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From Riviera Reporter Issue 84
Savoir Flair
The contents of Polly Platt's new book don't correspond with the label
Five years ago Polly Platt published French or Foe?, a book
designed to help Anglo-Americans to get on in France, especially in
their working relationships. I thought it was very good indeed and said
so in these columns — "intelligent, sensible and witty... extremely
useful". This greatly pleased Polly who sent me some foie gras (other
reviewees please note), although it spent too long in transit and
arrived in a state which distressed my postman. Now she's followed up
with Savoir Flair! The book has an enticing sub-title: "211 tips for enjoying France and the French". Be warned: that's not what it is.
In fact, what Polly has produced is a useful guide to living in
Paris where she's spent the last 30 years. For anyone settling in the
city or regularly visiting it would be worth getting hold of; for the
rest of us it's perhaps interesting to leaf through — I learned the
whereabouts of the oldest tree in Paris, for example — but much of it
is practically irrelevant to us provincials. I don't need to know which
post office in the capital stays open till 7 pm, which café has the Trib available
for its clients or that Parisian chimney-sweeps expect a tip. There's
almost no direct reference to the Côte d'Azur although Polly does warn
that petty crime is rife and is mainly committed by "French-born boys
from immigrant families in the hills". One or two of her Paris-skewed
comments will arouse howls of derision in our neck of the woods.
Taxi-drivers are "meticulously honest"...
Polly being Polly the book is readable and contains some
entertaining nuggets. I hadn't known, for instance, that Mormon
missionaries — those be-tied American youths with badges you see on the
Nice buses or wheeling bicycles — aren't allowed to read newspapers or
watch TV and may ring home only at Christmas and on Mother's Day. Of
course there are elements in the book useful for anyone in France: how
to use an ATM or a public telephone, how to travel successfully on the
SNCF (this section is particularly good). Among other bits of advice I
noted was to take a strong lightbulb to beef up the illumination in
cheap hotels and "to always look at the busdriver's face when you
board" — this helps to identify the vehicle if you have to deal with
Lost Property later.
Much more salient in this book than in its predecessor is Polly's
conviction that "the French are wonderful". This means they must be
forgiven everything. Take their notorious unhelpfulness on the street.
I hadn't caught on that "if they don't stop, it's because of their
discretion. If a foreigner has a map, it would be insulting to imply
that he can't read it." As to the low standard of service in stores —
slow, surly and generally unhelpful — she tells us this is part of a
shopworkers' "culture" (she even cites an anthropologist in support)
and as Anglo-Americans we should learn to understand it and live with
it. Eyewash. The dismal service in places like Galeries Lafayette enrages
the French as much as it does visitors. Those people just don't like
their jobs. Maybe there's a sociological explanation for this but
that's no reason why customers should have to grin and bear it. And now
a piece of advice from me: get hold of Polly's first book — it's sold
over 100,000 copies — which is much more useful than Savoir Flair! if you live outside of Paris. By the way, as this review goes to press I'm saying nothing to my postman.
© Patrick Middleton
Polly Platt: "Savoir Flair! 211 tips for
enjoying France and the French" is published, like its predecessor
"French or Foe?", by Cultural Crossings (UK). All books reviewed in this
magazine are available from local English-language bookshops.
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