bbc
The idea of service is taken very seriously in France where any feeling of subservience is strongly resisted, as Emma Jane Kirby discovered.
It may be the city of romance and a Mecca for tourists, but right now Paris feels and looks like it just cannot be bothered any more to turn on the charm.
The customer is allegedly always right in London but, in Paris, he or she is little more than an irritant.
Cab 'service'
A couple of months back, I broke my leg in a skiing accident and became completely reliant on Paris's taxi service.
He drove up, glanced at my plastered leg and drove straight off again shouting: "I don't take cripples. Your crutches might damage my paintwork!"
Somewhat stupefied, I hailed the next cab in line and politely asked the driver if I could sit up front as it was easier for my leg.
"I'm not arranging my whole damn cab to accommodate you," he snapped. "I've got all my personal things piled on the front seat!"
'I'm not your slave'
The fact is Parisians employed in any service industry simply do not buy into the Anglo Saxon maxim, "He who pays the piper calls the tune."
The revolution of 1789 has burned the notion of equality deep into the French psyche and a proud Parisian finds it abhorrently degrading to act subserviently.
"They're at the other end of the stall," snapped the vendor waspishly. "Take a bit of exercise and get them yourself."
There is no mistaking the undertone, "I'm not your slave."
"In France your waiter expects to be addressed formally as Monsieur, in exactly the same way he will address you ".
Linkback:
https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=25103.0
