Just down the road from Stephanie's restaurant, the department store Galeries Lafayette welcomes hundreds of tour buses daily at a dedicated entrance for Chinese shoppers. Parisians tend to shun the tourist crowds, so this serves as both a way to get the tourists inside more quickly and to keep them in an area with dedicated Mandarin-speaking shop assistants.
It's chaotic inside the store, especially near closing time, when guides rush their charges in the door. Chinese shoppers can be seen pushing to get to the front of the queue for a Louis Vuitton handbag.
Stephanie is trying to do her bit to make things easier for herself and the Chinese tourists who wander out of the shops and into her restaurant. She presents them with small signs written in Mandarin, warning them about pickpockets and telling them, "If they sit, they have to drink!"
She is open about the fact that Chinese clients account for a growing percentage of her profits and is certain, amid the European financial slump, that Chinese are the future of the tourist industry.
"I told my son to study Mandarin at school," she says. "Do you know how to say 'thank you' in Chinese?"
"Xiè xie," I replied.
"Well, the first time my son tried to teach me to say 'thank you' in Chinese, I told him off, because it sounded like he was swearing in French!" she says, laughing. Stephanie was too polite to say the French version in front of the camera, but I took her word for it. It seems even with the best will in the world, simple communication can still create a clash of cultures in Paris today. --Al Jazeera
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