Paris Warms Up...

The May issue of Conde Naste Traveler Magazine had an interesting article oh how Paris is warming up..%26quot;Forget the snooty city, the natives have become friendly. Lee Aitken reveals all the pleasures of the new attitude.%26#39;

Here is the link if you could not get hold of a copy.

concierge.com/cntraveler/…

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What a terrific article. Thanks for sharing.

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c%26#39;est ne pas problem,Truffaut.we need more objective reporting like this so as to shed any preconceptions about the French as the surly salesclerk, the unbending bureaucrat, the balky services.

I couldn%26#39;t agree more with the writer when he mentioned..

%26quot;I find myself amazed, again and again, by how efficient and up-to-date the city is and how much random goodwill comes my way, despite my badly conjugated French verbs and the geopolitical depredations of my president.%26quot;

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I love the quote:

%26lt;%26lt;In Sancerre, Bo told me, people are worried about Americans boycotting French wines. The ordinary Frenchman doesn%26#39;t like to be held accountable for all the various b��tises (stupidities) of his elected officials any more than the average American does. In the working-class caf�� where Bo occasionally stops, the bartender summed up recent world events with the phrase, %26quot;Et votre president, hein?%26quot;���And how about your president, huh?���delivered with a shrug and a raised eyebrow.%26gt;%26gt;

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ChairmanMao - you pulled the best quote in the whole article!

I%26#39;ve spent all my travel conversations since George the Cowboy took office apologizing for the %26quot;geopolitical depredations of my president.%26quot;

Thanks for passing on the article - we need to commission someone to do a similar piece for New York!

Live to Travel

NYC

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Maojid -

Thank you for turning us on to this terrific article. I have only read part of it so far (I am after all, supposedly working...) but I look forward very much to savoring the rest of it, libation in hand, later in the day.

Thank you again - and I hope my dropping of your title does not suggest any disrespect on my part...

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well thanks to this forum that such invaluable reporting can be shared.

metropole,live2travel,truffaut and IrishRovr..great to know you%26#39;ve enjoyed the article immensely..pleasures all mine..;)

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Merci Chairman... lovely article. :)

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%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;%26quot;Forget the snooty city, the natives have become friendly. Lee Aitken reveals all the pleasures of the new attitude.%26#39; %26lt;%26lt;%26lt;

I%26#39;ll admit that it was a well written piece but a seriously flawed premise---that Paris and Parisians were unfriendly or %26#39;..snooty..%26#39; (of all the symonyms in Rodales or Roget%26#39;s this was the best C-N could come up with??) to tourists (particularly Anmericans) to begin with. The %26#39;..attitude..%26#39; may have come as %26#39;news%26#39; to this writer, but hardly %26#39;news%26#39; to Paris or Parisians.. It sort of made me wonder what this writer actually knew of Paris---other than bad cliches--before his visit?? and indirectly accepted all of the mistaken stereotypes that went before to %26#39;prove%26#39; their %26#39;..revalation..%26#39;. It was just okay travel writing and TERRIBLE journalism.

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I live in Texas and I used to like saying I was from here but now w/ George Bush claiming it (he wasn%26#39;t born here) I hesitate. I%26#39;ve lived in other countries, however and there%26#39;s always a little bit of hostility from some people. One vendor in Tobago BWI harangued me about the televised execution of the Oklahoma bombing guy (forgot his name) -

anyway glad to read this - we%26#39;re going to Paris first time for us in July and were steeling ourselves for dirty looks etc. I even told my husband we should speak Spanish to each other but his mom is going too and she only speaks English.