Great writing. But you needed some French wine to go past the B.O. (armpits, or elswhere?). The worst body odor I ever witnessed came from a New Zealand girl backpacker. Ewww. Mon ami, France is beautiful. Let go of your buckle and enjoy a deep plate of bouillanaisse. Life is too short to be clean-cut and dry.

“I’m sure you would’ve had a better reception from the French if you’d have learnt a bit of pigeon French, been open, not rammed the fact that you were American down their throats and been genuinely interested in them..”

I know a good deal of French, am fluent in Spanish and Italian and have travelled the world over. I embrace all cultures - in this case I read two guide books and Margaret MacMillan’s terrific book, Paris 1919 plus brushed up on my French before going. Never do I shove my ‘American-ness’ down anyone’s throat, largely because I’m Hispanic and not white.

Your post makes a lot of assumptions and meanders into the usual damnation of Americans - something afflicting the French as well.

I made every effort to be courteous, polite and cultured - but those people have such a superiority complex that it doesn’t matter. The way they treated us was abusive, to the point of being malicious.

In the end it was clear, they feel that we are not worth their service, we have to earn the right to eat or drink or take a cab.

None of the ‘Americans’ acted out until the third or fourth day - French actions brought out the ugliness, it was too much, the whole country needs a bitch-slap.

What can I say
I had a fantastic time in Paris the people where very friendly and the food was ok.
for you to post “EuroDNS put on a fine ‘interaction’ event in a gorgeous and noble city inhabited by the biggest rat bastards on the planet.”

Think thats an insult to Eurodns who spent the time and effort to make the show.and maybe just that you had a few beers to many and where so pissed out your brains. maybe the small french guy was trying to give you instructions that you where reading the map upside down.

and Since you cant understand English English maybe this confused you.
Its well known in Europe that Americans cant speak English.
now lets see. Colour is correct spelling but you guys call it colour
jewellery with two ll is correct but you guys spell it jewelery.
and this list goes on.

Centre is another but you guys call it center then we have the classic pants are worn inside your trousers they are not trousers.

The list goes on and on and maybe its just they did not understand American
then again when you have had presidents like Regan and Bush
maybe the darwin award is needs for 90% of you guys

Crap really..

The point to anyone with more than a modicum of culture (and i didnt use a thesaurus to write that) is all about being generalistic. If you’d said “this guy was rude, that person was rubbish, everyone i met was annoying” then that would be fine..

Pointing the bigoted, xenophobic finger at an entire nation just because you met half a dozen people who didn’t agree with you is just lame.

And where you get these “dozens of American insults” from is anyones guess. Ive just re-read the entire post and comments and NOTHING comes close to calling an entire city being - “inhabited by the biggest rat bastards on the planet.”

Exactly what awards did you win? I can sure nominate you for a few..

Let me again add that for all the generalizations and assumptions, I am Spanish, born in Mallorca. I’ve lived in the US, Holland, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Puerto Rico and more. I grew up in a very strict and proud Spanish home environment.

Careful the brush you paint me with, likely not nearly broad enough. G.

Whats where you are from and where you grew up got to do with the price of sugar? A bigot is a bigot no matter how you dress them up (or paint them as it seems in your case)

There are no generalizations and assumptions made by anyone else other than you. You referred to the entire populous of Paris as being a city “inhabited by the biggest rat bastards on the planet.” You also said “‘Hospitality’ is not a French word, and apparently neither is ‘deodorant’”.

Just imagine if someone said these “entertaining” things about your home town!

In 2008, in a city that hasn’t exactly just popped up out of nowhere, is there really any excuse or justification for rampant body odor?

Julia, a bigot? hello? For saying the French aren’t friendly? Wtf? Is this new or are they not known for this worldwide?

Interesting you use the ‘bigot’, a word created by the French as an insult of the Normans. How apropo, thanks!

By definition (a person who is utterly intolerant of any differing creed, belief, or opinion), you my dear, are playing yourself off here as a classic bigot. Intolerant of my beliefs, opinions, origin, country and countrymen. King George, that you?

Coffee calling the kettle black. Cream and sugar?

Gonna have to agree with G on this one. He tried to tell a story and Julia got her feathers ruffled, told G he should have learned some french and that Americans need to learn that blah blah blah.

Turns out that G isn’t American, speaks some french, has lived all over the world - basically everything Julia wasn’t considering when writing her response to the ugly American (though she never came out and used the term). Ah yes, the sophisticated Europeans have stopped talking about who won the war and who beat who while the classless Americans still talk about saving them. Meanwhile, the classy Europeans attend soccer games where tens of thousands of them together taunt opposing fans and players with clever jokes about the Holocaust and monkeys.

Conor - My wife works for one of said French banks and feels the same way you do. I spent 6 months living with a french family and loved it…go figure.

Lol, Benko calling me a ‘fashionista’ is like a blessing from Ralph Lauren! I owe you a cold one or two for that phenomenal post. Meet me at GameWorks, we’ll ‘work’ it in ‘08!

Well written and interesting post, too bad I couldn’t make it to this one, was in Madrid.

This is so ridiculous it’s funny. I couldn’t believe my eyes about the buckle. you know, some people in the 21st century use their brain rather than their muscles to deal with such situations.
The rest was less interesting, it’s more boring to read over and over the same stereotypes.