Is Paris unfriendly to Americans?

We have avoided France in the past because we were told that the French were especially unfriendly to non French speaking Americans. We were hoping to visit this summer and plan to carry a voice translator and learn some common French phrases. How will the reception compare to the overwhelming friendliness of the other European capitals.

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I think you will find the reception equally as warm. Just preface any conversation with a Binjour Madame/Monsieur, throw in a s%26#39;il vous plait here and there and end every request with a Merci, merci beaucoup and %26#39;au revoir%26quot; and you will do just fine. I don%26#39;t think you need a voice translator, as most French, (at least in the heavily touristed areas) speak English far better than we speak French.

The French love Americans. They just are not fans of American politics. They can distinguish between the two.

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I have not had any problems in France. I do try to speak some of the language, I am very polite and say %26quot;Bonjour%26quot; (hello) %26quot;merci%26quot; (thank you) %26quot;s%26#39;il vous plait%26quot; (please) etc. Pick up some tapes of French language - you can actually find some of them at the Half Price Bookstores and learn some French. I find that they really appreciate it.

I have found that the french are slightly %26quot;dressier%26quot; than in some of the other places, most notably in Paris (unless you plan on traveling to some of the more country places). Leave your lees, wranglers and walmart clothes at home! My husband wore his Levis throughout France and I did notice that he didn%26#39;t get as %26quot;nice%26quot; of service as I did!

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I think you have watched Fox News too much. This forum is full of messages that contradict that perception.

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I have found that Parisians are actually among the nicest people of Europe, provided that you use common sense and respect them and their culture. A simple Bonjour or Merci can often go a long way, as Parisians realize that you have an interest in respecting their language as well. I think that those who have complained in the past about Parisians and established the stereotype of rudeness are likely those people who go to Paris and stomp about acting as if the Parisians are the foreigners and assuming that everyone speaks English. I wonder how we would respond if Parisians considered us rude because, when they visit, we don%26#39;t reply graciously when they start spewing at us in French. There is no reason to avoid Paris, it%26#39;s the best city in the world, in my humble opinion.

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Great question, I wish more people would ask. I was in Paris the day the War in Iraq started and I was treated very well by the French. I did have people ask me for my opinion on the war and the French offered their opinions as well. To be very honest with you, the French are generally very nice and polite. If you attempt to only speak English you may come across a bit of resentment on the part of the French. Most French people will speak English with if you at least attempt to speak French first. There%26#39;s no need to learn copiuos amounts of French, but your trip will be much better if you learn the basics: please, thank you, excuse me, how much does this cost, etc. I speak French and my wife does not. When she approached people and only spoke English there were strange looks and even people who were less than helpful. However, as soon as she learned to say, %26quot;Pardon moi%26quot; instead of %26quot;exscuse me%26quot; people went out of their way to speak English. A very nice French cab driver explained it this way. %26quot;If I come to American and only speak French no one would talk to me, why should Americans come to France and make us speak a foreign language in our own country?%26quot; This pretty much sums up the attitudes I%26#39;ve encountered. Show the French that you at least repect their culture and they will treat you very well. Enjoy your trip, Paris is one of the most beautifull cities on the planet!!!

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%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;%26gt; Great question, I wish more people would ask. %26lt;%26lt;%26lt;%26lt;%26lt;

People ask this question all the time =O

But the answer is...... parisians are very friendly. Just make an effort to respect their language and culture by learning simple phrases and they are usually very nice and helpful.

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%26lt;%26lt;%26lt;%26lt;I have found that Parisians are actually among the nicest people of Europe%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;

I think that I am living in the wrong Paris. People here are just like people in DC, NY and most other large cities. Well, maybe not LA, but that is really just a mega %26#39;burb. In any case we have our fair share of lovely, welcoming hosts and rude, obnoxious individuals.

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Phread un mot rebelote

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I tried to translate the last post to no avail...

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oh sorry Pimcneal I forgot one l it should read %26quot;rebellote%26quot; meaning in English something like %26quot;There we goes again%26quot;. Phread and I were having a similar discussion on the other %26quot;hot%26quot; post about Americans.

