British poll: The French are the worst people in the world

Well some things never change, including the tensions between the Brits and French. According to a British poll, the French are the "rudest, most boring people on Earth."
And France is voted the most unfriendly nation on the planet.

Who is second-worst? Germany.

Italy was voted the most cultured with the best food.

Americans were voted the worst in fashion and the worst in food.

The poll was conducted by Where Are You Now travel website and included 6,000 Brits.

did make every attempt to speak French when I could. (Badly.)

and like you, we all... my wife, my brother & his wife... all learned at least a few key phrases of French and tried our best. We spoke French to them, the best we could and they answered us back in English. Loved the place and after watching the Paris scenes from The Soprano's last night, I really need to get back.

And right here on my desk is a small plastic jar of sand taken from the beach at Colleville-sur-Mer, just below the American Cemetery in Normandy.

They didn't vote US the rudest, most boring people on earth.

::humming 'GSTQ'::

appreciatively,
Bright

Physician, heal thyself.

Suet is for birds, not people.

Suet? Hardly part of the British staple diet anymore.
Of course the British believe Americans eat only burgers, hot dogs and and soggy fried chicken skins and drink beer that tastes like gnat piss. That's why they are all obese!

The mainstream beers, like Miller, Coors, and especailly Budweiser do taste gnat piss. However, some of the smaller breweries do put out some decent stuff, like New Glarus's Spotted Cow.

Never chowed down on a bowl of treacle (molasses) or even heard of jellied eel....Ah, a quick search reveals jellied eel is a "traditional East End dish enjoying something of a revival amongst residents in the Capital and tourists who are keen to capture a taste of the real old-fashioned East End."

Typical British dishes that might be served at home are shepherd's pie, beans on toast, roast beef and yorkshire pudding, pork pies, fish and chips, lamb or beef roast, bangers and mash, or a standard 'fry up' -- eggs, tomatoes and bacon. But more and more Brits serve quick meals just like here: chicken tenders and chips, hamburgers, Burger King (more popular and ubiquitous than McDonald's), and pizza.

What I didn't enjoy in England was dessert, or "pudding" as they call anything served after "tea" (dinner). Their cakes are very dry, not moist and rich like ours. Frostings are usually hard. It's just the difference in taste between there and here.

Yuck factor goes hands down to Marmite, which is similar to the Aussie Vegamite. Looks like melted chocolate, tastes like a mouthful of condensed polluted sea water. Hubby spreads it on toast. Even to Brits Marmite is one of those love-it or hate-it products; they run humorous ads taking advantage of that dichotomy.

I know Warwickshire pretty well, but of course that's not all of the Midlands.

Edited to confess that I love Marmite! And vegemite too!

Marmite!! :puke:

lol

Milton Keynes. The far eastern Midlands...or the extreme west of East Anglia, depending on one's point of view. Are you in Warks?

West Yorkshire. MIL lives in Rugby, so I'm familiar with that area of Warwickshire. We also lived in Henley-on-Thames for 7 years and London for nearly 5 - I know a lot about my little pockets of the UK!

No place like God's Country, chuck. lol

He worked in London and we made regular rounds of the restaurants and theatres. Miss it. Maybe one day we'll move back....

I absolutely LOVE it!!!

suet is very old-fashioned and treacle tart or pudding is a kids favourite treat.
When British food is cooked by a good cook it can be great, bad examples are cooked by bad cooks.
I love cottage pie, good Sunday roasts, fish and chips and loathe steak and kidney pie, liver and bacon etc. I much prefer proper fat British chips too french fries.
However the national favourite dish is Chicken Tikka Masala and other Indian dishes. So as a nation was are open to other cuisines in away even the french are not.
We also have regional dishes for instance in the North the favour chips with gravy and mushy pies.
I rarely eat a full English breakfast either. I prefer fruit, cereal and toast.
And I love marmite love marmite on toast, will choose it over peanut butter any day. And for a
good British pudding try apple and blackberry crumble, bread and butter pudding and summer fruits pudding.

Because I don't know what mushy pies are but I really like mushy peas.

I'd forgotten about Chicken Tikka Masala. Kebabs are also popular.

My husband, who's from Yorkshire, hates peanut butter but loves mushy peas which we buy from British shops here in Florida. Again, I shake my head in despair. Mushy peas and some Marmite would probably make a great drain cleaner!! :D

Apple and blackberry crumble, another goody! How about Christmas pudding and mince pies? Very nice.

