Forget Galliano in the Oubliette: The British are the Fashion!!
I heard a female voice behind me saying, “Bonsoir”. I was walking in the Tuileries, my local garden, and I thought it was one of the Guardians. A bit early for them to be asking me to leave, I thought: they usually start chucking out half an hour before the hour, which in summer is 11pm. But it wasn’t a Guardian, it was a young woman on a bike with her boyfriend also on his bike. The Guardians would have told them to get off and walk. Anyway, they both stopped and she started talking to me, so friendly, I was astonished, then the girl introduced herself and her boyfriend and when she heard my accent asked me where I was from. I told her, I’ve lived here for eleven years but before that I lived in London and a few other places. I didn’t mention Africa, and the US, especially. Most people who start conversations with me here want to know if I’m American. I hasten to deny that. Not because I have any prejudice myself but because many French don’t like Americans. Let’s not go into gratitude here. Americans have done their stuff for La France. Anyway, I would prefer to be taken for who I am, a true Brit. And, the Brits are really à la Mode at present.
But the voice, coming initially from behind my suede trousers and vintage leopard print shirt was undeniably friendly. I explained my mission in the Tuileries –to walk an hour or so before dinner and the girl commented on the adorable nature of my accent. This is common. Whereas I would like to speak in an upper crust Parisian accent, the fans tell me “Don’t make any effort to change it,” because as they all say, it’s considered charming. The young couple and I chatted of this and that and they buzzed off on their bikes. They seemed quite sober: so I assumed they were simply being friendly, and that in itself is rare, or has usually been so. Except, I have found more and more French total strangers acting in this friendly way. I’m frankly gobsmacked, after 11 years in this grumpy city.
But, there have been a few experiences lately that have lead me to believe that Parisians are coming out of their shell. I have been waltzing in and out of the local Monoprix supermarché in my trendy St Honoré quartier for a decade now and although I have been on ‘Bonsoir” terms with a few of the local habitués, it has never gone further than that. However all of a sudden I am being plied with phone numbers and invitations to take a drink or dinner. No, no don’t get me wrong, the men have been doing this all through the eleven years, but now its women, who I assume can’t possibly have any other designs than to listen to my accent. Anglo pals of mine have noticed the same syndrome.
Is this because the English are now suddenly the fashion? One of my building’s residents came down in the lift and as I got in I spoke to him. “Ah, vous êtes Anglais” he said. Votre accènt, c’est un peu chic. Well, yes indeed, we are, but, could there be something else going on?
The French, thanks to their hideous recent history which perhaps no one in the UK can understand since the divinely protected Albion was never invaded by the Nazis, are crippled in terms of trusting fellow humans, especially foreigners.
I saw the most wonderful play at the Thèatre de Madeleine a couple of months ago. It was based on the historic fact that in August 1944, the Swedish Ambassador persuaded the German Gauleiter of Paris to rescind Hitler’s order to blow up all the historic monuments of the city as the Allies and the French Army arrived to liberate it.
I was moved to tears by the play and its historic origins and the emotions of the French people around me, many of them old enough to have been teenagers during that evil epoch.
I am now delighted if there is some chance that Parisians are awakening to the idea of friendliness as they are possibly coming out of their long period of mistrust and isolation. I’m also enjoying being in the fashion very time I open my mouth!
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