Beorn
07-20-2009, 10:18 PM
THE MIDDLE-AGED Englishwoman plucks up the courage, memorises once again the line from the phrasebook, takes a last glance at her expectant children and walks with an assumed air of confidence into the boulangerie. "Est-ce que je peux avoir quatre croissants?" she enounces in heavily-accented but otherwise faultless French.
But the thin-lipped lady behind the counter fails to respond to the request. Instead she smiles condescendingly. "Alors, on recommence? (Let's start that again, shall we?)" Pause. "Bonjour Madame, comment allez-vous?" That, la boulangere is saying, is the proper way to open a conversation when you enter my shop - so please don't forget it.
As any foreign visitor to Paris will confirm, humiliating exchanges such as this (which took place a few weeks ago in the middle-class 14th arrondissement) are far from being unusual. If it is not impudent shopkeepers, it is aggressive taxi drivers, surly waiters or impatient metro staff.
Put simply, the French capital has a reputation for rudeness that makes one wonder how it continues to uphold its status as the most popular tourist spot on the planet.
This summer the city authorities are responding with yet another publicity drive aimed at persuading the public to do a rather better job at charming the foreigner. Launched by the Office for Tourism and Business Conventions, the Paris-Sourire campaign conveys to residents a simple but effective recommendation - smile!
Last week 1500 young people on roller-blades gathered in the Place Vendome in the city centre to form a giant red smile for the cameras. At the same time, kiosks have been set up at tourist sites - for example the Champs-Elysees, Bastille and Notre Dame cathedral - staffed by helpful "smile ambassadors".
"To counteract the cliches we need to work with simple, strong images. And nothing speaks more loudly than a smile," says tourism office chief Paul Roll, although he adds: "Personally I do not think Parisians are less welcoming than other people."
However, it is not just the popular reputation that belies him. A recent survey for TripAdvisor named Paris the most over-estimated city in Europe - unfriendliness and expense were the common complaints - while last week's poll showing the French to be the world's rudest tourists did not help.
Sociologists are divided over the origins of this froideur. For some it is the disdain for the outsider that comes with knowing that your city is the most beautiful in the world. For others it is the popularity of the city that makes its population so haughty - after all, if you are rude and the tourists keep coming anyway, then why change?
A third school of thought takes it back to the Revolution. On the one hand, the legacy of popular insurrection has helped install the view that service equals subservience - hence the "attitude" which so many visitors complain of. On the other hand, two centuries of sporadic civil bloodshed have also made Parisians deeply wary of each other - which explains their apparent tendency to live in a self-absorbed bubble.
This year it is not just the rudeness problem that is exercising the city authorities. The economic recession is playing havoc, with official figures showing a 17% drop in turnover from tourism compared to 2008. Because of the weak pound British visitors are conspicuously fewer this season, while Americans are only beginning to come back in reasonable numbers following a sharp two-year decline.
One reform that may help matters was voted through parliament last week. This is a controversial law that makes it possible for shops in tourist centres such as Paris to open on Sundays. Although decried by the left as an attack on workers' rights - and by the traditional right as an affront to Christian-based civilisation - it is seen as a way of maximising the capital's commercial appeal.
And to be fair to Paris, there are plenty of signs that the rudeness that has for so long sullied its name is gradually disappearing. Young people, most of whom have travelled widely in Europe and beyond, are far more receptive than their elders to the notion of service. Private companies today all function on the "Anglo-Saxon" principle of customer satisfaction, and the public sector is also adapting to the times.
So it may not be long before Paris is as accustomed as everywhere else to the ingratiating grin and the obsequious politeness that go for modern-day manners. And when that happens, will we not want back a little bit of that insolent independence of spirit?
Source (http://www.sundayherald.com/international/shinternational/display.var.2520767.0.0.php)
But the thin-lipped lady behind the counter fails to respond to the request. Instead she smiles condescendingly. "Alors, on recommence? (Let's start that again, shall we?)" Pause. "Bonjour Madame, comment allez-vous?" That, la boulangere is saying, is the proper way to open a conversation when you enter my shop - so please don't forget it.
As any foreign visitor to Paris will confirm, humiliating exchanges such as this (which took place a few weeks ago in the middle-class 14th arrondissement) are far from being unusual. If it is not impudent shopkeepers, it is aggressive taxi drivers, surly waiters or impatient metro staff.
Put simply, the French capital has a reputation for rudeness that makes one wonder how it continues to uphold its status as the most popular tourist spot on the planet.
This summer the city authorities are responding with yet another publicity drive aimed at persuading the public to do a rather better job at charming the foreigner. Launched by the Office for Tourism and Business Conventions, the Paris-Sourire campaign conveys to residents a simple but effective recommendation - smile!
Last week 1500 young people on roller-blades gathered in the Place Vendome in the city centre to form a giant red smile for the cameras. At the same time, kiosks have been set up at tourist sites - for example the Champs-Elysees, Bastille and Notre Dame cathedral - staffed by helpful "smile ambassadors".
"To counteract the cliches we need to work with simple, strong images. And nothing speaks more loudly than a smile," says tourism office chief Paul Roll, although he adds: "Personally I do not think Parisians are less welcoming than other people."
However, it is not just the popular reputation that belies him. A recent survey for TripAdvisor named Paris the most over-estimated city in Europe - unfriendliness and expense were the common complaints - while last week's poll showing the French to be the world's rudest tourists did not help.
Sociologists are divided over the origins of this froideur. For some it is the disdain for the outsider that comes with knowing that your city is the most beautiful in the world. For others it is the popularity of the city that makes its population so haughty - after all, if you are rude and the tourists keep coming anyway, then why change?
A third school of thought takes it back to the Revolution. On the one hand, the legacy of popular insurrection has helped install the view that service equals subservience - hence the "attitude" which so many visitors complain of. On the other hand, two centuries of sporadic civil bloodshed have also made Parisians deeply wary of each other - which explains their apparent tendency to live in a self-absorbed bubble.
This year it is not just the rudeness problem that is exercising the city authorities. The economic recession is playing havoc, with official figures showing a 17% drop in turnover from tourism compared to 2008. Because of the weak pound British visitors are conspicuously fewer this season, while Americans are only beginning to come back in reasonable numbers following a sharp two-year decline.
One reform that may help matters was voted through parliament last week. This is a controversial law that makes it possible for shops in tourist centres such as Paris to open on Sundays. Although decried by the left as an attack on workers' rights - and by the traditional right as an affront to Christian-based civilisation - it is seen as a way of maximising the capital's commercial appeal.
And to be fair to Paris, there are plenty of signs that the rudeness that has for so long sullied its name is gradually disappearing. Young people, most of whom have travelled widely in Europe and beyond, are far more receptive than their elders to the notion of service. Private companies today all function on the "Anglo-Saxon" principle of customer satisfaction, and the public sector is also adapting to the times.
So it may not be long before Paris is as accustomed as everywhere else to the ingratiating grin and the obsequious politeness that go for modern-day manners. And when that happens, will we not want back a little bit of that insolent independence of spirit?
Source (http://www.sundayherald.com/international/shinternational/display.var.2520767.0.0.php)