Happy Liberal Vegemites, page-20

I'll pull you up there for an observational point -

''they generally are happy people that enjoy life '' -- again, yes they are, AND they are a very friendly mob
but, the latter wasn't always the case - the French up until not all that long back were known as pretty gumpy with many foreigners -

I've heard that over and over and over from people who come to France either every year or very often and have done so for many decades ---

One comment comes to mind from a very well travelled person who has been coming to France for 50 years -

she said that the French government had done a lot of work over the last decades on making France more 'friendly'.

Her comment came up as she and I had gone to the post office to post of something for her and the staff, as usual were extremely friendly and enormously helpful --------- and as we both talked about how great they were - she said - it wasn't always so and not all that long back things were quite different.

So, from what I gather - France valued tourists and it knew that the more friendly it was seen to be = the more tourists.

It already has nature, history, architecture, art to burn in attracting people - absolutely stunning landscapes - not spread out like Oz - it's difficult to drive for more than a few hours without seeing some kind of iconic French countryside or Alps, or stunning oceanscape ------ they already had the food - since about the 60's in many places (Paris earlier), they had the wine and wild foods - but, they had the 'froggie' attitude - and, they worked on it.

Ie, they worked on the culture - and now - well, it's wonderful 'mostly' - you can still find unhelpful ones - but, by and large - they really do fall over themselves to help and are friendly.

Some places for Aussies - well, you walk like you're with god beside you - but, in those areas, it's always been since WW1 - and from what I see -that will never change - but, outside of those areas now - it's very friendly everywhere - even in Paris. (where Paris now falls down badly isn't with people treating other people - it's in litter, stink and noise). I don't know about the south coast towards the East - haven't been there and have no 'real' interest in the area.