I Boycotted French Goods Today

How very strange. I’ve been going to France for over 30 years and never experienced the behaviour you describe.

 

I must say that I have bike toured and holiday'd in France many times and have had nothing but a warm welcome and fine service.

 

Agreed. I had a similar experience on my recent trip to France.

 

Only crossed France in recent years rather than touring there, but can't say i've ever experienced any probs - other than general Pairisian rudeness of course, but they are like that with other Frenchies too.

In 2014 doing the WW1 sites, had friendly welcomes and some good nights drinking with locals. And since then have made good friends with a few French bikers we've met at Gedinne in Belgium at the classic racing.

My attempts at French usually get everyone laughing, which always helps to break the ice

DS

 

Yes far nicer than the Scottish.

 

I spent much of my childhood and youth in France with French relations and friends,since then (like here) much has changed and for the worse.
I can’t be bothered to travel in France anymore,it’s expensive,large parts of the countryside are closed,particularly smaller towns after 12.30pm,booking accommodation is a pain and the food is not as good as they think it is!
The police are far too interested in speed traps and quite frankly many of their roads are just plain boring,never mind the French themselves.
Spain and Portugal every time for me and I’ll NEVER ride through France again.

 

Was in a restaurant in Paris with a mate a few years back.
My french is extremely basic, so we're talking in english.
Towards the end of the meal, the waitress made a derogatory comment to the manager after we pointed out that the dessert wasn't what we had ordered.
What they didn't know was that my mate was in fact actually a native Parisian himself, and proceeded to prove it by laying into them for about 10 minutes, with hardly a pause for breath, and we then ended up with the correct dessert and a nice free meal

 

This is what I’ve found.

Paris. Unfriendly, poor food and portions. Expensive.
Rest of France. Beautiful country, awesome weather (especially down in the south), friendly and helpful. Here’s an example of a friendly local. A few months back in my motorhome, I got totally lost when several roads were closed and the GPS couldn’t figure out what to do. I pulled over and this French lady just came up to me and asked if I was lost and where I wanted to go to. She figured out how to get out of the mess I’d got myself into and drew me a map.
Most places with the Euro are expensive. It is here in the Netherlands.

I will still go to France as it’s an amazing country with an interesting history and I’d definitely go back to the campsite I stayed on in the Dordogne. Lovely big pitches and close to several chateaus and places of interest.

 

Sounds like the UK!

 

Not sure it's possible to rate "France" as a whole.
From the inside, there are big differences between regions.
people from the north (Pas de Calais) are so different from people from Marseilles, People from Lyon are supposed to be not friendly, etc etc.
Region that don't have massive tourists will be more friendly to a uk/other individual that lost his way, or search for food, etc.

Region like mine where UK tourists come by full planes, drink heavily, spend a lot of money are seen like money income, not people to be friendly with. I personally never go to places where I'm just a "money income", or if I go, don't expect very nice behavior from locals. Sad..

And guess what, it's exactly the same in other countries. I've been more that 20 times in UK, toured Scotland, Eire, go in Germany (Munchen, Koln) minimum once a year, and sometime people are just not friendly even before they determine they deal with a foreigner. Human nature?

 

I'll always love Paris . Aside from the fact that it's actually my favourite city, I was there for New Year in 2015 when Spurs beat Chelsea 5-3. I'll never forget lying on the hotel bed listening to the commentary on my iPad whilst my wife pestered me in vain for some NYN (New Year Nookie)

 

If something I wanted to buy happened to be of French origin I'd still buy it. Same with Chinese stuff to be honest, I know a lot of people including a few in my own family are boycotting their products too. We've always had a love hate relationship with the French going back 100's of years. What would an average summer time be like without their air traffic controllers going on strike to piss off holidaymakers flying off to warmer climes? Apart from last year of course when COVID made it a non starter for them. I've got a German built car, an Italian motorbike and even my 'British' bike was made in Thailand. Lol

 

I lived 6 years in Paris, probably a nice place to stay as a tourist, but living there was already a nightmare 25 years ago, and it's worst now. Too much people there, too much cars, too much of everything, but I enjoyed the night life at the time

 

A bit like London (and probably every other big city). Great place to visit and stay for a while. I even enjoy travelling on the tube. But I wouldn't live there. I don't know how people put up with the crowds, living so close together, traffic congestion, poor air quality and dirt (I always feel I need to wash off the grime after leaving), trying to find somewhere to park and the expense. I guess they get used to it and living there does have advantages, but I'll keep to the more open spaces and feel grateful that many millions of people choose to cram themselves into that corner.

 

It’s weird how people boycott goods because they are not from the UK. I’m not sure how they can live given the globalisation of everything. I did see a YouTube video where the bloke was moaning about Triumph manufacturing in Thailand and waxing lyrical about his Royal Enfield! A British company that still produces stuff will still more than likely use non British equipment in their process.

 

A french journalist made a funny documentary trying to live one year exclusively using "made in France" items.
I guess the same experiment with "made in UK" would be very similar
It's in french but in case some are curious enough I put the teaser link there

 

Very good. And yes, probably the same as most large countries around the world. Consumerism is fed by low cost manufacturing and that means off shore production usually.