Instrument Makers in Paris

Does anyone know of any stringed instrument makers in Paris?

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There are only about 10,000 of them and they%26#39;re all on the same street!! Seriously, there are very many densely located in the neighborhood called %26quot;Europe%26quot;. Look on your map in the northeastern 8th arrondissement just north of Gare St-Lazare for streets with names like rue St-Petersbourg, rue de Moscou, rue de Rome, rue Bruxelles, etc.

I couldn%26#39;t resist going to www.pagesjaunes.fr to see how many instrument makers/dealers are located in this area. A quick search pulls up 55 instrument sellers, 2 organ sellers, 46 piano sellers, 49 guitar specialists, 7 instrument makers, and 30 repair shops.

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Thank you

Learning French

Hi,

I have just got back from Paris a really wished I had tried harder in my French at school.

Even though you can get by ok. I asked for something in french at Mac Donalds and the girl and the guy next to her could not stop laughing. Probably my rubbish accent!! LOL

Anyway I would like to start to learn french so I can at least speak some for my next visit.

Any ideas of any books or CD%26#39;s that might be of real help. Ideally I would like to get to a class but that is not really possible at the momment.

French seems a really hard language to learn and at school I just was not interested in it.

Am I being naive or once you get the basics will it get easier to pick up?

Thanks for any help.

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I think that once you get the basics, it will get easier to pick up. Like you, I never really learned it in school, it wasn%26#39;t until i lived in France that I learned it. If that is not an option, I don%26#39;t have any CD recommendations, but I%26#39;d suggest just studying the structure. Things really begin to make sense, MUCH more than english, which I guess isn%26#39;t saying much.

So don%26#39;t focus on vocab, learn the grammar and fill in the vocab as you go. Je veux acheter ____ . Nous allons ____ . J%26#39;ai vu ___

And then there%26#39;s l%26#39;argot...but that%26#39;s much later.

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Dear Traveller113,

I listened to Language 20-or Language 30- by Living Language tapes in my car more times than I would like to admit. I like those tapes because they say the phrase in English, then in French with a pause for you to repeat the phrase. They then repeat the phrase in French. They also have cultural notes at the end of the tape, which I found very helpful.

I%26#39;ve been told by French people that my accent is good. So I give the tapes full credit. Please don%26#39;t give up if you can%26#39;t get the phrases right away, it does take time.

Bon Chance!

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Thank you for your ideas.

The thing with me is I have to stick at it and not give up when I struggle.

The accent is also a thing I might struggle with.

I will let you know how I get on.

Thanks

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Well....your accent can%26#39;t be worse than mine!! I%26#39;m taking a conversational French class for travelers to prepare for my April trip and I am running into problems because I know Spanish!! I tend to say the words with a Spanich accent or pronounce them as they ARE Spanish words. Oy vey!!

Practicing our dialogues I have even answered in Spanish.

I%26#39;m just going to carry my little flash cards with the phonetics on them. I REALLY want to learn the French language....but I%26#39;m having a hard time. :-(

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I bought one of the %26quot;Listen %26amp; Learn%26quot; tapes once to learn some Greek %26amp; I remember quite a bit, so I%26#39;d suggest that brand. I have EZ French %26amp; I%26#39;m not a big fan - you need to use a book with it - which is good for if you need to read things later, but not as good with conversational things. I find that I get too hung up on the sentence as a whole. Although I took a semester in French in college (where the vocabulary for marital status was one of the first sections we learned - bizarre!), and I%26#39;m now using the EZ CDs %26amp; book, I have a hard time making my own sentence. There%26#39;s so many words connected by apostrophes! I really need to sit down %26amp; dissect sentences so that I can make my own rather than repeating the canned ones that the book gives me! Good luck - I sympathise!

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Hi

I have been using the Standard Divants video tape. French Basics 1 and find it very good . The site is Standard Divants.com Learning the verbs adverbs are murder but the taype helps you with some basic conversations.

