellite.

Wish I could read French.  Might even have a whitty retort, pero porque no hablo Frances, no puedo responda.  :)

Wish I could read French.  Might even have a whitty retort, pero porque no hablo Frances, no puedo responda.  :)

Oh, I don't speak French either.  I just cobbled those together using one of those online translation programs!
:-[

I'm curious--has anyone here visited France? I always hear stories about how the French are supposedly rude towards Americans, and I'm inclined to be skeptical about that, at the very least. I know there's been an anti-French sentiment in the media in this country for quite some time (long before the whole "freedom fries" thing, which I thought was completely idiotic), and I know that our media is completely full of it. But is there any basis behind the perception of the French as being arrogant and rude? I'd like to go over there just to find out for myself what they're really like.

Speaking as a Brit, there's a lot of truth in the "France is a lovely place, spoiled only by the French" ;)  In one trip many years ago, I was having a conversation with a French chap (in French) and he realized after a good few minutes that I was English.. thereafter, he was suddenly unable to understand a word I was saying.  This has happened more than once, and it is remarkably tiresome.  Most foreigners I've met try really hard to understand when someone else is speaking their language (that's especially true of Germans, who then have a depressing tendency to reply in English spoken better than most of the people in England); but not the French :(

Having said that, there's a lot of French people I've met who I like a lot - no generalization holds out perfectly.

I'm curious--has anyone here visited France? I always hear stories about how the French are supposedly rude towards Americans, and I'm inclined to be skeptical about that, at the very least. I know there's been an anti-French sentiment in the media in this country for quite some time (long before the whole "freedom fries" thing, which I thought was completely idiotic), and I know that our media is completely full of it. But is there any basis behind the perception of the French as being arrogant and rude? I'd like to go over there just to find out for myself what they're really like.

I've never been myself, but stories I've heard vary.  Some say they appreciate it if you try to speak French, other say even if you try to speak French you get snubbed.  There's also the stereotype of the "ugly American."  However, some claim that German or British tourists are no better behaved in the eyes of the French.  I suppose it also depends on where in France you are the individual French people you talk to.
If I ever go to France, and I'd like to some day, I would like to go with someone who speaks French.  I'd just be courteous and polite myself.  If French people wanted to resent me just for being an American, that's their problem.

If I ever go to France, and I'd like to some day, I would like to go with someone who speaks French.  I'd just be courteous and polite myself.  If French people wanted to resent me just for being an American, that's their problem.
I feel that way myself. I'd go there with an open mind, but since I have a "trucker's belly" I can see where some of them might give me a hard time about being one of those "fat Americans." From what I've heard, they're pretty rude in Paris, but once you get out of the big cities and into the smalller towns the French are much friendlier.

Speaking as a Brit, there's a lot of truth in the "France is a lovely place, spoiled only by the French" ;)  In one trip many years ago, I was having a conversation with a French chap (in French) and he realized after a good few minutes that I was English.. thereafter, he was suddenly unable to understand a word I was saying.  This has happened more than once, and it is remarkably tiresome.  Most foreigners I've met try really hard to understand when someone else is speaking their language (that's especially true of Germans, who then have a depressing tendency to reply in English spoken better than most of the people in England); but not the French :(


I had a very similar experience. In near perfect school taught french i asked for a train ticket and the woman at the ticket booth was just grinning away and then she started speaking in fast, heavily accented french.. and i just got befuddled. Reptez sil vous plais. so she said it again.. Je ne comprend pas.. Parle Vous Anglais?

She gave me a look that would have melted lead.

I found the people in the south of France to be delightfull.. one young lady made it her obligation to perfect my sentances after i had said them. But those in the north.. well i have yet to meet one that wasn't a total Horses azz. And the french know a lot about Horse  ;D