Les Snobs Françaises

I realize that I tend to romanticize the French a bit. I do think they get a bad rap at home, but that's not to say that the snob française is a complete myth. They do exist- in fact, there are a few of them at the archives. One is an older fellow named François, appropriately enough, but I call him "easy rider" because he's in his 50s and wears a leather jacket and ponytail, and he's a dick. He refused to help me, saying my project is impossible, and actually won't help about half of the researchers who come in, and none of the anglo-saxon researchers. The other archive snob is a young woman who gives me these withering stares everyday and never responds when I say "Bonjour". She oozes very high self regard and I only wish I knew how to say "Please! I wouldn't fuck you with someone else's dick!" in French.

The thing is that there are also four people in the back of the archives and three receptionists there who are extremely nice to me. They bend over backwards to help me. Oh, the French are definitely more reserved than Americans. One of the things I love about Americans is that you go to some small town and everyone there acts like they're your best friend. But the French are very nice when you get to know them.

The other thing is that there are snobs everywhere. I've gone to nowhere towns in the Midwest and had the kids working at McDonald's act snooty towards me. Our video store clerk in small town Hamilton is a snob. It matters not at all. If anything, snobs are an annoyance. Nobody can be a snob alone: they have to involve others in their psychodrama. But it wastes precious time having some snob trying to convey the fact that they are way out of your league when you're not involved in the game in the first place. I get it- you think you're hot. Now, please give me my Big Mac.

So, I think it's best to ignore snobs. They've got their own drama going on and it's not worth worrying about. The French snobs are harmless, just like most American snobs. If you let people like that ruin your fun, you'll never wind up going anywhere.