Always Chris

Don’t Be Frenchist!

People really give the French a hard time, and although garlic can be a nightmare in a confined space, and I am allergic to people who wear scarves while being absurdly intellectual and simultaneously charming, I have met a good few French people who were amazing, kind and gracious. Granted, there was one incident in a cinema with a French girl who kept hitting the back of my chair and saying things to me that I had no idea about, but that was just one person, and you can’t blame a whole country for kicking someone’s chair. So here I am: my aim is to break this stereotype in half for all you people who are terrified of the French.

One thing we should be clear on from the start is that frog’s legs ARE NOT eaten non-stop by every person in France. Yes, they are indeed a delicacy, but saying that the French eat this one single thing constantly is a bit like saying all English people eat Fish & Chips every day (and while that may be true in a small number of places—they are most excellent after all—it’s definitely not true in others).

Now, another thing which has ingrained itself in the mind of the world is that French people are arrogant and so self involved that every Franch man has a standing Laser Hair Removal appointment. Wrong again! I am yet to meet an arrogant French person. What they don’t like is when a) someone comes to their country and tries to speak English to them without even attempting French first, and who can blame them for that? How would an Englishman react if a French person did the same to us in our country? And when b) people impersonate their accent. This is fair enough too. Although it’s a good bit of fun, I can see how that’d get on anyone’s nerves after a while–