Having just come back from Paris I thought I’d comment on how I was received by the French. Now I’ve been to France a few times, the first time being with school. Back then I was about 13 or 14 and we stayed in a place called Seignosse where was near Bayonne. The people were lovely (especially the girls who worked there who were a few years older than us) and we had a great time, but I found French men to be quite obnoxious.
This view tainted my impressions of the French for a long time before I visited Paris years later. This was work now and I was presenting at a conference for ‘E-Business architectures’, very grand. I was by far the youngest person speaking and was followed by the Vice President for EMEA of Cisco who actually commented that my presentation had stolen much of his thunder! Ha!
Throughout the few days there I met some great people, an American who had relocated to Europe, a French guy who spoke better English than I do and one or two other folks who were also brilliant. My views of the French, especially the men, began to change. I found them accomodating even humble in some ways - much different from the arrogance I’d experienced before.
And my recent trip only served to qualify this view further. Very friendly people who were genuinely welcoming and seemed to actually value what I had to say - even if it was in English.
My only disappointment was that I didn’t see Emmanuell Beart.