Language

The Parisian waiter who refuses to serve English speaking customers is stuff of legend. Those times are now in the dustbins of history, Indeed we found Parisians to be very welcoming, switching to English without hesitation at museums, Metro or restaurants. Where the person was not comfortable using English, at the supermarket for example, staff were either apologetic or very indulgent with our inadequate command of spoken French.

We had anticipated enjoying lunch on the rooftop restaurant at the Pompidou Centre but the prices were outrageous. Instead we found a delightful café, Paris Beaubourg on the edge of Igor Stravinsky Plaza replete with its quirky Stravinsky Fountain installation and a massive mural of Salvador Dali.  The waiter was delightful - not the stereotypical Paris waiter - he was outright friendly, complimenting us on our of French from high school in Aberdeen over 50 years ago. Our French teachers would have been proud!

Even on Le Metro, there are public service announcements in English - “mind the gap”. That we did not expect! If you look at any of the hyperlinks you will see that most, if not all web sites are accessible in English. What was revealing, at least to us was how useful was our long ago study of French - we were at least able to read signs, menus, programs etc. As long as we were not going to be rated on our pronunciation!