July 6, 2005, 1:49 am
- I got tripped up today by my American expectations. The hotel had this little breakfast buffet in the lobby. It had some coffee and juice and a few croissants. It was not nearly as nice as the free breakfast at a Hampton Inn or Holiday Inn Express, but it was still a quick and easy way to eat and get out the door. OOOPPSS. My wife and I got hit with a bill for 52 euros, or over $65, because we grabbed some coffee and pastries off the buffet. Bummer.
- Service is a strange thing here. I try fairly hard to submerge my ugly-American impatient tendencies. I know to expect that meals will be paced much slower here, and have come to enjoy that pace, at least on vacation. Shopping, though, is another story. I still just want to get the stuff I want, pay for it, and go. I have made the following observations about French service: When you have a service person's attention, they will serve you for as long as you need, chatting about the product and about your life, for hours if necessary. The problem is, that they will do this even if 10 other people are waiting to be served. The lines here are awful, and you have to wait in them for everything. Women in the US complain about bathroom lines at sporting events, but the women's rooms here have lines all the time, everywhere. Even my wife the europhile is getting fed up with 45 minute transaction times
- We chose to blow it out one night, and have a top notch French meal at a top restaurant. We ended up spending a ridiculous sum, more than half the people in the world make in a year, for one meal. It would embarrass me to spend so much consistently (heck it embarasses me this once), especially since there are equally fine meals out there for 1/4 or less the price. Also, we were actually nervous for the first 20 minutes - is that nuts? But there is nothing in the world that can make an American like me who knows the McDonald's value meal numbers by heart nervous like a great French restaurant. We eventually got into the spirit of the once in a lifetime experience, enough that we were laughing pretty loud about the little fried goldfish we got for appetizers.
- By the way, condolences for the French and the Olympics. Paris would make a fine venue. The only real mar in the city's beauty is that it has a real trash and dog poop problem on the streets (no scoop laws here, at least none that anyone enforces) so an Aolympics might help them clean it all up. Maybe they need a few years of Mayor Giuliani? Really, it is a beautiful city - did I mention that? Perhaps the most beautiful city in Europe even before WWII, and certainly the most beautiful after given that it was spared most of the bombing and fighting other great cities faced (not too mention the horrendous 1950's architecture they were rebuilt with. I mean, my god, look at Berlin. It was rebuilt during the most horrid period in modern architecture).
- More later on hotels and restaurants you might visit if you come here,
plus I will just have to post a scan of our restaurant bill from tonight
Chris Yeh:
The speed of the service in Europe never ceases to amaze me. One of the first blog postings I made back in 2001 was about my experiences at a restaurant in Amsterdam where my wife and I and many other diners were basically held hostage because we couldn't get anyone to get us our check.
Meanwhile, it was a cold and rainy day, and there were about 20 people who had to wait outside, shivering and wet, because there wasn't enough room to fit them all inside the restaurant.
I got some nasty comments from people who thought that I was being an ugly American. Screw them. There's a difference between respecting leisure and simply being lazy or oblivious. Lots of people wanted to leave. Lots of people wanted to come in. And the servers didn't lift a finger to make that happen.
I was tempted just to walk out without paying!
July 7, 2005, 11:26 am