Comments on: Fourteen Things We Like About France and the French

By: mandarine

mandarine — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 13:15:38 +0000

I am only beginning to read through your pre-my-blogging-period posts and this one caught my eye (for reasons I will let you guess).

Number four reminds me of when we had a young Berkeley teenager (a friend of my cousin’s) staying with my family for summer vacation some seventeen years ago. He wanted to learn really vulgar swear words. And I readily taught him: sacrebleu, ventrebleu, saperlipopette, palsambleu, boudu, tudieu, sapristi. He was an eager pupil and it was all so funny when he’d use them believing they were really nasty words when they were in fact stemming right out of the seventeeth century.

And I have to admit I have issues about number five, although I confess there were comic aspects sometimes in our troubled relationship with the English.

By: BikeProf

BikeProf — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 17:55:09 +0000

Of course I have to add le grand boucle–the Tour de France, which is the best sporting event ever, even better than football.

By: sputnki

sputnki — Sun, 16 Jul 2006 18:07:28 +0000

I was in central France for work last September. I remember each meal was an experiance (first for the 20 minutes of me going through the phrase book to translate the menu) then the wonderful visceral meal made by people whose bottom line is the cuisine, not the money or turnover.

In fact, I noticed most resturants in the city I was staying averaged 5-10 tables.

One of my favourite things was in the morning at the hotel, for breakfast, the waiter would ask if I wanted something warm. “Oui, cafe avec crem, sil vous plait”. He would bring the best cup of coffee with heavy whipping-cream in a jug. (snort!) Yeah baby!

Doug

By: Edwinek

Edwinek — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 22:51:20 +0000

Re. 4: Weeeell… You should hear Dutch or Polish swear words, they don’t half roll off the tongue like a… a… well, quite a powerful swearword indeed!
Re. 9 – 11: Indeed, and the combination is even better.

By: Sue Crocker

Sue Crocker — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 16:19:23 +0000

Let’s see.. I spent three days in Paris in 1992. Searching my memory banks from that far back..

Mass at Notre Dame. I went to London, Paris and Madrid with a tour group. We did have some time to ourselves, so we did things like sit in a cafe, walk around, visit the Louve and the Musee de Orsee (I know my spelling is probably off on the place names.) We also went by train to Madrid. We passed through Provance by train in an early summer evening. The light was fantastic. I did have some film left and was able to grab a few shots. (Before digital.) I resolved to go back *without* the tour group one day.

No tea drinking while in Paris

By: bloglily

bloglily — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 16:17:13 +0000

I haven’t read much French literature — Madame Bovary, in fact, is the only thing I can dredge up. Kate and Litlove — if you have a moment, would you recommend a few things?

By: litlove

litlove — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 15:56:02 +0000

I’m with Kate in including a huge list of favourite French authors (although I won’t type them out here). Also, French patisserie, and that particularly intense hum of small winged insects on a hot summer’s day.

By: bloglily

bloglily — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 15:48:20 +0000

I wouldn’t stop there — the madeleine, for one thing needs to be paid homage to. Also tea. I learned to drink black tea from an English friend. But it was a French friend who showed me how wonderful a tisane is and also introduced me to delicately flavored teas, not Snapple-like tea, but tea with a hint of apricot or lime. I also love the way ordinary people generally live in France — the way things are well used, and there isn’t as much consumption as in the United States. The list is a long one, but life well lived is at the top of mine. And, also, please do remember that you should not drop pennies (or euros) from the top of the Eiffel Tower, instead you should go up there and think about how many treasures lie before you.

By: Kate S.

Kate S. — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 05:57:56 +0000

Colette, and Simone de Beauvoir, and Jean Paul Sartre, and Albert Camus, and Guy de Maupassant, and Eduard Manet, and Edgar Degas, and Eugene Atget, and the work of all of the writers and artists of other nationalities that was nurtured by literary life in Paris, and the Shakespeare & Company bookstore, and the salon (with a tip of the chapeau to litlove) and croissants, and tarte au citron, and steak au poivre avec pommes frites bistro style… If the customary thing is to stop once you start rolling out the food items, I guess I’ll stop there!

By: TheBizofKnowledge

TheBizofKnowledge — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 04:42:48 +0000

What an excellent post! I truly enjoyed reading your list. I agree with numbers 4, 5, 9, 10, and 11. I would like to add that I like the French because of Disneyland. It’s the only one in the world that I’ve been to where I didn’t have to wait in insanely long lines .