Too harsh?

While looking back on my blog to try to find inspiration for a new post I've come to realize that I may have been too harsh on the French. Today marks my 3rd week in France and perhaps I am moving past the culture shock phase and beginning to accept that France and Canada are just different. I say this because it now seems to me that they French are politer than I initially gave them credit for, though admittedly in a very different way.

I think a more accurate portrayal would be that the French are polite and formal while Canadians are polite and welcoming. I think it was this formality that threw me for a spin initially and I interpreted it as rudeness, but I am beginning to think this is not the case. Upon entering almost any store you are greeted by the clerk with a good morning/afternoon/evening miss (or madam or sir, but I don't ever get those ones), though this does not occur in big stores. This greeting is not usually accompanied by a smile, the French do not pretend that the customers are their friends, the clerk is there to be pleasant, but has no further obligation to the customer. I have always found the tellers helpful when I have asked them a question and I did not feel that they were trying to move through me to get to the next customer. This however has a downside and checkout lines move very slowly compared to what I am used to.

I have also noticed that being polite and smiling at whoever is helping me often results in a far greater reaction than at home. Perhaps it is because the French are not used to this north american habit, but I have been the witness of some remarkable turnarounds in demeanour. One checkout clerk snapped at me that she had to go get something and left me standing there with my food halfway rung through. When she returned a few minutes later (tylenol in hand) she apologized and I replied with something like 'not a problem'. I got a 'thank you for coming in', 'have a nice evening' and a smile. Perhaps it was because she had heard me speaking English to one of my friends in line and had assumed that I was going to be an arrogant tourist, expecting her to speak in English to me. I replied to her in French, as I try to speak to everyone in French (even if they attempt to speak to me in English because after all I am in France). Even if me speaking French was not the reason for her change of heart, it was the most memorable 180 in customer service I have ever had.

It also surprises me how often I am called Miss in stores. I know that when I help customers, I rarely address them at all, unless they have they back turned to me and I can think of no other way to get their attention. I even usually begin with an 'Excuse me' for fear of offending someone with a 'Sir' of 'Ma'am' thus making them feel older than their years. Here it is just the way people address you, so no one seemes offended. I am trying not to let the prickly French exterior throw me off. They may not be overly friendly to begin with but if you are just a touch more polite than expected it can have the most impressive impact.

They are also winning me over with their pastries. Yesterday morning on my way back from my 8am class, I stopped in at the bakery at my tram stop. Its quite cold out at the moment and their windows were all fogged up because they were doing so much baking. I went into a bakery and bought a delicious croissant that couldn't have been more than a few hours old. It put all the other other croissants I have had up to now to shame. Before I had been sticking to the pain au chocolat (croissant pastry with chocolate inside, kind of like a sausage roll type structure but with more roll than sausage) because I knew they were good and had never really had awesome croissant. I will not be doing that anymore.