Just a tiny rant.
Please, please, please, please if you see someone that is taller than average height - or taller than you - don't mention it.
Yet again, this weekend, I have been told how tall I am. Wow..................surprise...............I didn't know. And also questioned 'wow, 6 ft, really, are you sure, I'm 6 ft and you're much taller/shorter than me'.
Is there anything else that people feel able to comment upon that is, at worst, rude and at best just really really boring?
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Oh that means you are normal :) My husband is 6'4" and he only just considers me barely normal at 5'8" LOL. Diane
ReplyDeleteMr. Fly towered over the French....and even I could manage that in our area....but it never ceased to amaze me how French people would come out with remarks about one's physical characteristics.
ReplyDeleteI was occasionally tempted to toss into the conversation how it was that there seemed to be more fair haired, blue eyed people about who were born after 1940......but that would have been rude, wouldn't it.
Whether they did or didn't mean to make your feel uncomfortable (I was going to say small) you should rise above it, because you are bigger than that :)
ReplyDeleteI know I'm in danger of your wrath but forgive me, I just couldn't help myself. It's just harmless humour of sorts.
With regard to the fly in the web comment about fair haired, blue eyed people...I totally agree with her...that really is rude. I would be embarrassed to pen such words.
No wish to start a war in your columns, so don't put this up unless you want to.
ReplyDeleteIt is rude to mention these kids in France because after the war they became the scapegoats for all that had brought about the defeat and occupation.
Taken from their mothers, put into orphanages, treated as second class citizens....only recently has there been any justice for these children...who were totally innocent.
France likes to ignore the period 1940 to 1944...and these children were a living reminder.
Nationality is no bar to love and war brings unlikely people together....but these children bore the brunt of official resentment of their mere existence.
The tiny french elderly around here just look amazed (and assume you are Dutch). And any comments they make are in patois.I try and sit down quickly.
ReplyDeleteThank you fly for another welcome insight.
Our family range from 6'4 (The Husband - age unknown), 6'3 (The Boy, 15), 5'9 (The Girl, 13) to me 5'6 (age immaterial!) so people are constantly commenting on how tall they are and how small I am. It really is dreary. Any time the children have to say their ages it is generally followed up with 'Goodness, aren't you tall' and then we have to follow with the 'Yes, their Dad is 6'4 and their grandfather was 6'6'. They've had it since they were toddlers practically. But I am so jealous of your height. I'd love to have grown just a little bit more. I keep telling my daughter that she must walk tall and be proud of her height even if she towers over her classmates.
ReplyDeleteIn France everyone seemed to be below 5'7, no doubt due to their rather tangled family trees!
Totally agree with Fly about the war years. All reminders of France's shameful conduct erased or forgotten like the Velodrome d'hiver in Paris and only the tributes to the brave Maquis remain. Probably rude to mention that 60% of the resistance was Spanish ;)
The Turks seem to have a way of being rude about peoples' weight. They think nothing of telling you that you are fat or thin. They also seem to need to mention other physical characteristics too. It doesn't occur to them that they are being rude...they are just being honest.
ReplyDeleteI remember when I was living in Goreme, a man (very fat as it happened although I would never dream of saying so) who used to pass by the cafe where I worked, made a point of stopping to point out the bags under my eyes. I was so surprised, I just smiled...but it's bloody irritating!
Back again
ReplyDeleteI don't disagree with the facts or sentiment of Fly's comment, but only with the thought of offloading it onto some poor unsuspecting local who was only trying to be friendly. Not that she would do such a thing. Thank you, Rosie for allowing slightly abrasive comments albeit unintentionally so. Thank you, too Fly for you response.
As if being tall is not enough (6' 3"), God forbid one should have large feet! What in the US is on the big side (a women's 13) in France is laugh-out-of-the-store funny... If anyone finds a store that sells size 45's, let me know! And thanks for the entry, I like the feeling that I'm not alone!
ReplyDeleteLiene, without commenting on your height at all, I do sooo sympathise. I am 'only' 6ft with size 43 feet which are relatively easy to get on the internet (if you don't want to try them on, of course). I've given up going into any of the stores here. When I used to shop for shoes with my mother as a teenager when I had UK 7 1/2 it was devastating. At that time you had to sit quietly on a chair and wait for the lady to come and ask you what you wanted. And you got the full blast of her incredulity. Mum was brilliant and we used to mutter under our breaths 'it's them not us' as a mantra.
ReplyDeleteSome of my family are tall - sister and niece at least 6' and son-in-law 6'5" and they still get comments, even here in the UK where their height isn't so obvious. When they visit us in Southern Normandy, they tower over most of the local French and are stared at wherever they go. There are probably comments too, but we don't hear them.
ReplyDelete