|
I use a question to gauge the American on arrival, I ask them if they watch Fox News. If they fall about laughing then you know they are OK and normally tell you straight away they don't like Bush and don't know anyone who voted for him. Bit like standing in a pub back in the UK and asking "which one of you lot voted Labour" which in my experience is normally followed by deathly silence.
One chap and his wife who came to stay didn't have a car and asked to be collected from Carcassonne railway station, about 45 minutes drive from us. He was coming from Paris to Toulouse by plane then train onwards. He phoned to say he was on a later plane because he had missed the first one and would tell us all about why when he got here.
On arrival he said that Parisians didn't like Americans and that they had deliberately unscewed the the platform signs for the airport and remounted them on the opposite platform sending him in the opposite direction hence he missed his flight. They do it all the time apparently and he knew this because he came from New York and had used the subway there for 60 years so he knew a thing or two.
At dinner that night we had a headmaster and his (teacher) wife from Yorkshire and he told the two other couples (who were French and Belgian) that Margret Thatcher had given everyone in Yorkshire a free house and that a few years ago they finally got inside toilets. The couple from Yorkshire responded by saying (tongue in cheek) that the new toilets flushed as well which saved taking a bucket of water out to 'earth closet'.
The next morning at breakfast, before he sat down, he told the French and Belgians that he had now finally forgiven them for being cowards and letting the Germans march in to their country in WW2 thus resulting in Americans having to lay down their lives to get them out the sh1t yet again. Where would Europe be if it were not for America, some backwards, uncivilised backwater.
Thing was the Belgian chap was a rather large long distance lorry driver with only some English but enough to understand what was said. Fortunately I was standing directly behind where he was siting, it took all my strength to hold him down in his place.
I told the American chap that I didn't think it was a good idea for him to stay with us what with no car etc and couldn't get around so I booked a taxi for him the following morning (at 5:30, revenge can be sweet) to take him to the train station.
Yes he did watch Fox News both at night and in the morning and would prostrate in front of the TV every time Bush was on. I felt sorry for his wife who simply rolled her eyes every time he opened his mouth with the look of "what on earth is he going to say now".
We have had a few other wacky ones us well, like the woman who kept her '***' hair in a plastic back, took it out every evening and gave it a stoke (another story), I kid you not but then she did come from California where I understand they do that sort of thing.
I think I would not be alone in saying that I don't like America as a country for its politics but like all countries you will always get the good and the bad when talking about individuals. I mean we have had some pretty bad UK couples stay so we (as in Brits) don't have much to shout about either.
We tell our Americans, if they are OK, to say they are Canadian. If we don't like them we tell them they love Americans round here and to pop down the rugby bar in Quillan and let them know they are here. Seeing as two American companies closed factories down in Quillan because France would not participate in the Iraq war making nearly 8000 unemployed (both directly and indirectly) you can imagine the response they get.
We have two American couples in at the moment, not a nicer group you could ever meet.
http://www.chambresdhote.com
|