Things not easy to find in the UK when I was there: pumpkin pie, concorde grape jelly (to go with the peanut butter), jell-o pudding...and English Muffins! lol

I thought it wouldn't, but was persuaded to try it. It's really good (if you like Marmite, that is - since I had to have 'care packages' of Marmite sent to me when I lived in the States for a couple of years, I'm a confirmed addict).

I've never eaten, or even seen on a menu or in anyone's home, boiled beef with salt. Why people persist with idiotic, erroneous stereotypes about what British people eat baffles me. It's the same as assuming southern Americans exist on a diet of hog jowls, chitlins and grits.

There's plenty of fine dining to be had in the UK.

you have to expect some stereotypes.

I don't think an American should dis another country when it comes to pop culture or anti-intellectualism ... Those who live in glass houses and all of that...

Benny Hill was called a lot of things, but intellectual wasn't one of them.

He was and still is more popular in the USA than he ever was in the UK.

And he was extremely popular in France at one time I recall.

My father - who lives in Georgia - adores Benny Hill and did long before I moved to Britain. Never understood that myself.

Did you know that the actress who played Daphne on "Frasier" (can't think of her name right now) got her start as one of the Benny Hill girls?

My aunt in Virginia Water made it for me once on a visit.

It's just that none of the actual cuisine's are native. Hundreds of years of empire will do that for you. Indeed, the native faire goes along way to explaining the need to expand their horizons, so to speak.

Roast Beef and casserole? That's grandma food, I wouldn't consider than American food anymore. American food is kind of a bastardization of every food on the planet and it seems pretty good to me!

Come on...bangers and mash? Okay, okay...I'll agree that fish and chips are good and so's the brew, but seriously America has hot dogs and hamburgers.

The French ("froggies") and Germans ("krauts") have long been numbers 1 and 2 on the British black list, as I learned when I lived there. You only need to look at the long, antagonistic history between them and the UK to understand why.

I visited Paris with my family and am sorry to say that despite attempts to speak the lingo, we were more often than not treated rudely. However, I was reminded later of the old saying, "Parisians hate each other more than they hate anyone else." The French outside of Paris are much kinder, I'm told.

I love France and have been there many times, especially to the Alps for skiing, and have always enjoyed it. The Parisians, however, are another matter altogether.

Funnily enough, last year I was chatting to a young man while riding up a ski gondola in Canada. He was from Paris originally and told me he had emigrated permanently to Canada because the people in his hometown were such rude and miserable people that he couldn't bear living there anymore.

The poll sounds kind of... interesting.

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wonder why....

...for about 1/3rd of what it would cost in the UK.....and because house prices in Spain has gone through the roof. ;)

all reports show that, they say that their quality of life has improved...

pubs! There are many anglophones in Paris. That's where my sister met her current British boyfriend. :-)

My stomach says otherwise.

states, the amount of grease, sugar and the plain size of some helpings = :puke:

I probably but on 30lbs when I moved to the US from the UK.

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

it's wonderful! much better than Italian.

They should talk.

That's like being told by George Bush that you're a shitty President.

It created a stir in England. He said it is the worst food in the world and he'll never eat it again.

The Brits and French have been at each others throats for centuries. It's no different. It's like a rivalry. Each has the "we are better then them..." mentality.

Americans are voted the worst food because of the stereotype that all we eat are hamburgers and hotdogs.

and squeeze my 350 lb ass into my giant SUV.

because of the way it was in the post-war years when rationing was still in effect (rationing didn't end until about 1953). In fact, I'll go so far as to say that it's my belief that many people slag off British restaurants when they haven't even been to Britain themselves - they're just perpetuating a stereotype without first-hand knowledge. I even did it myself before I moved to the UK because I had heard it so often.

As I said in another post in this thread, there's no shortage of good restaurants in Britain, and not just in London either. For example, I live in a small (two traffic lights) Yorkshire town and even we have a Michelin-starred restaurant (this one). I've eaten consistently better food in British restaurants than I ever have in American ones.

Some cities; New York, San Francisco, Chicago- have amazing food.

But admittedly my experience with British food is limited- I was only in London for two rainy, cold days (not counting a hellish wait in Heathrow or two) and as such don't have a lot to go on.

I just think it's a silly poll. And the US is such a huge country that trying to nail down "American Food" is probably like trying to nail down "latest trends in the Milky Way".

when I was writing my post but left them out because they're exceptional when it comes to food.

