Bubba J Smellins

Iffin I reads Vanitty Fair 'n' Town 'n' Country maggazeens, do y'all think I could be jerst as sofisticatet as Ubermench 'n' Lilian? cuz I think they's right about Paris - I done bin to Texas many times, 'n' Paris is jerst a hellhole.

TakeMyAdvice

Paris is wonderful,some people like it,some don't.
But liking a city does not make a person more or less wonderful...as Lilian seems to think she is.

Uber-(German)great
Mench(Yiddish)person
So far,U, you're not living up to your name.

RE:Creme brulee thread:
It was lighthearted,friendly and some people as usual took themselves too seriously-sort of like Lilian
.But like Lilian, people on these sites really need to stop taking all of this so personally-getting offended by other peoples questions and answers is so Lame!

Beth

Lillian, look what you've started, the marginals are coming out of the wood work.

Can't wait to read the posts from tonight after they start drinking. Look out...........

Fuzzbucket

Gosh some of you folks go a long way to find fault. The original posting said nothing a Paris being “unsophisticated,” rather it seemed to express some surprise that it has achieved the reputation it has as THE “romantic city.”

Suddenly people are reading into a fairly simple, straightforward question some rather ominous things. Immediately a something as inconsequential as a single misspelled word is attacked (no surprise there, this is Fodor's), then there was an oblique reference to a “super Jew,” then it is taken as an attack on someone’s personal appearance, wow! I just thought it raised an interesting point.

I hate to side with Lillian who might have gone a bit overboard, but maybe it’s true. The real Francophiles can’t face criticism of their ideal. Why such vitriol toward someone else’s opinion because it differs from that of those who love France? Relax. I’ve read it twice and don’t believe Ubermench personally attacked you or, for that matter, even Paris. It was just an observation and a few of you seem to be reading far too much into it. Having never been to Paris (France or Texas) I’ll be broadminded enough to take it under advisement. Pardon me while I proofread this and pray I didn’t misspell or misuse a word or two…

Don

What good does it do to travel the world if you can't tell anyone about it?

Capo

This is, admittedly, only the opinions of two Parisians but my girlfriend & I were discussing the people in Rome vis-a-vis the people in Paris with two Parisians we met in Rome last month and they both said they felt that Romans are, overall, friendlier than Parisians. And, although I love Paris and haven't found Parisians to be outright rude at all, that's my feeling as well: Romans, in general, are warmer, more animated, and more welcoming (perhaps because, as one guidebook noted, they've had tourists -- i.e. religious pilgrims -- coming to Rome for hundreds of years.)

I also would bet that, within France itself, one would find a lot of French people in outlying areas who feel that Parisians are not that friendly, or are comparitively rude, just as you'd probably find people in other parts of the U.S. who feel that way about New Yorkers.

s

fuzzzzwhatever-no one mentioned jew.
yiddish is a language stupid.

xxx

never mind....

Barry

Dear TAKE MY ADVICE:

Uber-Super
Mensch-Man

Ubermensch is German (not Yiddish) for SUPERMAN.

Donka.

veryannoying

Fuzzbucket aka Ubermench aka Lilian Please finish your homework and go hang out at the video arcade. You're awfully boring, even for teenagers.

who I am

I dress very nice at home, but not when I'm walking all day going sight seeing, or to museums or what ever, I wear shorts! So why should it matter if I go to another country? unless it's cold. When I have to look good or dress more chic, I do. I love Paris, been there four times, and even studied there in high school, always have worn shorts in the summer, that's who I am, I don't do pants unless I'm going out or to dinner. I don't understand the big deal? Parisians don't wear shorts, good for them, that's their choice, I do and always will, if I stick out I don't care. I have a friend who has lived there for six years, she married to a Parisian man, looks very Parisian, speaks fluent french (he doesn't even speak english), and she says that she always still will get responded to in english and that they know she's american. You cannot hide from it, so why not do what you want and quit worrying about what everyone thinks about you. "That man at the cafe, who I will never see again might think I am an american, oh no I should put some pants on and look more dressed up, because that's going to help" Give me a break!

AGM/Cape Cod

"I couldn’t believe that the French were so obsessive about their language that they cannot even print warning labels and escape plans in any other language."
I remarked to my husband when we returned from France that the French were more language accomodating than we Americans are. In the International Terminal at Logan Airport there is English and only English. In Paris there are many signs in English. All the signs at CDG are in French and English. Anie, if you are an American maybe you should think before you castigate the French for being obsessive about their language in their country. Americans are obsessive about their language in every country in the world.

