Acronymn Ignorance
Hehe. Saw this in my home town on the way to the social security office. I almost called them up to let them know that I had bran cereal for breakfast and all was going just fine for the day.
I guess they're not going for the stern and steady bank-like clientele.Taste-bud Aberrations
This was not to promote horse-back riding lessons. 'Achat' means purchase. In other words, French people eat horse.
I would guesstimate that there were 8 cash registers open and 10 people behind each waiting to order. Another usual Friday night at the KFC. Just wait until the Taco Bell / KFC / Pizza Hut hybrid restaurants hit France!Allowances
So Thursday at school there were some festivities to celebrate the Franco-Allemand (German) alliance. People dressed up in red, black, and yellow, and the cafeteria even served schnitzel, black forest cake, and.... some beverage at the end of the food line that resembled beer. There were open bottles and I figured it must be rootbeer seeing as how the majority of patrons to the cafeteria are between the ages of 15 and 17. Unfortunately I didn't know the translation for "rootbeer" but upon close examination I noticed a "sans alcohol" at the bottom. Essentially they were selling German O'Douls to highschoolers. I just don't think that would fly with the local PTA in America.
Snots?People warned me about French people being rude. I hadn't really encountered that and wondered how that stereotype ever came to be. They do smile less than the average American maybe, but so do New Yorkers. It all clicked this week.
Saturday was laundry day. Being in need of some 1 and 2 euro coins for the machine, I had two tasks to accomplish: find some place that would take my pile of pennies and 5 and 10 centimes and exchange them with some more substantial and acceptable coins. And find someone to convert my 10 euro bill to coins. Feeling rather generous, I decided to buy something at Franprix (the grocery store) so that I wasn't just giving them an unprofitable task. But at the purchase point when I asked for the exchange, the lady said "C'est dure." (That's hard.) and then flat out said Non! I was a little dumbounded.
So I wandered down to the Tabac shop, which was closed since it was between the hours of noon and 4.
Finally I attempted Taxiphone (the florist / internet store). The woman pretended to not understand my French at first, so I tried some different words. Then ever so slowly without cracking a smile or offering any sense of comprehension or willingness to comply, she picked out 5 euros worth of coins. That was a start, but I was holding out a 10 euro bill. Just to put things in perspective, she could've broken that bill for me in a min of 5 coins. FIVE coins. When I asked if she could give me 10 euros instead of 5, she shook her head and with no sense of apology, but rather offense, she also told me Non!
Then on Tuesday, I wanted to go return some tights I got at BHV that weren't really the right color. After waiting in line at the cashier, I got up to the front and they said I was at the wrong desk for returns. So I followed their directions to the very hidden corner where it said reimbursements were possible. However that lady told me that in order to do a return, I had to go up to the department where I purchased the tights. So I found my way back up there and asked one of the sales clerks on the floor. She evidently wasn't sure if those particular tights were returnable nor did she have the form that I would need to fill out should they be, and the woman who did have this prize information was currently absent. The sales clerk told me I would just have to return later. Hmmm. Not so convenient when it was a 30 minute trip just to get there. Lesson learned. Never try to return anything in France.
Finally, late Saturday night, after purchasing my plane tix to Rome (next Feb vacation), I checked my bank account and realized that i was short 10 euros for the charge I'd just wrung up. I wasn't keeping track of the balance between my US vs. France bank accounts carefully enough I guess. So not wanting to be hit with an overdraft fee, I decided I should run down to the ATM and deposit some cash into my account. It was 12:25am. I checked the train schedule and I had just enough time, to make it to the station for the 2nd to last train for the night heading south. Grabbing my scarf, gloves, coat... I ran out the door and all the way to the station arriving just in time. Reached downtown Antony and walked to the ATM. I had never really made a deposit at an ATM in France yet so I was a little nervous. Then really nervous when I noticed that the ATM says "Retrait" and not "ATM". There were no envelopes to be seen and in fact the place where the bills come out said "prenez votre billets" with no option for giving. Sure enough, these were ATM money givers but not takers. Awesome.
And that's when it dawned on me.
There's a serious breach in the French hospitality association that someone has been overlooking. Convenience and Customer Service have been omitted from the training manuals.
** If you read (or will read) this entry you might get a little offended. Just know that despite all these things, there are 100 more reasons for why I love France!
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