Dennis, my day job is processing holds and several of my coworkers are Russians whom, you remember, were not fond of French back when the 1812 overture was written.

Marie Antoinette's supposed quote was, "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche." Not "gateau," which is what we'd really think of as cake; brioche is, as Jason notes, a kind of fancy bread/pastry. The actual source of the quote was Rousseau, who only attributed it to "a great princess," and it could well have been invented by him.

Actually, Dennis, my French colleagues are still some of my favorite people in all the world. I loved my time with them, and most of the locals I met were wonderful. I was moved almost to tears at their city's memorial to WWI's Lafayette Escadrille. I still choke up a bit when "Flyboys" comes on. (No sarcasm intended or implied, even though I'm hardly a James Franco-phile.) And Jean Reno is an enormously talented actor; like Liam Neeson, he's able to play both incredibly tough and amazingly tender not only between movies, or within a movie, but even in the same *scene*.

And I was enormously bummed when my own trip to Paris fell through a while back. One day...

But I distinguish between individual French people or even groups of them, and the French nation as a whole. I'll happily toast "Vive les Français". But for the entire country in all its checkered history, alas, my glass is only half full.

.
http://www.facebook.com/cheesesoffrance

“A jug of bread, a loaf of wine, and thou…and cheese!” – Steve “O.K.” Urkel, liberally paraphrased.

I recall that if looks could kill, I, too, would be six feet under in Paris. I didn't understand that French coins represented larger values than American ones. In a hurried, frazzled state, I asked a woman inside a Metro ticket booth if I should have received more money back. Augh!!! Run Away! Run Away! I'd never seen such a mean look, which is saying something considering my family of origin.

Also, I was rather angry with my guide book when I went looking for the Moulin Rouge. The book euphemistically said the area was given over to "night life." Imagine my surprise when I found myself on a street of strip-tease clubs. Rather upscale looking strip joints, but strip joints none-the-less. Run away! Run away! Actually, I simply kept walking - I think to get to Mont Marte and Sacré Cœur. I received lots of comments in French; I was alone and had no idea what was being said. With my head up and face forward, I kept walking while enjoying the trees and sunshine.

After my first trip on the Metro to find my inexpensive hotel (I moved to a Youth Hostel the next day), I emerged to find an empty street not knowing which way to walk. A woman finally passed. She so wanted to give proper directions, but really didn't speak English. A young man who did speak English stopped and gave perfect directions to the hotel, which was just a few blocks and a few turns away.

I was on the verge of tears when I arrived at the hotel desk. The kind man there politely checked me in, carefully explained how to find my room and introduced me to the smallest elevator I'd ever seen. I and my backpack barely fit. The elevator went up and stopped. Nothing more happened. I pushed the button for the ground floor. The elevator went down and stopped. Nothing more happened. I tentatively moved the door. Oh! I need to open it myself! I pushed the button for my floor. The elevator went up. I opened the door!!!! I found my room, unlocked the door with the strangest key I'd ever seen, locked the door and proceeded to weep on the bed. Thanks to the kindness of many strangers (and I haven't even detailed the nightmare of traveling from Amsterdam to Paris and the kindness I met along the way), I had arrived.

Actually, the place I want to go is Istanbul. Thousands of years of Imperial history, every ethnic in the world mixing amicably without combining into a modernist blah, walls that defied a dozen sieges, great cathedrals, spies of every nation swarming about. And coffee. Though I hear they like tea better there now, the dishonorable traitors.

Ellen,
Thanks for sharing your adventure.
You should read McCullough's book "The Greater Journey."
Reading your adventure is like reading his book. He is quite descriptive of
Paris in the 1800s.
Heck what you posted might even convince Jason and LeeQuod how unfair they are to the French. :) Then again maybe not.

"How you gonna keep her down on the farm, after she's seen Boise-eee?"

Also I will concede that a French accent does sound well in a female.

Indeed, fur trading and the French are part of Idaho's history, as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre's_Hole

Dennis, I rather enjoyed Paris. I had just spent four months in England studying English Literature and ... American history. I was rather tired by the time I arrived in Paris after a hellish trip from Amsterdam.

