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Who was it that declared, “The problem with France is that it’s inhabited by the French!” ?

Wonder what happens to the keys …

@Can’t Hark My Cry:

Wonder what happens to the keys…

Qui sait?

Wonder what happens to the keys …

Poison fish, at a guess.

The French key to love is underwater? That explains a lot.

I have had limited exposure to European French. Predominantly negative interactions ensued during conversations attempted. Much worse in my experience has been French-CANADIANS. All of my Canadian friends and acquaintances agree with my observations: How is it fuucking possible to be more abrasive, pompous, aloof, condescending, and disdainfully snobbish than THE French? I dunno, but my trigger finger itches whenever I am forced to have business interaction with them.

Back in the mid-90’s I worked on a couple of contract jobs overseas – on the first project (located in Germany), I worked alongside a guy who had been working European contracts for a couple of years, and had done one six-months-long stint in Paris. When asked about his time there, he would smile and say, “Nice city, Paris – too bad it’s usually full of Frenchmen…”

After I went there for an extended-weekend excursion midway through my time on that contract, I pretty much understood what he meant.

As an army brat growing up in Germany, we had a saying: France was always nice to visit except it was so filled with French people.

je me souvien. Watchword of the French creoles in New Orleans who were kicked out of Canada for being TOO French-Canadian.

Lester III answered my question about whether the French are worse than French-Canadians. No! My experiences include 300 pound French-Canadians who dress in speedos in Maine, altercation with a nest of them at the Gilroy garlic festival, and an actual knock down fight in Williamsburg!

After Montreal, Paris sounds like a dream.

Most of the Frentch Canajans I’ve met have been at Bike Weak in Laconia, NH. They were okay, but I wouldn’t take one home to show to my mommy.

Imagine what all those keys are doing to the water of the Seine.

Comment from Nina
Time: June 18, 2014, 1:24 am

Imagine what all those keys are doing to the water of the Seine.

If I had a time machine, I’d go back & make sure that all keys in France were made of a lead/arsenic alloy.

{sigh} Well, I’ll have to stand by the French.

I have (distant) family there. When I visited them in 2000 (not in Paris; much further east, near the border), they were wonderful.

tomfrompv @ June 18, 2014, 12:11 am:…the French creoles in New Orleans who were kicked out of Canada

Actually, the Creoles were the French colonists who went straight to Louisiana. They owned the plantations and ran New Orleans.

The French in Louisiana who came from Canada were the Cajuns. They were deported from “Acadia” (northern Nova Scotia) by the British. They arrived in Louisiana with nothing and settled the back bayous.

And the pejorative term for Cajuns is…? Anyone?

My grandma was French. She pretty much poisoned the well for me.

My mother told me many years ago that the pejorative term for Cajuns, which they hate to be called, is “boogalee.” I lived in Lafayette, the big city of SW Loozyana, in the late ’70s, and never heard anyone say that term, so I dunno.

Oh, and there was “coonass,” which I did hear and which no one seemed to resent.

And the pejorative term for Cajuns is…? Anyone?

Frenchie?

White Trash?

Swamp ________ (fill in the blank.

I think France is like most places (only more so) in that the urban areas are filled with insufferable obnoxious twits but the rural areas aren’t so bad.

The Parisians even treat other Frenchmen like crap.

My mother said it was coonass. They moved to Baton Rouge when she was a teenager (grandpa was from Nawlins). My granfather apparently had a Cajun accent, though he wasn’t one.

And yes, rural French people are a different kettle of frogs. Lots of Brits retire there. It has about the same population as Britain but with much more land, so it feels more rural. Things are cheap, especially housing.

“Me an’ mah family call it coonass, yah!”

The worst thing the British did at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham was to stop shooting.

“I’d rather have a German division if front of me than a French battalion behind me.”
— Gen. George S. Patton

Married a man from Henderson La. The most pejorative term for them, and yes, they were all Cajuns, was web-foot. From their affinity to the local swamps. Most of them made their livelihood from it. The label of Coon ass was worn with pride. Now in our oh so correct lives, We don’t use coon ass in public. But privately it’s still a term used with pride. As a point of interest – while hubby served in Vietnam, he and other Cajuns were very often asked to talk to the locals because they did speak French.
BTW, never have heard of boogalee.