A challenging question?
The BBC's The Editors is a programme which sets out to ask challenging questions
. The challenging question that John Simpson posed was no less than What has happened to the French joie de vivre?
Oddly enough, I don't find that particularly challenging
, or even worthwhile.
The last time I visited Paris was also the last time I saw a mouse…in the restaurant where we were dining; there was a cigarette butt in my hotel bathroom; I slept in socks in case I needed to visit said bathroom during the night; I didn't want to leave even my suitcase on the floor for fear of what might try to bum a lift out of there; and the taxi that we ordered the following morning couldn't even wait for us to check out of the hotel, instead taking off with the first opportunist that happened along.
This was a hotel that proclaimed four stars, by the way. I'd hate to think what one star gets you.
Given all that, I'd say that the French don't actually deserve a joie de vivre.
But, unlike John Simpson, I'm not a Francophile. La belle France, c'est un cloaque!