Savoir Flair – Polly Platt
Think of France as a new game, with rules that you need to know, just the same as if you wanted to learn how to play tennis or chess. Savoir-Flair is for travelers who are curious about the customs of a very old culture of warriors and artists, monks and scientists, that has given us Pasteur and the movies, Monet and Napoleon, Versailles and the Concorde supersonic and Yves Saint-Laurent... the great chefs, venerated like movie stars -- and Mont Saint-Michel... Polly Platt's love affair with France started when, at eight, her parents dumped her in a château with no one to talk to but the servants and a donkey. Later she would say that the sweetness of the servants and the orneriness of the donkey were the daily tug of war that was the French genius, which she would study more closely when, breaking off a career in journalism, she moved there with her family in 1967. In 1989, distressed at the French-bashing parties of Americans in Paris, she founded Culture Crossings and began giving cultural adaptation seminars for foreigners, executives from companies such as General Motors, 3M, Coca Cola, Microsoft and JP Morgan. |
 |
Think of France as a new game, with rules that you need to know, just the same as if you wanted to learn how to play tennis or chess. Savoir-Flair is for travelers who are curious about the customs of a very old culture of warriors and artists, monks and scientists, that has given us Pasteur and the movies, Monet and Napoleon, Versailles and the Concorde supersonic and Yves Saint-Laurent... the great chefs, venerated like movie stars -- and Mont Saint-Michel... Travelers tell their tales of generous French help and the automatic French response: "It's nothing. C'est normal!" Table of Contents: All the chapters start with the word "Enjoying..." First part: Enjoying the first 24 hours in Paris. Arrival strategies at airports and hotels. Bathroom customs, crossing streets, asking directions. The minimum words of French politeness for a warm welcome. |
For more information, or if you wish to purchase...
All the best
Tags: Polly Platt
Expat Guides | Keith Eckstein June 22, 2010