Julie

Interesting to follow this thread. I, myself, have been on both sides of this issue. Our first time to Paris in 1973 was a disaster. Didn't have hotel reservations, the tourist office laughed at us, the Intercontinental Hotel people insinuated that we couldn't afford a room there and then kept us on tenterhooks day by day as to whether or not we could extend our stay. Returned saying I'd never go there again and that Brussels was what Paris should be. Went to France for several years thereafter and stayed in St. Germaine en Laye and looked across at but did not re-enter Paris. Finally went back with another couple, enjoyed ourselves mightily and now go once a year and can never get enough. Sometimes things happen wrong and it colors your idea of a place for a long time. And sometimes things happen right and you learn to love the same place. Sometimes you or the place change in between.

Zacharia

I hope that all the folks out there who can’t stand to hear questions or comments about Paris, however vaguely negative, are over their pique of heartbreak and rage. Myself, I still want to know; does anyone have an INTELLIGENT opinion on one of the original points, i.e., how did Paris become the big Kahoona of romance over other cities easily as beautiful such as Vienna, Naples, or somewhere else?

(IF YOU’RE TOO OBTUSE TO GET IT: THIS IS NOT AN ATTACK ON Paris. RELAX. NO HARM INTENDED. LEGITIMATE QUESTION. LOOK FOR RATIONAL REPLIES WITH NO MENTION OF YOUR CLOTHES. DO NOT, REPEAT, DO NOT TAKE THIS AS A PERSONAL AFFRONT ON THE French CAPITAL. TRY TO REFRAIN FROM CALLING ME A TROLL. DO NOT TELL ME TO STAY HOME; I DON’T HAVE TO. DO NOT IMPLY THAT I HAVE NO RIGHT TO ASK A QUESTION ON THIS FORUM. IF YOU FIND A MISSPELLED OR MISUSED WORD, CONGRATUALATIONS, BUT I DON’T CARE. IF YOU CANNOT ANSWER THE QUESTION WITHOUT POINTING OUT HOW MANY TIMES YOU’VE BEEN TO Paris AND HOW MUCH YOU LOVE IT AND HOW SUPERIOR IT IS TO ANYWHERE ELSE ON EARTH PLEASE DON’T RESPOND.)

Thank you. Thank you very much.

museum

The Met in NYC doesn't post labels in any language other than English. Have they changed all the labels in the Smithsonian yet?

Even Americans can't agree that English should be the primary language (there was a huge ruckus in Florida because some towns there have adopted or want to adopt Spanish as their towns' official language).

TakeMyAdvice

Barry
Yes-Ubermensche can be considered German, Superman-it originally came from the Nazi theory of Super men.
But Mensche is Yiddish for a "man, person' as in he was a real mensche.

So either way you look at it,mr ubermensche here ....Isn't.

Capo

Zacharia, I don't think that Paris is the big Kahuna of romance for everyone. Some may very well prefer Vienna, or Naples, or Prague, or Lisbon, or Dublin.

Personally I love Paris, but now that I've been to Rome twice I find it, overall, more romantic than Paris.

Ubermench just had me shaking my head with his/her claim that Paris is "just another city." To say it's not most spectacular city in the world is one thing; to say it's "just another city" borders on, IMO, the ridiculous.

Ubermensch also wrote "I think it's time to demystify the whole Paris thing as it is more mirage than reality. It's a nice place but it is a very long way from being Shangri-La."

Again, I'd agree it's not Shangri-La (or even Shangri-Ti or Shangri-Do), but it's also a lot more than simply a nice place. And why, exactly, is it "time" to "demystify" Paris when, IMO, the flaws and imperfections of Paris have never been intentionally obscured in the first place?

Ima

Which country has more rude people? Read these posts, and I can say it may well be the USA.

veryannoying

Oh, heck, now the teenagers are adding stupid and rude to boring. Zachariah, you are the poster child for planned parenthood, aren't you?

mpprh

Hi

I've been following the thread titled
This strange obsession with Paris...

It seems to me there are cities, and there are "world cities".

From my experience, world cities are -

San Francisco
Sydney
London
Berlin
Seoul
Tokyo
Cairo
Paris
Rome
Rio


In order of number of letters !

Of course this is subjective,

Any comments ?

Peter