Jaunted

Tourism Boards

Learn to Be As Rude As the French

January 9, 2007 at 9:45 AM | 0 Comments

So the French have this reputation about not wanting to speak to tourists, unless you happen to speak perfect French. Whether or not this is true is now irrelevant because the Paris Tourist Board has given up on fronting friendliness and come up with a compromise. Launched with the Cop the Parisian Attitude website, this new campaign is designed to tell the visitor how to really communicate with Parisians - for example, by learning the Gallic shrug:

1) Stick out your lower lip, 2) Raise your eyebrows and shoulders simultaneously. Use it to deny knowledge, agreement or responsibility.

You can also learn the French body language for "I'm fed up, let's go," "bad luck" and the special Parisian "shut up." If you're mature enough, there are even a set of "red card" gestures to learn. Sounds a whole lot easier than swotting over a French grammar textbook before your next trip. Most likely a lot more useful, too.

[Photo: malias]

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