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Traveller113: The BBC has a series of French pronunciation guides which you may want to check out. You can get to it at the following URL: www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/index.shtml

Browse around the site and pick the exercises which would be best for you. If you%26#39;re really interested in learning more and want to have the text to accompany the online exercises, you can then either order through the BBC or from a larger bookstore in your area. It is, obviously, geared towards a British audience, but I have used it successfully here in the U.S. with my own students.

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KelBel: Don%26#39;t worry about the Spanish pronunciation too much. I teach French to many students who, like yourself, have studied Spanish, or who are native speakers of Spanish. The biggest issues are usually the vowel sounds (e.g., unaccented %26quot;e%26quot; being pronounced as %26quot;ay%26quot;, the letter %26quot;u%26quot; coming out as %26quot;oo%26quot;, like %26quot;caboose%26quot;), getting over the habit of pronouncing final %26#39;s%26#39;, and of course, the French %26#39;R%26#39;.

It%26#39;s a conscious effort at first for the vowel sounds and not saying the final %26#39;s%26#39; on most words, but with practice, it will come more naturally. Just keep the vowels short and crisp, rather than elongating them, as in American English, and you%26#39;ll do great. The French %26#39;R%26#39; can range from a very soft %26quot;wr%26quot; (american style, as in %26quot;write%26quot;) to an almost gutteral sound similar to hocking back a gob of spit (how%26#39;s THAT for an image??!!). However, if you%26#39;re used to %26quot;trilling%26quot; your %26quot;R%26quot; (as in Spanish), you%26#39;ll get along just fine.

If you happen to travel around France, rather than just staying in Paris, you%26#39;ll find that there are as many %26quot;accents%26quot; of French as you%26#39;ll find in the U.S. For example, Parisians tend to have what is called an %26quot;accent pointu%26quot; (somewhat sharp, crisp, quick), Bretons still hold onto their Celtic heritage and it is heard in their everyday speech, Alsatians in the east, on the border with Germany, have quite the German lilt in their French, while in the south of France, you%26#39;ll start noticing a definite %26quot;twang%26quot; as you hit Lyon, Clermont-Ferrand, St. Etienne (in the Massif Central), which will get progressively thicker and more %26quot;Spanish-sounding%26quot; as you close in on Montpellier, Arles, Nimes, Marseille, and then may be totally uncomprehensible until you%26#39;ve adjusted the hearing, when you hit Narbonne and Perpignan (going towards Spain). Southern French tends to add vowel sounds (sometimes where none even exist), the %26quot;R%26quot; is %26quot;trilled%26quot;, and the %26quot;twang%26quot; of the nasalized vowels rivals any southern twang in the heart of Georgia or the Carolinas.

But, just a plain, old %26quot;American%26quot; accent (i.e. not trying to sound %26quot;French%26quot;, flat rhythm) can be very charming in its own right.

Above all else, TRY to use whatever French you learn and have fun while in France. As one person here wrote, you%26#39;ll be surprised at what may even come out given the situation.

Bon courage.

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I really like the Michel Thomas CD%26#39;s I have, I just ordered the 8 CD set. I find it pretty easy to learn from his CD%26#39;s so far (you learn phrases, not words).

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Oh my ... I%26#39;m in the process of learning Italian because it is my heritage (if I%26#39;d only learned as a child...) First part of my trip is in Venice. There is no way I can learn French also - trip is end of May. I know a few words to address and respond respectfully. I love the idea from %26quot;Randy Silver Photo%26quot; on another posting who said he carried along a small card that said %26quot;please excuse me, I%26#39;m about to murder your language%26quot; and he always got a laugh. I may try something like that - different verbage :).... Anyway. As always love the advice on this forum, I%26#39;ll continue to check it regularly until my trip. Thanks!!

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Thank you so much Franco...your advice makes me feel a lot beeter. I really appreciate it!!!

Merci beaucoups!!!

Safety of Belongings in Paris

Hi all!

