Tour De France Protest--Stage 16

[Doug Briggs]

Curious that Italy is nowhere on this list . Maybe they just call them national holidays........

I was wondering the same thing. I got caught in between Cervinia and Turin by an instant train strike. My brother and I ended up getting a ride from an Italian office worker to the airport and fortunately made the flight.

 

[vtrich]

I've spent quite a bit of time riding around France and I have never encountered unfriendly people, just the opposite in most places. Of course, we fly directly to either Lyon or Toulouse and so have been lucky to avoid Paris. But, we have experienced, a couple of times, long delays due to an "action" by customs officials. The workers delay appearing at their assigned station for, say, two hours,...then everything is back to normal. But as Scott43 says....its an annoying delay.

 

[newfydog]

I've got a close friend that spends a lot of time in France. I asked him about this topic, and his response was that luckily nearly all the rude French are in Paris, so don't worry about it.

Any merit to that?
.

When I was a student I used to feel they had rounded up all the a-holes and put them on a reservation, known as Paris. If you want to find a classic French snob, that is a good place to look.

Now Paris has changed, I've learned a bit about the culture, and I'm not the broke student I once was, and it doesn't seem that way anymore. Not sure just why, probably some of all of above.

Here's an entire website and book which will tell you how to not be an a-hole in their eyes, in fact, how to get the French to bend over backwards to help. They are good people deep down inside.

http://www.pollyplatt.com/pages/frenchfoe.htm