(Washington, D.C. - Right Commentary.com) “Every man has two countries, his own and France,” says a character in a play by the 19th- century poet and playwright Henri de Bornier. I have been to France several times - always Paris. Perhaps my view of France is in large part coloured by the fact that I’ve only been to Paris. Maybe the rest of France is warm and inviting of Americans - but Paris never was (not especially for me).

Today, the International Herald Tribune, ran a story written by Elaine Sciolino, where she outlines how to deal with “the French.” It includes such gems like - yes - you as the customer are always wrong… live with it. This is something my wife and I experienced first hand on our trip to France ages back - where after waiting in line for nearly 20 minutes - my wife, who speaks French much better than I do - was told “line closed” as she was the next to be served. Was the line closing because of a lack of customers? Oh no - customers were abound - this “crew member” (or whatever McDonald’s calls them in France) decided she didn’t want to work anymore that moment - and closed the line. “Fermez!” She said unapologetically. Actually - that was a running theme during our trip to France - the Louvre was free the day we went because the workers were all on strike. Our chunnel trip was delayed significantly because the SNCF decided not to work that week. All in all - I was dumbfounded by it all. The “coup de grace,” remains the phone call I received from American Express while in France - apparently our waiter at one of the restaurants we had dined at decided charging me for the bill once wasn’t enough - five times would do the trick. (Needless to say, American Express charged me only once - contacted me - and then refused to pay for the other four times).

There is one thing I do find amusing about the French that perhaps we in the United States should give some thought to - and that is overreacting politically to sex scandals. Now while I’m all for family values - it’s clear to me we are hyper sensitive on this issue politically. Take the case of Nicolas Sarkozy. The guy divorces his wife shortly after becoming President - and marries a supermodel.

… as Mel Brooks remarked - “It’s good to be the King!”

Leave aside the fact that Bruni — an heiress to a fortune from an Italian tire company — was once one of France’s highest-paid fashion models. French voters have for decades prided themselves on keeping their distance from the sex lives of their Presidents. Indeed, it is widely assumed among the French that their political leaders have affairs, on the assumption that — as Henry Kissinger once noted — power is a great aphrodisiac. President Francois Mitterrand’s decades-long affair outside his marriage was reported by journalists only after his child from the relationship appeared at his funeral. And during Bill Clinton’s sex scandal and impeachment in 1996, the French told American reporters that the event simply proved to them the overly prudish nature of the United States. “The French derided America about how crazy we were,” says Diane Johnson, the American best-selling author of Le Divorce and Le Mariage, who lives most of the year in Paris.

So in the end - we have a strange mix in our French friends - the customer is always wrong… but feel free to cheat on your wife!

Bon soir mes Amis!

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