Some of you may find what I’m about to say incompatible with what you know about the English, but I’m telling you, it’s all TRUE. It all started three years ago when I first arrived here in La France. That’s when I first discovered that we in England actually do enjoy an extremely high level of customer service. Yes that’s right, I did say customer service!
My first experience of the lack of customer service was in my local supermarket where I had experienced huge queues for the checkout practically every single time I visited. This, despite the fact they have at least five checkouts but generally only one ever open. This particular day I became disgruntled about the situation when I spied, out of the corner of my little eye, a group of shop assistants (or retail executives) huddled around, jabbering on whilst stacking the same shelving unit. I sidled over to them and politely asked in my best French if it were possible to open another till?
Well…..I could hardly believe the response which was to tell me, in their best French, that THEY would make decisions about which checkouts to open whilst chiding me to join the existing huge queue before it got any longer!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Shocked, stunned and rendered speechless I duly then did what they rudely told me…………honestly, what are we Brits like? Too polite and too accommodating that’s the conclusion I’ve now arrived at, especially after the latest example of European rudeness.
Matt and I were at the swimming pool the other day for yet another torrid session of multiple laps of the 25 metre pool, all in the interests of fitness and toning. We arrived just before the pool opened for the afternoon hoping to grab ourselves some lanes before the locals descended. Just as I was about to go through the turnstile to enter the changing area, a huge size of a man lurched his way right into my path as if he hadn’t even noticed me. I knew there was noooo way the two of us were going to get through that gate together so I shot him an evil glare indicating his absolute rudeness and I just managed to scrape through in front of him.
Still internally seething about the blatant lack of consideration and polite etiquette of some people, I wandered into the pool and managed to secure a stretch of pool next to Matt who was swimming in the ONLY lane reserved for people wanting to swim laps, a paltry two metres wide out of about 25. As usual as I started my fifth lap some French and Dutch people, with kids, started meandering over in my direction. Determined to keep swimming and ignore what was going on around me, I kept my head down and kept ploughing on through the water until…..I swam straight into woman holding child in her arms! I mean, what the *****?
Coughing and spluttering and rendered speechless again, I set off to continue in “my” lane only to face, coming at me from the other direction, some woman flapping about with one of those polystyrene swimming aids and a bloke wearing flippers and a mask who obviously took a wrong turn in the Maldives!! I DON’T BELIEVE IT….aggghhhhhhhhhhh……
It’s ironic really as one of the things I have always admired about the Europeans is their refusal to take any nonsense. If they don’t like or want something, then particularly the French, as most of us know, just say a resounding NON! Meanwhile, if us Brits are told to jump, we would more than likely say, “how high”? “Liberté, égalité, fraternité” meaning “Liberty, equality, fraternity” (brotherhood) may well be the national motto of France but, in my humble opinion, a soupçon of the traits of us Brits such as “politeness, consideration and respect” would not go amiss. Especially where swimming pools and supermarkets are concerned 