Doesn't anyone read the travel advisories that always warn against using ice cubes? or drinking local water ...
Now, France. As much as I don't want to go to Europe, I'd kind of like to travel in the south of France - see the colours that some of my favourite painters saw. And rude tourists, and rude host people - they're all over the place. <shrug> Ya can't pin them on any one nationality - just as you can't say that one nationality is more hospitable, or has the best travellers. Yutzes abound.
I suspect most of us try not to be yutzes - but some people are simply oblivious.
Hi Francis. I don't actually think that most English people hate the French. It's just one of those things that we like to talk about when Thierry Henry puts his 3rd goal past David James! I've only been to France twice (Brittany and Nice), and both times as a teenager, but I can't remember having any problems or meeting any rude French people. I was young, British, spoke very little French (bonjour, merci, s'il vous plait etc) and everyone treated me fine. As for why so many people visit France? Fantastic food, wine, art, architecture, beaches, mountains, countryside... The choice of people that the French vote as their leaders is none of my business.
And as CI has mentioned, the snobbery of Paris can't be much worse than the snobbery of London, where having an accent like mine makes some people look at you like you're a performing monkey...
The media here seems to get much more frenzied when we have to play Germany. But don't tell Walter.
The British love to moan, but hate to complain.
I have never heard of travel advisories for French water, or German or English for that matter. In fact, isn't Evian from France?
In third world countries it is definitely advisable to avoid water and ice cubes. I got sick in Jamaica once and wouldn't wish that on anyone.
See, guys, talking like civilized people
Evian's nasty stuff. Lotsa bacteria in it.
Don't you remember the play "Don't drink the water", cj? It was about travel in Europe.
My understanding of the whole water/ice cube prohibition is that it has to do with unfamiliar microbes that can cause problems. You generally should be cautious about drinking water/using ice cubes anytime you're away from home. I never drink water/use ice cubes when I travel - whether it's in Wisconsin or across an ocean. Same thing with eating fruit that can't be peeled - don't do it unless I'm at home.
I'll make a study on the probability to be sick with ice cubes water in France. I bet it will be under that of USA.
Evian, contrex, perrier, volvic and many others are from France.
ehBeth wrote:My understanding of the whole water/ice cube prohibition is that it has to do with unfamiliar microbes that can cause problems. You generally should be cautious about drinking water/using ice cubes anytime you're away from home. I never drink water/use ice cubes when I travel - whether it's in Wisconsin or across an ocean. Same thing with eating fruit that can't be peeled - don't do it unless I'm at home.
I've heard it is also to do with levels of (natural) sulphates in the water. In the UK, our sulphates are low, but in Spain they are high. Sulphates "loosen" certain bodily functions, so when a Brit (or anyone else from a low-sulphate area) drinks a lot of Spanish tap-water they become, ahem, "loosened". :wink:
Or the inverse - an equally unpleasant surprise.
I'm so not drinking the water in Wisconsin.
When exposed to unfamiliar bacteria, you can be sick.
When you protect yoursef too much, you decrease the efficiency of your antimicrobian barriers.
Perrier - isn't that they way France gets rid of its petroleum refining byproducts?
I believe that levels of sulphates in France are slightly higher than Britain, but lower than Spain, so a Briton should be able to drink tap-water in France without any problems.
Once some lubrifying products from a bottling machine got into the water.
The production from 3 hours bottling come into the market.
That did such a mess but as long as I know, nobody was sick.
Meanwhile, BJ was easier!
Thats it. I dont repeat the same mistake (even with different people) thrice
I wondered why they rarely offer water in restaurants. I'd forgotten about this ...
Quote:The rip-off became even more egregious when we read in last Sunday's Star that Coke is a leader in the campaign to get consumers off tap water - water in general, but tap water in particular - in exchange for beverage or bottled water, naturally supplied by Coke.
Armed with a ``Just Say No to H2O,'' campaign, Coca-Cola has been training restaurants to stop offering free water and, instead, suggest beverages and offer free refills to increase sales.
And for consumers who are converts to the regimen of six to eight glasses of water daily, Coke came up with an answer - at a cost, of course.
Coke's own brand of bottled water, Dasani, comes not direct from springs in the mountains of Quebec. Rather, Coke takes local tap water, purifies it, adds some ``minerals'' to enhance taste and then sells the once-free stuff for whatever the market will bear.
http://www.greatlakesdirectory.org/zarticles/95water.htm
Quote:Several studies, including one done by Toronto's health department in 1990, show serious problems with bottled water. Some brands have more impurities than tap water. Testing standards and government regulations are not strict enough.
In fact, you could be buying water that's worse than what you can drink for free.
I think I'll stick to tea (the water better be dang well boiled).
hehehehe
apparently John Kerry is anti-Perrier
Quote:An excerpt from a lengthy interview with Senator John Kerry in the NY Times, October 10 ......... Kerry and I met, ...., in a hotel room overlooking the Ferris wheel on the Santa Monica pier. A row of Evian water bottles had been thoughtfully placed on a nearby table.
Kerry frowned. "Can we get any of my water?" he asked..........
I asked Kerry, out of sheer curiosity, what he didn't like about Evian.
"I hate that stuff," Kerry explained to me. "They pack it full of minerals."
"What kind of water do you drink?" I asked, trying to make conversation.
"Plain old American water," he said.
"You mean tap water?"
"No," Kerry replied deliberately. He seemed now to sense some kind of trap.
I was left to imagine what was going through his head. If I admit that I drink bottled water, then he might say I'm out of touch with ordinary voters. But doesn't demanding my own brand of water seem even more aristocratic? Then again, Evian is French -- important to stay away from anything even remotely French.
"There are all kinds of waters," he said finally. Pause. "Saratoga Spring."
This seemed to have exhausted his list.
"Sometimes I drink tap water," he added. (emphasis added)
(Editor's note: In the interest of political fairness, if information is available on what water the President drinks, we will print that also.)
http://www.safedrinkingwater.com/archive/2004/sdwn102004.htm
Giving water, when asked, is compulsory in french bars and restaurants.
Just as an aside, I'd like to state the reasons why I personally like the French:
Giving wine to children in sensible amounts
Baguettes (hot, fresh, buttered)
The Metric system
Low levels of taxation on booze & fags
Croissants (hot, fresh, buttered)
Allowing Thiery Henry & Eric Cantona to play in the English league
Their love of garlic in cooking (the king of all flavours, IMO)
Executing their royal family and aristocracy 400 years ago (I wish we had)
The Citroen 2CV
Daft Punk (house dj's/producers)
Julie Delpi, and any other attractive Frenchwoman speaking English (soooo sexy)
Would anyone care to agree/disagree?
It used to be automatically slapped on the table as soon as you sat down in a restaurant here. Now you have to explicitly request it.
I remember the hubbub when that started.
Just for them executing their royal family : it was 211 years ago!
