paris...
I was just flicking through the newspaper one day only to find a eurostar special offer - travel to Paris for the day for the princely sum of £25. "Bargin!" I thought. A couple of phone calls, and a few texts later and myself and a few mates were booked up for a Saturday in Paris.

It was a very early start to the day. Equipped with a map, some cash, a brand new 2 megapixel camera (cor, cutting edge tech!) we started on our journey under the channel.

The plan was simple, get to Paris, hop on the metro visit the Eiffel Tower, as you do, see Notredame, Grab a bit at a trendy french cafe, pop into the Louvre, finish on a spot of shopping if there was time, and head home; it was going to be fantastic! Paris - city of culture, fine food, etc etc.

We get as far as the metro, which was strangely quiet - a few passengers, no staff by the platform, and the destination board wasn't working. We hopped on the train, believeing it to be the right one.

How wrong we were.

It wasn't until an inspector pointed out we were heading out to the airport. The train didn't stop until it got there, wasting a HUGE amount of our time. When we got off, we told the inspector we wanted just to go straight back into town. He lead us off to his booth in the main station building so he could grab his breakfast whilst he looked down on us and made sarcastic comments.

This snooty nosed arrogant son-of-a-bitch, whilst eating a baggette (he was really going for the the WHOLE negative stereotype, here) charged us something close to £60 each in fines and refused to help us out.

Being poor students, that was pretty much most of the money we had for the trip.

After that, we all bought tickets and when back. We got to see Notredame, missed the 'tower, had about 20 minutes to rush around the Louvre, and had to make do with a McDonalds for sustenance.

On a few occasions we tried to ask for directions from various Parisians... If we spoke English, they gave us dirty looks and ignored us. If we spoke in french, they did the same.

One of my mates nearly got run over crossing at lights, and I was nearly pick-pocketed.

Honestly, it turned out to be a bit like "The Out-of-Towners". If we had gotten a flight into Paris, I would have half expected it to be hijacked.

I've been to other places in france, all have been scenic and beautiful and I have found the people to be kind, helpful, polite and very welcoming.

Paris was dirty, a disappointment, and the Parisians arseholes.
( theoriginalsteve <this space intentionally left blank>, Thu 29 Oct 2009, 11:09, 8 replies)

Paris, like London, is a bloody great time.
But it's a terrible shame it's full of (wannabe) Londoners/Parisians.

rafter
baz
(bazmorningstar efil4nat3b, Thu 29 Oct 2009, 13:32, closed)

^^this
It's always the ones who want to be from there who are the biggest cunts, before fucking off after five years and bad mouthing the place.
( @><|= w0nu!) or cunt to my friends, Thu 29 Oct 2009, 14:06, closed)

Paris...
My dad was French and as such, I've seen a lot of the area he grew up in (and where a lot of my family still live). I've always found the French to be polite, friendly people...until I went to Paris fairly recently.

Bunch of arrogant tossers - they refuse to even pretend to understand my French (which is fairly good - I've laughed and joked with French speakers in Morocco and got along fine there).

Highlight of my trip to Paris? when the arsehole taxi driver dropped me off then got a 200 Euro fine for stopping in the wrong place.

French - lovely people unless from Paris/have adopted the Paris attitude.
( snee held his breath since, Thu 29 Oct 2009, 15:22, closed)

the one thing I have heard most from French people I have met over the years is "The Parisians are NOT French!"

( theoriginalsteve <this space intentionally left blank>, Thu 29 Oct 2009, 15:54, closed)

This is
true, the rest of France hates the way that their national identity has been hijacked by Paris, and a lot of the world assumes this applies to the whole of France :(
(Obi wanker nobi Its not a bug, its an unexpected feature, Thu 29 Oct 2009, 16:28, closed)

Lets face it
Would any of the brits here want to be represented by the festering, reeking, shitpit that is our capital?

I work there occasionally, and the entire city seems populated by ignorant fuck-knuckles.

Apologies to any of the B3tans I've just tarred with the same brush. In my defence, my home-town's full of cretinous northern radges who point at aeroplanes.
(_(_(_(_(_(_(_(_(_ =o.o=, Thu 29 Oct 2009, 19:33, closed)

I'd been to Paris a few times and until the last visit, would have agreed with this
but the last time I went was with a couple of my mates who are gay men.
I agreed to have a gay few days in Paris with them and we spent time in gay bars, clubs and restaurants and the experience was completely different in that everyone was extremely friendly.
( Flowerpot No longer has the vapours thanks to DTH, Thu 29 Oct 2009, 18:12, closed)

They're not entirely bad.
But then again we didn't have english accents.

'Course, this was just after France "beat" us in the semis of the world cup....
(Scritty Bakerman., Thu 29 Oct 2009, 22:45, closed)