Eccentric Flower talk:201107/Stray Trip Thoughts

DanLyke:

Wow, I thought I was the only person on the planet who preferred drip coffee.

And are they really still chemists? I reserve that term for back when they made their own damned pills. I still respect the art of the pharmacist, actually perhaps more so now, but there's a difference between dispensing pills and mixing the mercury, radium and sulfur into the pill yourself.

-- 22:57, 22 July 2011 (BST)

Bunny42:

Last time I was in France was 1999. I don't know how much the infrastructure has changed since then, but I was mightily impressed with the TGV train ride. We were over an hour late arriving in Lyon, due to some sort of malfunction or other, but, by golly, my cousin got a letter from the TGV people, apologizing profusely for the delay and including two free passes for the next time he wanted to ride. (He had secured our tickets.) They take/took great pride in their efficiency and friendliness.

Didn't spend any time in Paris, that trip, but found very friendly and helpful people in all the small towns we visited in the South. I had the same shock in NYC that you experienced in Paris. I visited Manhattan, fully expecting to be utterly snubbed. Not so. Not at all. *shrug* Ya never know.

I've always heard that everyone in England smokes. Is that true, did you find?

-- 01:18, 23 July 2011 (BST)

Columbina:

I wouldn't say "everyone," but we certainly saw a great deal more smoking in London and especially Paris than we see in the US. Then again, Greater Boston is not what you would call a smoker-friendly environment.

-- 02:41, 23 July 2011 (BST)

ProfRobert:

Somewhere between the early '80s and mid-90s, Parisians changed. They had been profoudly rude, unpleasant people to the point that I didn't bother going back to Paris when I went around the world in '90-'91. My joke was that Parisians and Hong Kongese should compete in the World Cup of Rudeness -- it would be a great matech. But when I went for work in '95, it seemed as if the lightbulb had gone on in their collective heads: "If we are nice to the tourists, they will spend more money and come back."

There's a big anti-smoking drive in Britain and France. As in NYC, you can't smoke in pubs and restaurants anymore. However, smoking is much more a part of French culture, so you see a lot more of it on the street.

Bunny, as a native New Yorker who's lived here for about 3/4th of my life, I can tell you that, as a general rule, not only are New Yorkers not rude, they will be very helpful to visitors who ask for directions. What we are is busy, and also because New York is crowded with pedestrians and public transportation, we tend to hurry and not interact with other people. That reads to some visitors as rude or abrupt, but it's actually just busy people trying not to impose ourselves on others.

-- 19:17, 23 July 2011 (BST)

Bunny42:

Mother, who is French, has always asserted that French cigarettes aren't as harmful as American ones, because they only contain tobacco, no additives and filters. That may have been true, back in the day, but I wouldn't know about now.

As for New Yorkers, I can see that the sheer pace of life could be mistaken for rudeness. Crowds tend to be more indifferent, and frankly, I prefer it that way. But whenever I asked for assistance it was cheerfully given. Glad to hear it's the same in Paris, these days.

-- 23:47, 23 July 2011 (BST)