The French love Jerry Lewis.
French children and French film critics love Jerry Lewis. Other
people don't care, or they think he is a blues
singer. There is an excellent explanation at http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a991001.html.
They eat things that shouldn't be eaten: frogs, snails,
horses, etc (seen in That's Why I Hate the French)
Horse meat tastes good. Frogs and snails taste like chicken.
The French eat cheese.
Well... yes. "How can one conceive of a one party system in a country
that has over 200 varieties of cheese?" (Charles de
Gaulle)
The French are rude.
Tourists are a
renewable resource in France. Whether we are polite or not, they
will come anyway. So why should we bother?
French people have body odor.
MacDonald's restaurants have food odor.
The French don't speak English. When they do, they have a terrible
accent.
Il paraît que de moins en moins d'Américains apprennent une langue
étrangère à l'école. C'est assez inquiétant. Lorsque les Etats-Unis
perdront leur suprématie, dans quelques décennies, ils ne pourront
même plus sortir de leur pays.
The French will not speak English even if they can.
The ones I know, on the contrary, are glad to show how
smart they are by taking any chance to show that they speak (more or
less correctly) another language.
The French are arrogant.
The British
are more arrogant than the French. When you come to London from
Paris by train, what is the name of the train station in London?
Waterloo Station (you know what Waterloo is, don't you?)
That is arrogance.
The French surrender easily to the enemies
Well... yes. Most countries in continental Europe
surrender to and invade their neighbours very often.
They consider themselves the world's best lovers
French people don't consider themselves love
specialists. Foreigners consider French people love specialists, or
they consider that the French consider themselves love
specialists.
The French drive like lunatics
Well... yes. On the other hand, French pedestrians walk like
lunatics. There is a war in Paris between pedestrians and cars. It's
so boring to cross the street when the little man is green. See How
to cross the road in Europe.
The French blew a Greenpeace ship up.
Well... the government did. Then they lied about it for a
few weeks, and eventually fired one of the ministers.
French movies are boring.
Films you don't see are always boring.
There are nude scenes in French movies
Well... yes. A few mainstream movies even feature pornographical
scenes nowadays.
French food is good.
Well... yes.
French people take a lot of time for lunch.
See above.
French people kiss everywhere in the street.
Well... foreign tourists kiss everywhere in the streets
because they think this is what you do when you are in
Paris.
French people are late at meetings
Well... Time is money, but money is not that
important, is it?
There are laws about French-music quotas in radio broadcasts, and
about using French in advertisements.
Well... yes.
France would be a nice country if French people didn't inhabit
it.
That's an old joke, really. Funny, but
old. But funny.
Hollywood's France
According to American movies:
Every appartment or hotel room in Paris has a breathtaking
view of the Eiffel Tower.
Some of them only
have a view on the Sacré-Coeur. Or both.
France consists of Paris, the French Riviera, and nothing
else.
Very few films will show other parts of
France than the capital and what the French call Côte-d'Azur (Blue
Coast).
French waiters and tradesmen can speak English
... but they still say common expressions in French:
"Bonjour monsieur", "pardon", "s'il vous plaît", "c'est la
vie", etc. These words happen to be the only ones the American
tourist knows in the movie.
French people wear a béret, walk with fresh bread and a
bottle of wine in their arms.
I almost forgot that one.
As we proved at Agincourt and Waterloo, a good kicking on their gallic derrieres is the only language the greedy frogs understand. (Daily Star, March 1998)
About the author...
mblase says: The French start their sentences with "Well..." an awful lot, too. :-)
Well... Err... yes.