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"Bonjour ! Vous-parlez anglais ?"
.. And that is how I have been starting conversations. The French refuse to speak English to you unless you ask them first (in French) whether or not they can speak the universal (in my humble opinion) language. No wait, first, you've to greet them. In French of course. For quite a few hours, I wondered why they were so rude. Typical scene ...
(Me approaching random stranger) "Hey hi, do you know .."
(Stranger walks off with a wave or a shrug)
Then I thought maybe they weren't locals so I tried the shops/cafes around. However, upon stepping into them, after some few seconds of eye contact, I'll be given the evil eye by them. And when I try to approach them, some will pretend to be all busy and interested in a non-descript item lying around. The others ...
(Me approaching random local) "Hey hi, do you know how to get to XXX ?"
(Stranger frowns at me)
(Me, confused) "Uh I'm sorry, do you speak English ?"
(Stranger glaring at me) "No" (Stalks off)
After some hours of learning things the hard way, I found out that when you enter wherever, just an acknowledgement nod (like we do in Singapore) alone isn't enough. Greet them with a hearty 'Bonjour !'. Most of them break into a smile at that. Thereafter, approach them and ask in French whether or not they speak English. They will probably answer 'A little bit', and even if they don't, they will direct you to someone who can. That was good enough for me. By the end of the day, I learnt how nice the French could be when they see that you've manners. Too bad, we're gonna leave Paris early tomorrow morning. :(
Anyway, today was pleasant. We had a free day to roam about so we went to the Louvre. The Tour de France was going on then and it was so exciting ! The crowd and road blocks were a pain though - we had to walk two extra streets to get around the crowd to get to Champs-Elysees. We were going to have a picnic under the Eiffel Tower in the evening but due to the road blocks and such, we had to do it near Les Invalides where Napoleon's tomb is at :( Not as exciting but oh well.
After the picnic though, some of us took a boat cruise down River Seine (8 euros) and it kinda made up for dinner. If you guys are gonna go for the cruise too, I'd suggest you check what would be the best time while buying tickets at the counter. You'll wanna make sure that you're just about passing the Eiffel Tower when it starts its daily 5-minutes light show. Only problem is that you'll have to deal with other overzealous and inconsiderate passengers jostling to take a (million) picture(s) with the tower as a backdrop. I'm actually surprised that no one fell overboard. :P Ahh, I say just sit back and absorb the sight before you.
Anyhow, Scott has briefed us on what to expect in Switzerland tomorrow and I can't wait ! The 10-hours journey would be such a pain in the ass though. Pun intended, ha ha ha.
Okay, later !
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