Comments on: Considering Americans stupid

By: JIll

JIll — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 05:40:52 +0000

“Jeanne d’Arc, Clovis, the Holocaust or Charles Martel. Cause these have become touchy subjects in French schools: Pauvre France!”

I find this a very interesting statement…Pauvre France indeed. Her people have been betrayed by their governemtnal ‘elites” in the past, by de Gaulle, and by the EU politbureau.

En fait, pauvre Europe…

By: JIll

JIll — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 05:36:02 +0000

Quoi? You can’t like Woody Allen AND Sex and the City and Philip Roth and CSI, etc?

Heaven forfend.

See, this is where i look askance at le Parisien…;)

By: Jon

Jon — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 02:09:18 +0000

Of course it’s unfair and ignorant to describe Americans as stupid and/or superficial. We’re a pretty heterogeneous group here in the U.S. full of all sorts of people (thoughtful, closed-minded, intelligent, not-so intelligent, progressive, conservative, etc…). But, I have to admit that there’s something about the post above that does resonate with me (i.e., with this American). After visiting France or Spain, coming back to the U.S. and hearing groups of friends greet each other (with “Ahhh, oh my God! How ARE you?), there is something mature, adult, not-put-on about the way Europeans interact with one another.

By: Carol Elizabeth

Carol Elizabeth — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 18:55:30 +0000

I am an American living in Paris. Honestly, Parisians have very little reason to smile.
They are wage-earners locked up for 41+ years in their functional role as profit-making organisms for the authoritarian state. They cannot look forward to much of anything except vacations and retirement. All are married to France for “the benefits” she offers, and have little to no capacity to step outside of that context and love anyone. Their main problem is mental depression. The French consume more depression pills than any other country in the world. You wouldn’t smile either if that was your fate! So keep on smiling America and be glad you are not French.

By: Olivier Magny

Olivier Magny — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 16:10:18 +0000

Tammy… Well, would Parisians be right?!
Dawn… No, indeed, you are not supposed to care what the Parisians think. To care for it either for that matter. Good news is though: I can recommend some really good DVDs about France if you want – don’t even have to come here any more. Gotta love this technology thing.

By: Dawn

Dawn — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 04:12:38 +0000

Are we supposed to care what the Parisians think? They usually have difficulty pronouncing my name correctly — and I don’t really care about that, either. It’s nice to strike a cord with friendly natives when you’re in a foreign country, but really, let’s all admit, when we travel to france it’s because of the history, not the big city personalities…

By: Tammy

Tammy — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:46:40 +0000

Tout a fait d’accord, Olivier, and I agree with Anna, too.

By: admin

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 10:00:33 +0000

Anna… Me neither but it happened!!
Tammy… I think that at the end of the day, this article is harder on Parisians than it is on Americans.

By: Tammy

Tammy — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:16:09 +0000

You know, sometimes tongue-in-cheek can feel like a poke-in-the-eye to a sensitive person. As, ahem, an American (yeah, living in France), I think Americans–speaking generally here, folks–are a bit prickly about their (un)certain status in the world. Is being the epicenter of hyper-drive pop-culture really any more satisfying than an UNsuper-sized packet of Doritos is to a generously-proportioned gut? Americans want to be loved, want the Hollywood ending. Oh, the Parisians do too; they just refuse to say it with their eyes or tongue.

Americans who find this post distressing or deeply disappointing need to consider that Parisians are basically about as French as New Yorkers are American, with resulting jaded rudeness and tunnel vision, because that’s how people often become in big, cold cities, as fabulous as the congested spaces may be. Not all Parisians are like this, neither are New Yorkers–hey: some of my best friends are Parisians and NY’ers…

For those who want to love and be loved back, Olivier’s right: take the rest of France in your generous embrace. Take time. And take time for a laugh at the silliness of it all.

(Blanket apology to Lagatta and the lovely neighbors to the north, but I can’t manage United States-ian).

By: anna

anna — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:27:24 +0000

… so right. I can’t believe anyone would not get the tongue-in-cheek.