One is surrounded by beauty in Paris. Beautiful architecture, beautiful food, attention to detail like shown in this front door carving. But really, it's beauty from another era - this is a city coasting on its past. There is no evidence in the current populace of their being the progeny of those who built this city. Today there is incompetence all around. Just on my recent trip back I encountered a year's worth. First, Air France gave our seats away because we were "late" checking in. Truth is, we were at the counter with plenty of time but waited forever to check in due to Air France having only enough counter agents to serve 5 people per hour. Pingle had to go bargain for the seats to be returned, which was only accomplished because a young lady was nice enough to move her seat.
When we arrived, our two checked bags didn't. "Don't worry, we'll deliver them" said Air France, just give us your address and be home between 3pm and 6pm." When I got home, I went to the ATM to withdraw some Euros. In goes the ATM card - then nothing.... The machine ate it. I pulled on the front door of the bank to complain, but of course - they're closed - it's Monday - banks are closed on Monday.
At 5:55pm the phone rang, it was Air France "we'll bring your luggage tomorrow between 8am and Noon." Another call the next morning "do you mind if we bring the bags betweeen 10am and 2pm?" At 1pm some Air France idiot showed up with one of the two bags, but guess what - it was not either of our bags. An hour later he showed up with one bag. My golf clubs came on the third delivery attempt. So, 48 hrs after our arrival we had our bags.....
I arranged for a new ATM card to be delivered to my office. Citibank was sending one express delivery - they told me to expect it to be delivered by Thursday. On Thursday I asked an admin at work if they'd received it. "Oh yes, a package came in for you yesterday!" Great, I responded, where is it? "Bon, Monsieur, that is another question entirely...." So, it came in the day before, they didn't bother to tell me and then they lost it. On Friday morning, I asked again. "It went to another building, give us 2 hrs to go get it." Two hours later they told me they'd lost track again and suggested I call my bank and start over which I did. Just as I hung up the phone with Citibank, in jogs the French idiot with the Fedex, he had a proud smile on his face like he'd just invented time travel. I wanted to bludgeon him to death with something heavy.
So, it is one week now with no ATM card. I guess another will arrive soon but I have no confidence that I will get it. These are simple things that I am complaining about. These people should be ashamed of what they've become - everything that is good about this country is hundreds of years old. Even the wine and bread, which are stellar, are most likely recipes developed and fine tuned centuries ago. Today's drones slavishly follow them to the letter - there is no invention, no creativity, no spark, no ambition.
2 comments:
It's a good thing that you restricted your blog to the chosen few! What you describe reminds me of French movie comedies of the 1960's, like "Mr. Hulot's Holiday" where the bumbling was funny. Maybe it all began with the Maginot Line?
Sal, I only restrict my blog only because I don't want co-workers in my business. I've let the French know what I think of them, trust me.
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