yes, I've heard the arrogance thing over and over - and, I've found zip like that - it 'might' be true in Paris - but, in the north - anything but - everyone has been wonderful - out of probably now way over 100 people - maybe a lot more - I've only met one dickhead and, yep - thank you god, I met him at the worst possible moment - when I found a body in the canal - but, aside from him - the rest have been wonderful.
I would always make sure they know you are Australian before you ask about speaking English - you do NOT want to be thought of as a pom ----------- I said to a mate in the UK the week before I left - that - 'you do realise, that, once I leave here and hit the other side that you are going to be one of 'those English pricks' - eh? --- he said, 'knowing you, I would have been disappointed to hear any less'
It was driven home in Calais as I had neighbours, and, we had been on waving terms only for weeks - then, I had gone to help a guy get his boat up on the dry - he had got into trouble with it and, I helped him hold it up until the tide came back in - and, somehow it got around - and, my neighbour learned that I was Aussie - I hadn't been flying the flag in port in the confinement - well, - she grabbed me about the next day and apologised or similar, saying - I didn't realise you were Aussie - I thought you were English
- the funny thing is that the guy I helped is actually a pom- he speaks perfect French and has lived there now for 10 years straight and spent a lot of his childhood years there - but, he's actually really a pom - they just don't know
He's the guy who saved my bacon when I found the body - he phoned the police whilst I stayed with the body - he was a hundred or so km away and translated back and forth - including when the police interviewed me on the boat - my god, it would have been more difficult without him that day