I just tend to get on my soapbox when I hear the British-food-sucks thing because I grew up in the States and know that there's just as much badly prepared food there as anywhere else. I have people in my own family who think TGI Friday's is haute cuisine.

And, yes, polls like this are silly. They sure do push our buttons though, don't they?!

Edited to add New Orleans to my list of American cities with outstanding food, and also my hometown of Atlanta has improved beyond belief over the last 15 years or so. All the fast food places drive me round the bend though. I live in a small town in the north of England that doesn't have any fast food places for miles, so I now get overwhelmed when I'm in the States because I feel like I can't get away from it.

strip-mallification of America kicked into high gear this past few decades.

And the times in my life when I'm forced to eat at some shitty chain, I'm miserable. I try to eat pretty well, so I'm always amazed when what constitutes a "salad" for most of 'Merka seems to be wilted iceberg lettuce and croutons covered with some kind of melted, shredded, orange "cheez" goop. TGIFs springs to mind for me, too- my wife and I were actually on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls a couple years ago for someone's wedding, and after our luggage got lost we got in so late that it was the only place we could find open to eat. Especially challenging if you're trying to maintain some kind of control on cholesterol and the like.

Fortunately where I live there are lots of options for not just good food, but healthy food- organic, vegetarian, free range poultry, that kind of thing. But from my travels around the country I think we're the exception to the rule.

Is the War still on and I didn't get the memo?

Under no zircumstances mention ze var. it iz velly dangerous to mention ze var. You might get killed!

The image of American food that most Brits have is the imports such as MacDonalds, KFC and Pizza Hut and now Krispy Kreme has arrived. It is the food that is bad for us and making our kids obese and sick. The country is campaigning to eat healthier and cut out the junk, they have had enough of the direct advertising towards children, which they see from
American fast food outlets. And they also see the images of massive portions and deathly obese people and fear that we are on the verge of becoming the same.
I know America does have great food but that is not what most British people in this country see and I know that Californian wine sells well here.

The problems with the French right now comes with the problems they create within the EU,Jacque Chirac is very unpopular here, especially after his comments of British food, on that occasion the dinner was made from the finest ingredients that the UK can offer. Also the way that they send most of there asylum-seekers across the channel rather than deal with them, gets peoples backs up and because they are often snooty, arrogant and appear to look down on anyone who is not French.
I like France as a country and I like their food too but I have come across many rude French people in the South Of France.And not just to the British either. The French also have never really been forgiven for there surrender to the Nazi's.
The German's will most likely need another decade or so before they are not largely disliked by much of the rest of Europe. The war has ended but the scars are still there and people are still alive that remember Nazi occupation. They have serious race issues in Germany, in the run up to the World Cup in Germany, groups of East German Neo-Nazi's have issued warnings to any black football supporters going to Germany.... The hate isn't without basis even though it may be xenophobic and wrong.

but Chiracs little outbreaks are considered quite ridiculous by most of the French too. I think those outbreaks are made to satisfy a certain audience, but it's more damaging than anything else. But if you look at the attacks on Chirac in the British press for his role in the Iraq story, nothing like this has been published in the French press about Blair...

Regarding the asylum-seekers, the description is not correct : most of them DON'T want to stay in France because of the level of unemployment and difficulties to get a job. There is a legend among specially seekers from muslim countries that the UK is "the pardise" regarding jobs... remember that those people are mostly illegals, but even if arrested cannot be sent back to their home countries. The police is only able to disrupt the traffic towards UK.

There are rude people in the South of France yes, most of our rednecks live there. But they are rude to everybody even to other French... And it can be difficult to deal with them if you don't master the language.

The surrender story is getting a bit old now, specially since France regained its honor with the resistance and De Gaulle. Churchill never saw the French as "surrenderers". Britain would have surrendered too if the US had stayed out, the UK not being an island and Hitler had'nt fucked up the invasion of England...

I'm sorry. :rofl:

I don't doubt your observations tocqueville, I just find the concept funny. :D

In my mind all French people are supposed to be stylish and gracious.

edit: Re: Chirac. I kinda put him in the same dept as Jesse Helms. He caters to a certain audience, regardless of whether or not it irritates the rest of us.

wich is the acronym for "GROS CONS" ("big stupid twats"). They have much in common with the US rednecks : they live on the countryside, they drive a pickup, they own a gun and shoot at everything that moves and they inbreed.
The only difference is that they are constantly drunk on cheap red wine instead of Miller Lite.

maybe a few redneck-ettes and some leftover Rusty Wallace fans.

