A blurry example of un mauvais accueil.
Walking through the Marais last week, I was about to enter a little boutique selling decorative bric-a-brac when I was stopped cold by the sign that the shopkeeper had taped to the glass door. A perfect example of un mauvais accueil — a bad reception and the opposite of un bon accueil, a warm welcome — I didn't know, as I stood there reading and re-reading it in English and in French, whether I should laugh out loud or shed a tear of frustration.
Paris is infamous for its mauvais acceuil, but never in my years of living in the city have I encountered such a flagrant lack of hospitality. Yet because the boutique was as morgue-like as it was the first time I had visited it, I decided that a healthy chortle was the most appropriate response.
The joke is on the boutique's proprietor, who wouldn't know a sales opportunity if it — well, if it walked through his door and asked for directions. I suppose that he is too busy rearranging his dusty knick-knacks to welcome lost visitors, sell them maps and invite them to look around his shop, and if that assumption is correct, I wonder why he doesn't relocate to a little village in nulle part (nowhere) where he would never again be bothered by pesky potential clients.
"Accueil à la française" (French reception) is a synonym of bad reception even in France! So you can imagine the long tradition behind this first bad experience you had in "the Marsh" (le Marais, suddenly it appears aptly named, isn't it?).
And the French have 80 millions of tourists per year! Imagine how many would come if they were nice!?
Posted by: Franck Isoart | March 03, 2011 at 06:07 PM