Everybody, at some time,
wants to go to Paris. Many people even go so far as to
travel to Paris. In fact,
a huge chunk of the French economy is based on tourism.
The French have an amazing socialist state, which would
probably
implode, if not for the huge influx of foreign money arriving
every year from April through March.
Given that they are incredibly dependant on
foreigners for their way of life, why is it that the French
hate foreigners, especially Americans? The answer is simple.
They don't.
What the French hate, is people who come
to their country, and then make absolutely no attempt to
actually understand
it. Tourists come, they see the sights, they eat the
food, and then they run as fast as they can to the next
trendy
tourist spot. And in the process they miss France.
You can see Paris from a bus, and any tourguide can tell
you which bistros are world famous, even though *you* probably
never heard of them before. In fact, you can have just
about that same experience in any big city in the world.
What you can't do in Los Angeles, or
Beijing or even on the Eiffel Tower is wander down the
rue de la Butte aux
Cailles (Boot oh Kai) to the Merle Moqueur. Following
the tour guide you might walk right through the spot near
Les
Halles where Gavroche fell and not even know it. (it's
a real place, unmarked, but I can tell you where it is.)
Likewise you might not notice Miss Manon standing on
her corner near St. Paul's church offering passersby her
outstanding
Croissants and Petit Campagne (it's a bread).
To experience
Paris requires that you stay a while. It requires
shopping in a French
super market (we Americans call them
mini-marts). Buy some French yogurt. It's better
than American yogurt. (For the record, Yoplait
is not French
yogurt.) Try buying a banana at the open air market
on rue
Moufetard. You might even try learning a little
French while you are here. A
famous Frenchman once noted that "English
is just French, badly pronounced."
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