I had heard tales of French rudeness to Americans, but didn't experience any of it for myself. My all purpose question stated previously served me well with everyone. Perhaps being a young female with a shy, polite manner helped as well. I had learned to drink tea in England and learned to drink coffee in Paris. If I stood at the counter drinking my morning coffee with a croissant, it cost less than if I sat down.

In running from a polite, but loud and obnoxious Mex-Tex American, I found refuge in Notre Dame Cathedral. I arrived there a bit past 6pm in the evening; a service was underway in the nave. The few visitors admiring the Cathedral were respectfully hushed. It was a wonderful introduction! The next day I went back to climb the tower - I loved climbing any tower I found. The tourist scene/zoo was an assault the the senses. I paid my money and climbed the tower anyway. I loved the gargoyles.

I walked along the river and drank cafe-au-laits in coffee houses watching people and life amongst centuries old beautiful buildings. I managed to find Jimi Hendrix' grave site at Pere le Chez cemetery with the help of a young German man who spoke English and French as well. I climbed to Sacré-Cœur Basilica and read a pamphlet stating "there is no superstition here". I sat on the steps with other young people admiring the surrounding city while discussing and debating life with all its intricacies.

And I boycotted all the museums! =O I was sick to death of museums and simply enjoyed the living, breathing museum of being in Paris and spending time there with other travelers passing through. I did walk past the Louvre. I met a young man from Australia who was staying with his French relatives. He introduced me to two hour lunches complete with red wine. Perhaps people were so pleasant to me because while I was sightseeing with him, I had him ask all my questions of French people.

And I ate several ham sandwiches, because "jambon" was often the only thing I recognized on the menu. I also climbed the Arc de Triomphe, but passed on the Eiffel Tower - too few francs in my pocket and too little energy in my legs.

My time in Paris was spent solo in between spending time with friends in Amsterdam and then in Cologne, then West Germany. It was a wonderful time of stretching my wings a bit and relying upon resources within me. Thanks for letting me relive it a bit!

Canoes for carrying fur, Gina.

They are a little known part of Western history because they never made it to the movies. But French-Canadian "Voyageurs" carried fur through Canada's maze of rivers all the way across the continent.

There have been herding empires, farming empires and trading empires. Canada has the unusual distinction of having, for a long time, been a hunter-gatherer empire. Indian and White trappers and hunters would sell their furs at trading posts including old man McLoughlin's Fort Vancouver. They would be carried in great canoe caravans across the continent, sometimes portaged overland when necessary. From there they would arrive in Hudson's Bay where they were sent to markets in Europe and the East Coast. Lincolns top hat might well have been taken from a beaver in Oregon and taken across Canada by the Voyageurs

Lee of course Marie Antoinette didn't say "let them eat cake". She would have said "Laissez-les manger le gâteau." :)
Actually I agree with you that she probably didn't say that.

Fur canoes? Wouldn't there be a problem when they got wet?

(Just messing with you, Jason. ;-) )

Marie Antoinette never did say that and if she had she would have literally meant that she wanted people to have cake(by the way the proper translation is "expensive bread" not "pastry")if they were starving. She was a bit ditzy but she was not callous and she had a personality not unlike Princess Di.

The French bore an absurd grudge against her for having an Austrian mother and accused her of dissolute behavior beyond the Versailles standard of which I can't remember any evidence. It was effectively an early nineteenth century example of Politics of Personal Destruction.

Ellen what did you think of Paris?
McCullough's description of Paris in the early 1800s makes it sound like a very beautiful place.
The closest I've ever gotten to Paris is Paris, Ill.
As for the Boston Tea Party, it still didn't stop Americans from drinking tea.
Also the Boston Tea Party was planned in a coffee house. How's that for irony? This little tidbit is ar no extra cost. :)

A Frenchman did invent Medevac and ER, Baron Dominique Larrey.

Samuel Champlain founded Canada.

And Oregon had an easier time being settled because the Hudson Bay Companies fur canoes were manned by Frenchmen.