It makes us smile. But it doesn’t make English people smile at all ! :D
… History won’t change in a snap of a finger ! It’s going to take time to change mentalities.
But, look… Mine has begun !
I went to England full of clichés. Maybe as people who come in France thinking we are all rude or with beret on our head.
Trips make you grow.
And I’ll keep in mind the kindness of Englishmen we met.
We had the chance to meet nice and helpful people.
I’ll remember this city’s cleanliness and organization.
Believe me … Come to Marseille or even Paris and you’ll see the difference …
I love my country. As I wrote in a post, French people can and do criticize France. But we are the only one to have the right to do it. :)
France has a lot of good points.
As I told to Casanova, French way of living is between England and Italy.
We’re Latin trying to live as Anglo-Saxons…
Sometimes we succeed. Sometimes we don’t.
Sometimes it’s funny. Sometimes it doesn’t at all.
Sometimes it’s better. Sometimes it’s not.
Sometimes, I feel proud. Sometimes I feel ashamed.
And for cleanliness , organization and public spiritedness, London wins against Paris or Marseille. Without any problem !
On the same time we were in London, my third sister went to Marseille (which is very close to where we live and which is our native town for 3 of us – we’re 4 sisters).
She wanted to discover the town as a tourist, with her little family, Marseille being for one year European Knowledge's Capital.
She came back so discouraged and disappointed.
So many dysfunctions : pavements and roads still in refection, museums closed from May to November, or totally disorganised, giant and empty mall with just ONE open shop …
They wanted to go in a very beautiful place.
Town Hall says “don’t use car, bus will pick you up there”.
OK.
They’ve waited for 1.30 hour for the bus. When it arrived, there were only 20 places in it. Of course, it was full. They had to wait for 1.30 hour again ! So they walked for 40 minutes. For the way back, they stopped a car because children were exhausted! …
How can it be ?...
Marseille has been designated European Capital in 2008 !! FIVE YEARS ! How can it be still in public works ? Why is it so messy ?
Some places are in public works for almost 10 years !
Are we finally, as Italy, corrupted by Mafia ? And we have the pretention to think we’re different ?
I love my country, I want to be proud of it.
But believe me, at the moment, with politics who hide millions in swiss banks and those kind of things, I would like to live anywhere else.
Then, it happens things in “anywhere else” who make me say that my country is not too bad, finally…
The next time I’ll go to London (yeeeeees, I want to hope I’ll go back !), I would like to see where is Scotland Yard (someone could explain to me why it’s called SCOTLAND, while it should be ENGLAND ?), I would like to make “Jack the Ripper tour”, I would like to have enough money to go to Harry Potter’s studio (because it’s so expensive, you have to sell one eye to pay it !), I would like to visit the British Museum and Cathedral St Paul and Leadenhall Market …
So many things to do, not enough time … I hope we’ll go back one day.
For the moment, I'm concluding my London's trip by sharing with you my cab's obsession !
I used to think they were all black and serious ...
Then I discovered others and I couldn't stop making pics !
The french touch ... ;)
Signed :
Axelle the Maniac Photographer !
I have really enjoyed all your posts about London. You are a good photographer! These taxi's are so great -- really colorful and interesting. I would have taken photos of them too!
ReplyDeleteI learned a little about French buses while in Avignon last month - we wanted to take a bus to a nearby village/town (L'Isle sur la Sorgue) and the bus stop was not posted and the schedule was so hard to understand. But we persevered and with the help of a very kind Frenchman (who spoke great English, thankfully) we found our bus and all was well.
Living in Switzerland I am spoiled by dependable and plainly posted transportation systems.
I should add, we had a delightful time in the area of Avignon, Nimes, Sur la Sorgue and Pont du Gard. And met lots of nice people who smiled and were helpful. And the food :-) yum.
Thank you for your comment, Susan !
DeleteI'm happy to know you'd like your french trip ! And I'm totally relieved to know you found some nice and smiley people. Maybe we're changing, that's a good thing. I suppose there are nice and stupid people everywhere, for sure.
And thankfully, food is good here !!!! :D
Dear Axelle-That was a very honest exposition. Perhaps towns and cities would benefit from looking at themselves as a tourist would see them, from time to time, as a way of checking their "presentation" shall we say. Much in the way we might, as private citizens, prepare our homes when expecting guests. Perhaps what I speak of is HOSPITALITY. Whether it is hospitality to your family (cities and towns to residents) or whether it is hospitality to your guests (cities and towns to out of town folk). Thank you for your London Posts. They were fun to see. Regards-Jamie
ReplyDeleteI do totally agree with you, Jamie. Even of the way we look our town. For example, my husband is born where we actually live and he doesn't like Marseille at all. He told me : "grass is growing under pavements and we have the feeling to be in a East city, like Romania !". But I made him notice that even in our actual town, there are places where "grass is growing under pavements", for example and we don't notice it because we're used to live with.
DeleteThank you for your comment, dear Jamie.
Friendly.
Dear Axelle, What fun to see your taxi photographs and to read your post on as Jamie says, "Hospitality." I totally agree, we should look at our town as a tourist would and make it better for all and our homes as well. I hope you get to go to England and Scotland again soon. Our youngest son, the traveler, really enjoyed Wales, too.
ReplyDeletelove and prayers, jep
Dear Jep, thank you for enjoying this written tour :) Yes, Jamie is right. I guess cities could only be better, if we succeed to look at them as we would like to see them as tourists.
DeleteYour son has traveled a lot ! So France, England, Scotland ? Where did he go again ?
I really like this post and I agree with you: France can have the best and the worst. It's very obvious. But maybe all the other countries also have really bad sides, except that they are not so obvious to tourists :)
ReplyDeleteI totally would have taken pictures of all the taxis, like you! It's funny that they are all the same kinds of cars. In Paris, the taxis can be BMWs or Volvols or Mercedes, or even Skodas (I had never seen a Skoda in my life before my trip to Paris). (In Switzerland, all the taxis were Mercedes! Here, they are all Fords I think.)
Thank you for this comment, Dr CaSo. I'm actually reading "Motel Blues", from our friend Bill Bryson :).
DeleteAnd,he shows us an US side that we don't see, when we go over there as tourist.
So, I'm asking to myself (yes... I'm talking to me a lot ! ... ;D) : maybe we're too demanding with our cities because we're expecting from them to be perfect, to be "fit to be seen", to be our proud, because as children who are bad educated can make you feel the judgement of people on your way to educate them, to have a beautiful town give, to foreigners, a bad or good opinion of what we are.
I don't know if I can be understood :)
And I don't have the good answer.
Incroyable ces taxis ! Ado, c'était un rêve d'aller à Londres. Toujours pas réalisé, malheureusement.
ReplyDeleteTes photos me donnent envie de concrétiser la chose.
Coucou VerO et très heureuse de te lire ici :)
DeleteJe comprends que ce soit un rêve. Et si tu as l'occasion, vraiment, à ne pas rater ! Un rêve reste un but qui nous permet d'avancer, je crois.
Et un rêve d'ado, en plus, ça a un parfum de légèreté , de joie et de saveurs d'avenir ... hhhaaa, où sont mes rêves d'ados ! ... :)