Believe me I know. Charlotte is ground zero for rednecks this week with The NASCAR race this weekend.

And if you're in my old neighborhood, the 1st arr., wave to my apartment on Rue de Richelieu.

The thing that gets me the most is when France is attacked by a country three times it's size in 1939, the US, the country that would not even exist if not for French help during the Revolutionary War, never lifted a finger to help them. And frankly, 5 years later when the US did fight the Germans in France it was ONLY because of the geography of the military goal of go to Germany. Had landing in Belgium been deemed easier, we would have gone there, I'm sure.

I've been watching Jamie Oliver's crusade to get school food up to par.

How's that worked out, then?


And personally - i dig classic british food. Bring on the stodge!

Most East Coast American cooking has it's roots in british cooking, to be honest. But we don't make good tea sandwiches. or pasties, for that matter.

:eyes:

Notice the poster doesn't have any input elsewhere in the thread.

traces.

No surprise at all. I am sure that a French website would show exactly the reverse results.

both navies more and more...

I am not sure of the contrary, I couldn't find any French surveys on Google

It may just be users of the website; in which case it's not representative of overall British opinion.

There was a worldwide survey taken last year, by a real polling company, from which we can pull some opinions of the French and British about each other:



France's opinion of Britain's influence on the world was 50% 'mainly positive', and 34% 'mainly negative'. So Britain does seem to have a lower opinion of the French than vice versa - but that may be explained almost entirely by the the riots, since a majority had a positive opinion the year before (the EU constitution vote also happened in that time period, though I don't know if that would have affected British opinion positively or negatively). The US has a very similar opinion about France to that of the UK. Britain has a similar negative opinion of the USA, almost as bad of China, even worse of Russia, and far worse of Iran. We are a criticial, grumpy lot, I'm afraid.

Worst in food? That's the thanks we get for giving the world ranch dressing and the Funyun, among other things? Fine, be that way, world!!

If it weren't for Indian immigrants, Brits would still be eating fish and chips, and other things that taste like cardboard! :eyes:

On the other hand, British ales are awesome. :beer:

Germans, for the most part, are polite, and so are French. Rudeness occurs more often in large cities, but that's because there are MORE PEOPLE to encounter. I bet there are plenty of 'rude people' in London too.

My first day in France with my husband, a couple decades ago, we had a flat tire. Before we stood up from examining it, two young Parisians appeared and changed our tire.
Example 2: Standing baffled, an elderly Parisian offered us directions.
Three: In Normandy (a different trip), while admiring a farm-house, its owner came out, invited us in, showed us his prized WWII U.S. AirForce souvenir cap, and offered his house for the night.
I could go on.

IOW, I love France and its people.
And I love the U.K., too!

In heaven:

- the French are the cooks,
- the Italians are the lovers,
- the Germans are the engineers
- the Swiss are the bankers, and
- the British are the police.

In Hell:

- the British are the cooks,
- the Swiss are the lovers,
- the French are the engineers,
- the Italians are the bankers, and
- the Germans are the police.

:hide:

I've been looking for that joke for a while now because I couldn't remember exactly how it went. I could only remember the French and Italian parts in heaven but not the rest of it.

My sister lived there for two years, and I visisted her often. My husband and I go for Thanksgiving weekend every other year, because the flights are dirt cheap from the East coast. The people are very friendly, and the food is fabulous. Maybe it's a generational thing, because my parents' generation often repeats the rude-stinky meme. The people under 45 love American culture. They just hate our President.

I sure do love when people post typical right-wing flamebait. Two French soldiers were killed in Afghanistan last week, and there are thousands of French troops there, but it doesn't stop the typical wingnut insults.

After all, bad-mouthing the French is almost a British cultural imperative.

Compared to British "cuisine"? Please. I suppose they might have a point if they consider McDonald's to be the standard but we have some of the best restaurants in the world. And who gives a damn about fashion? I can't think of anything more useless to society.

Will the French and the Brits ever get along?

Personally, I've been to England and France. Loved them both. The food WAS better in France than in England. The people WERE nicer in England than in France.

Six of one, half dozen of the other.

Would love the chance to see them again.

American tourist.

American food is not that bad, every country has some kinds of food that are bad. x(