I just have a quick question about safety of suitcases, backpacks in hotels in Paris. I am going over in a few weeks and would like to take my notebook computer so I can download photos along the way (I am travelling europe for a month total) and was just wondering how safe it will be to leave my notebook in my backpack or suitcase (both will have locks) at the hotel during the day. We will probably be staying in fairly low-budget hotels, but, that being said, do most european hotel have safes to lock up valuables or would I be best to just leave my notebook at home? Any advice that can be offered would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

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Don%26#39;t know about Paris as my first trip there won%26#39;t be until the end of April, but we did exactly what you describe on a trip to Italy in 2003. Took my trusty iBook and the adapter cable for my camera. I never lugged the beast around with us during the day, and we stayed in 2-star type hotels that didn%26#39;t have room safes (at least not that we found). I generally just buried the laptop in the bottom of a locked suitcase. Since we never brought the laptop out in public view, I figured it was reasonably safe from anyone except a truly curious and brazen hotel worker. Maybe a false sense of security, but we stayed in 6 different hotels and didn%26#39;t have a problem in any of them.

Added and unexpected benefit was that we found free WiFi signals from our hotel rooms in both Rome and Florence. Best I can tell these were not coming from the hotel -- probably just some nearby neighbor with a non-password protected router. Saved us at least a few Euros in each place and was much more conveneient than hitting a cybercafe in the middle of a sight-seeing day.

I would recommend, hower, that you back up all of your personal files and leave a copy at home. I went further than that by wiping my documents folder clean and also scrubbing my e-mails and the cookies/bookmarks on my web browser. Paranoid? Perhaps. But it was a half-hour of effort for a lot of peace of mind. If the machine had been stolen, I was only out the expense of replacing it vs. the potentially massive headache of having some criminal in Europe running around with a digital transcript of my life.

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I actually found that the best advice was to make sure your personal items are all in your bags, packed up and closed (preferably with a small lock) during the day. That way no workers can pick up your stuff, and will find it a little less tempting to get into your stuff. Just don%26#39;t leave your computer, camera, etc laying around your room. If you%26#39;re really worried, place a small lock on your bags (at the zippers - available at any REI), and maybe take a bike lock and lock your bag to a non-movable item in the room.

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Hi MDV,

I have a trusty ibook as well, and can%26#39;t imagine an entire month without it! Thanks for the advice (thanks as well to the other post), I feel more reassured that leaving it in a locked suitcase, well out of site from hotel staff will probably be safe enough. Good idea to backup everything and delete cookies as well, just in case! Thanks!

Chanel makeup....

I apologize in advance if this question sounds ridiculous, but I swear I read somewhere that Chanel makeup in Paris is considerably cheaper than it is in the U.S or Canada. Does any of our Parisian posters know the price of a Chanel lipstick (in Paris) for example??

Thanks....

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Ooh, I%26#39;d like to know that as well. I might stock up on my moisturiser while I%26#39;m there!

What about Clarins as well?

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And what about Lancome??? Great question, Canuck!

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I%26#39;m bumping this message up because I%26#39;d like to know too. I%26#39;ve heard that many of the brands that we have here in the US are much cheaper in France - I hope this is true!

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I read in my Fodor%26#39;s book for Paris that a store called Monoprix sells that makeup for cheaper then the U.S.

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monoprix does not sell chanel or clarins products, they sell cheap brands like bourgeois, gemey-maybelline, brands like that. but this is not %26#39;high%26#39; make-up, like chanel. you will have the best choice to sephora av des champs elysees, it%26#39;s the biggest and better than marionnaud (less choice).

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I shop at Sephora here in the US, are the prices less in France? I could have sworn someone told me that the french brands of cosmetics/skin care are much cheaper there.

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I would think price will depend on the exchange rate when you buy; these are not the best of times for the USDollar.

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I%26#39;m surprised that noone else has mentioned this: I have found that the very best place to buy cosmetics (I usually get Lancome) is at the duty free shop at CDG right before I leave.

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I%26#39;m still crossing my fingers and hoping that items will be less expensive. The Canadian dollar has never been very strong, but some regional items are just cheaper to buy in their local area. Evian water is somewhat pricey over here, but in Chamonix it%26#39;s very reasonable.

