FRENCH TOLD TO TRY SMILING

This from The Observer yesterday.

The pursed lips, the callous shrug of the shoulders and the infamous indifference to the struggling foreigner has been the stuff of tourists' moans for decades. But now the notorious grumpiness of the French would seem to have got its comeuppance.

For the first time since tourism was invented, France has slipped from its perch as the world's top destination. And the authorities are taking it so seriously that new guidelines are to be given to those working with foreigners to urge them to be better hosts.

After a dismal summer, tourism chiefs in France say only the Rugby World Cup - starting on Friday and expected to attract 300,000 foreign fans - looks able to keep the cockerel crowing. But for that, the French are going to have to put up with a deluge of misuse of the language of Moliere, such as 'la putain et le moitier-voleur ont perdu leurs boucliers de gencives pendant le dessus-dessous' (the hooker and the fly-half lost their gum shields during the up and under').

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