Iran Nuclear Scientist Defects to U.S.!

[kimba1]

I love mussel your side of the country.

for some reason it has a cleaner taste than here in the pacific.

pacific and atlantic seafood are quite different in flavor.

[Xavier_Onassis]

I visited Paris, Burgundy and Pau, and found nearly everyone to be as friendly or friendlier than people here in Miami. If you have Johnny Depp's, Jodie Foster's or Robert Crumb's money, I am sure that a small provincial French village has it all over places in the US, like Stuttgart, Arkansas, Orrick, Missouri, or Buckhannon, WV.

[Amianthus]

I visited Paris, Burgundy and Pau, and found nearly everyone to be as friendly or friendlier than people here in Miami.

I'm not so sure that is a comment about the French, or more of a comment about Miami.

I've found Miami to be about as unfriendly as NYC (probably because Miami is pretty much the southernmost borough of NYC...)

[Xavier_Onassis]

The reputation is that the French in general and Parisians in particular are especially rude. I find that this is not the case.
Miami is not especially friendly, but that is not just because of the New Yorkers. There are hostile people from all over here.
But by and large, asking directions, asking for help, conversing with people in parks and museums, one finds friendly people both in Miami and in France.

Argentina, Honduras, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Mexico are friendlier than here, as is anywhere in the US W. of the Mississippi or in most of the South (so long as you are the color of the person you are speaking to).

I simply meant that the reputation that the French have for being rude is not warranted, at least if you speak French a bit.

[kimba1]

to be fair some people considered rudness as a sign of high culture.
so that maybe the reason for the attraction.
ok, maybe rude is the wrong word
quick to insult is more like it.