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My Lancome blusher at CDG duty free shop was about half of what it usually is here

CDG to Novotel Paris Les Halles Hotel

Hello

Please help me get from Charles De Gaulle to my hotel above.

I believe I can take the RER. Please tell me where do I take it at the airport and where to I get off and cost.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Racimo

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At the airport you can walk to RER station from all terminals 2 C D E F, just follow the signs. If you arrive in terminal 1 or Terminal 2 A or B just step outside and take the shuttle.

it costs 7.80 euros and you would get off at Chatelet. Be sure when you are on the platform of the RER to look for an exit map. It will show you where the various exits come up. Note the name and number of the exit and then follow the signs to that exit.

Active things to do in Paris

My hubby and I have very different ideas of vacation. I%26#39;m happy sitting in a museum - he%26#39;ll die of boredom after two hours.

What are some ideas for active things to do in or around Paris? Hiking, Climbing, Disc golf, Ultimate Frisbee pickup games, skating...?

Thanks!

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How about walking tours? That would meet his need to move around with your interest in the arts/culture. You could rent bikes. You could go hiking on the trails in the Foret de Fontainebleau. He could climb the Eiffel Tower while you take the elevator!!

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Hiking in Foret de Fontainebleau might be the trick - thanks!

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Get a ticket for the Eiffel Tower and knock yourself out with stair climbing for the whole day. :-)

There%26#39;s plenty of pick-up soccer games.

There%26#39;s also some great public swimming pools in Paris. They have amazingly cheap entry fees to...like $2pp.

An ultramarathon buddy of mine likes to run from Paris to Versailles, around the gardens for a few hours and then back to Paris, once a day if he doesn%26#39;t have to work. He%26#39;s crazy though.

My wife routinely competes in powerwalk (6-9 mph) marathons. When she and I are in Paris, we%26#39;re content just to walk (normal 2-3 mph speed) all the time--we don%26#39;t bother with Metros or buses unless we%26#39;re heading to an upscale dinner or something. It%26#39;s easy to pile in 10-15 miles of walking per day. We have very comfortable, high utility casual clothes so we%26#39;re never having to wear running shoes or obvious exercise attire.

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oh. I should add that my wife likes wandering museums too. She can be in their for weeks. And I am like your husband. A mere 30 seconds in the Louvre will bore me and knock me out faster than a shopping mall. Fortunately, I%26#39;ll be in Paris to work and my wife hits the museums, etc.

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When traveling to Europe, I begin a work out regime to pre-condition myself for all the walking. We walk 10 miles minimum daily even with taking the metro.

For an active workout, walk the stairs of the Arc de Triomphe. I liked the view better than the Eiffel Tower. But you have to do both. Or the stairs to the top of Notre Dam. Thats the best of both worlds. You get your museum monument fix and your hubby gets to be active.

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Hiking in the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont would be terrific. It was fashioned from old quarries and has all sorts of man-made waterfalls, lakes, hills, etc.

Alternatively, here is a page from my rental apartment website that has lots of listings of sporting activities in Paris: www.rentalapartmentparis.com/Links-Sports.htm

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You can rent bikes and visit the city a velo. The roads along the quais of the Seine are closed Sundays, which makes for great rides from the Bois de Boulogne all the way to the Bois de Vincennes.

Fountainbleau also has some world class rock climbing if you are sick of walking all the time.

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Fountainbleau sounds like a vacation in itself. trekearth.com has some AMAZING photos. We might end up returning to France just to hang around this area.

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There is a lot of pools in Paris, if you like to swim. I choose one close to my hotel and often go before diner, so I do not feel to guilty after the five courses meal ! My favorite is Piscine Pontoise in the 5eme, it is open very late, and beautiful in Art deco style.

I often saw people playing tennis au jardin du Luxembourg, but I do not know if one have to be a member of a club.

On Sunday afternoon around 14,30 , place de la Bastille there is a large number of people doing roller, you can easily rent them for a day.