[BrianR]

Ditto Mari.

I also visited France once. Although I cannot speak French, I did try, rather than expect THEM to speak English to me. In every other country I've been to, the people are thrilled that I will at least TRY to speak their language rathe rthan assume that THEY speak MINE and then have the nerve to get annoyed when they don't. Many people (Spain eg) even had fun flipping through my handy-dandy translation dictionary as if they'd never seen one. Not the French. They were openly hostile to me and my (pathetic) attempts to make myself understood. I was even asked to leave a bistro because they didn't want passers-by to think it was an American hangout.

Ever since then, I've had tremendous fun butchering their language whenever I can.

Brian