FRENCH STEREOTYPES
Cyprien's video
Watching
Cyprien’s video about the stereotypes of Spain, I‘ve decided to write about the
stereotypes of France. I’ve been in France so many times that I could say that
I know more about French people than from any other people with a different
nationality. It’s for
this reason that I’m going to write about their stereotypes from a very close
point of view.
In relation
with food the first stereotype that I realise when I’m in France is that all
mornings, even if it rains, they go to the nearest bakery of their neighbourhood
to buy a baguette for their breakfast, wearing a kind of beret and usually
smoking. Another funny stereotype that I realise when I’m travelling by car in
France is that every midday, especially during the holidays, they all park their cars in a service
area to have what they call “le midi” (a very relaxing picnic that all the
family use to have). And I think that the best known stereotype of French
people related with food is that in all their dinners they must eat cheese with
a
glass of wine before dessert.
Apart from this type of stereotypes, there some others, for instance those which are
related to their personality. Friends of mine say that the typical French man
or woman is really arrogant, not very sociable and even apathetic, but it’s
only because when they “travel to France” they only visit one place… Paris, and
I agree with them in this point, because Parisian people can be arrogant and
sometimes a bit self-centred, believing to be the centre of the world. However,
in fact, the rest of France is extremely different from them, they are usually quite
helpful, polite and
quite happy, although I find they are not as open-minded as Spanish people are and they use to say that
everything is okay when in fact, it’s not. Moreover, another aspect that I
notice is that they use to idolatrise their sport players, even if they finish the
second or third position (fact that Spanish people don’t do and I really appreciate
it).
In
conclusion, I think that I have a very different point of view from most of my
friends that think they “have visited France”, but I find quite interesting
what other people from other nationalities think about France when I’m in “l’Alliance
française”, because they have truly visited France. And I reckon that these are
the main stereotypes that I’ve confirmed during my stays in France.
