HUMOR - British Train Travel

[Bruce Scott]

Dunno if this has made the rounds in the US but it appealed to me:

The train was quite crowded, so a U. S. Marine walked the entire length looking for a seat, but the only seat left was taken by a well dressed, middle-aged, French woman's poodle. The war-weary Marine asked, "Ma'am, may I have that seat?" The French woman just sniffed and said to no one in particular, "Americans are so rude. My little Fifi is using that seat."

The Marine walked the entire train again, but the only seat left was under that dog. "Please, ma'am. May I sit down? I'm very tired." She snorted, "Not only are you Americans rude, you are also arrogant!"
This time the Marine didn't say a word; he just picked up the little dog, tossed it out the train window, and sat down.

The woman shrieked, "Someone must defend my honour! This American should be put in his place!"

An English gentleman sitting nearby spoke up, "Sir, you Americans often seem to have a penchant for doing the wrong thing. You hold the fork in the wrong hand. You drive your autos on the wrong side of the road. And now, sir, you seem to have thrown the wrong bitch out the window.

[Pete44ru]

Hip-hip, Hurray !

[TedH]

[kimwcook]

Very good.

My daughter just recently had a lay over in Paris, on here way to Italy, for her honeymoon. She said the French were so rude and arrogant she doesn't want anything more to do with them. She was apalled.

She took French in school!

[Rusty]

Yea, things are kinda slow we should start another round of French jokes.

I don't know this new president they have over there might be OK.


Rusty <><

[Nath]

Kimwcook, we recently toured France on motorcycles and gave paris a wide birth and the poeple all over the rest of France were wonderfull. I will go again one day. The trouble with cities they are full of people- it screws them up!

[KWK]

Some friends of mine were in France last month, and they had the opposite experience. The people in Paris were very friendly, and those outside Paris were rude.

In general, I've found it helps a lot if you start by speaking in the language of the country. No matter how bad you speak it, it smooths the transition, and it seems the majority do speak some English. If you start with "DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH" things can go down hill fast.

I haven't spent much time in France, but I've never had any troubles. About the only difference I've noticed with the French is they will let you struggle along in your pathetic attempt at their language longer than Germans or Italians will. The latter often switch to English right away. Maybe they just can't bear as well your butchering their language.

[2ndovc]

My wife and I were in Paris in April of this year. I had heard all the bs about Parisians being rude and it's a dirty city, etc.

The whole time we were there we only ran into one really rude young lady. My sister who speaks at least four different languages and is pretty fluent in French couldn't remember the french word for bag while ordering some bread in a bakery. The young woman got very snotty and told her it was very important to get the language correct. My sister took a step back and said " Not really. It's only French" and walked out the door.

Paris is a beautiful city and can't wait to go back to France, I have to see Normandy. But as cool as Paris was..

London ROCKS!

[Hobie]

The Normans are right nice folks AND they appreciate us. My French was good enough for them but not for the bus driver from the Alsace region. Heck, Le Molay Littry even had a gun shop in a pub/bar! Very nice little village.

[Old Ironsights]

Like most countries, the COUNTRY of France, along with the country folk/towns was lovely.

It's the Cities that suck.

Then again, when I was in England I had a ball in London.

Dunno why, but I somehow found all the "bad" areas of Paris but didn't see Chav One in London. Go figure.