You’ve done it! After all these years you and your wife finally saved up and now you’ve landed in Paris where you’re going to spend five magical days seeing all the sights and eating snails.  You’ve got your “PARIS!” book in hand and your fanny pack with money, passports, and hand-sanitizer is safely hidden under your shirt like your neighbor told you to do. Your hotel concierge is very nice and even complimented your wife’s MBT Shape Up shoes that she bought because you knew you would be walking a lot.

But something feels a little strange. After leaving the hotel you’ve had a series of unpleasant encounters with the French. You and your wife were laughed at when trying to order a pastry in French, the waiters got exasperated when you tried to tip them, and at one point you were flat out aggressively ignored by the man at the Metro Ticket Booth.

Here’s what’s wrong. You’re American. Now I know this isn’t your fault and the French have been known to be rude to all peoples of the Earth, but in your case there is something you can do to minimize this crushing feeling of inferiority.

You need to disguise your American-ness. Don’t get all indignant. I’m not saying you need to be ashamed of where you come from, but you do need to change out of your loose pastel clothes and speak in a quieter voice. That could be all it takes to be tolerated and maybe even respected over there in the EU.

Now I may get some angry letters from people I don’t know, (nor care about), saying that I shouldn’t be generalizing people, but the fact is that even though many nations aspire to be American, we are generalized in a very unfavorable way based on how we act abroad. And not without merit. I am often embarrassed by other Americans I see while traveling; we can be obnoxious and naïve and LOUD. And again, we wear too many pastel colors and shapeless skorts. Factor in our silly accents and choice in past Presidents and it’s over.

Similar Posts:

• The secret of travelling light
• Save Money on Europe’s Night Trains – Travel While You Sleep
• Last-minute Deal: 45 Percent off May Flights to Paris
• The Frugal Travel Guy predicts 2012 trends for frequent travel enthusiasts
• A cinephile’s European holiday

- Travel Today - No Comments »