Because last year the Fête des Lumières / Festival of Lights (December 7, 8, 9, 10) attracted nearly 4 million visitors, they expect even more this year. There’s so much happening in Lyon right now during the festival, from bright art installations inside venues and outside the buildings in Lyon, to colorful concerts and conferences and experimental student projects, you might want to consult the program here to search what you’d like to see. [Read about the history behind this event]

Another entry to note as part of this festival is the “Vélo’v racing in Lyon,” which is a computer racing game to be played on a huge screen outside at Place de la République, in the 2nd arrondissement in Lyon. The game’s backdrop is the city of Lyon where you can race your bike on the streets of Lyon in real time (or just be a spectator). That event starts today and runs through December 9. Each game allows 4 players at a time, lasts for about 4 to 5 minutes depending on the players and you must be 7 years old or older to play. Open 6pm to 1am. Click here to download the full program of events for the Festival of Lights (in French).

Tags: lyon, france, events, things+to+do, Fête+des+Lumières, Festival+of+Lights, Vélo’v+racing

I can’t decide. Call it a cultural confusion breakdown. How can my brain dissect two opposite spectrum societies without it exploding into small gray matter blobs. Call me crackers. Hey, that combination is a perfectly acceptable meal in France.

My recent trip to the U.S. reminded me that customer service in the U.S. versus customer service in France couldn’t be more disparate and clashing. They are like two entirely different beasts from separate planets.

Being here for 4 years I’ve learned that many a customer service person in France will and do have a general disdain for any living creature (aka the customer) they come into contact with at work. If it’s not a rolling of the eyes and a look that practically blurts out loud, “Merde. Another customer.” (Perhaps, I DID actually hear that a few times.) – or the disapproving, disgusted and ultra loud SIGH! or an unwillingness to…work, one thing is clear, lots of employees here are simply unqualified for the service sector. And, and and…all the lies! Some of you reading this know these symptoms quite well. You know what I’m talking about. Having said that, sometimes a person WILL make an effort to smile every other month.*

On the other hand, in the U.S. there is rarely a customer service smile shortage (even on the phone), and to me, that is also a scary thing. Why? Because that smile will sometimes come with a voice born only to be a television game show announcer, the voice that boldly and happily declares the oh-so-wonderful-and-lovely gifts you’ll receive if you win the game. It’s the voice that follows along an intonation roller coaster ride à la Disneyland. Perhaps a standard because Disneyland is afterall, “The Happiest Place on Earth!!” Do not forget the exclamation marks.

Just a few weeks ago, I found myself having lunch with my sister and my mum at a restaurant located at The Grove in L.A. (Doh! Dupars was STILL under renovation). I won’t name which restaurant, but it has a huge list of desserts. Anyway, I dunno, but our waiter was like Don Pardo’s younger clone. (not dissing Don Pardo – Loved him as SNL’s announcer). Maybe our waiter was in fact an aspiring announcer or actor like many waiting staffers in L.A. and was practicing his skills whilst also waiting but for his big break. In any case, he, like many customer service people I’ve run into in the U.S., offered lots of unfunny jokes and conversation, and extremely efficient service with a BIG, face-cracking smile but at the same time keeping an uncomfortably thick veneer of insincerity.

In his defense, however, you never know when one of your customers is the same Hollywood exec that hired people like Don Pardo. But, it IS superficialty par excellence and I recently read something that reported an American study that concluded that the American smiles are not only superficial, but artificial (anti-depressant drug induced) as well because more and more Americans are being medicated for depression and bi-polarism. Duh. France just goes untreated, I guess.
My mega polite sister and mother did try to go along with the waiter’s act, offering their forced chuckles and answering an enthusiastic “we’re fine!” (did our waiter really care if we were fine? rhetorical question, obviously.) in order to not mix a different attitude into the personal-but-really-impersonal conversation. Me, I just looked at him in horror. That kind of fake perkiness and loud smiling service has always made me feel yucky. Maybe my intolerance is even stronger now that I live in a different world.

Have I gotten too used to the customer service in France that I hated the U.S. version? Have I become an America bashing Francophile freak? Have I gone insane? I think I actually missed the way a salesperson walks away from me upon entering a shop.

* A Note: Please don’t get all postal on me, and just take this blog post with a grain of salt. I realize I am not a solid authority on anything, particularly, I am no expert on the culture of any people and their country. This post was founded on some humor, lots of unfair generalizations meant for comic relief, experiences as an American expat living in France, exaggerations, my own observations in both countries, and my casual comparisons and analyses, flawed or not.

Tags: customer+service, france, grumpiness, u.s., differences, fake+smiles, superficial, american+perkiness

My sweetie read my blog post about the French Christmas cards from the other day and picked up these smaller cards for me from the post office (He actually didn’t see any of the larger cards). They are soooo cute.

These smaller cards have different illustrations on each of them (see all the cards here), are available at La Poste and cost 5 euros for 5 cards, 5 envelopes and are pre-stamped. They are ready to be mailed from France to anywhere in the world. They are blank inside and have one of these small cute icons on the back bottom center of the card.

The envelopes look like this (below), but are also all different. See all of the envelopes here.

I think these sweet cards are a pretty good deal because they cost only one euro each, which includes postage. (No, I don’t work for the French post office, surprisingly.)

Continued from last Friday…

Air France is having a sale on various flights worldwide but you must purchase tickets by December 5, which is in just two days. Today I bought RT tickets from Paris to L.A. for only 515 euros, which is a lot less than what I paid just a couple of months ago. The sale is not restricted to France and the U.S.; there are other destinations and other offers that are great deals.

The only thing is: As of today, the French Air France website is completely unsecured on the pages where you buy tickets. That means DON’T BUY ONLINE there because the information you input like your credit card number, name, telephone, address, etc. is not safe. You can purchase tickets by phone at Air France (you have to pay for the call, though) and pay an additional 10 euros for not purchasing on the unsecured website. (Hopefully, they will soon resolve this issue.)

Note: If you have a Skype account, you could call the 800 number for Air France based in the U.S. for free, rather than calling within France for a fee. The Air France number is: 800-237-2747.

See the Air France Deals

If you want to buy online for flights from the U.S. to France, you can do so on the U.S. Air France Site, which is a secured site.

Tags: travel, france, french, airlines, airfrance, flights, sales, u.s.

Opodo and Delta are offering excellent fares from France (Paris and Nice) to major cities in the U.S. Prices have come down significantly. For example: RT Paris to New York starts at 404€; Paris to Chicago 454€; Nice to New York is 404€; Nice to Washington 463€ – etc. Reserve before February 28, 2007 and travel by March 31, 2007.

More information

Tags: france, travel, u.s., cheap+flights, france+to+u.s, delta+airlines, opodo

Just released: These new Christmas cards and stamps! You can get these adorable French Christmas cards and stamps directly from La Poste, (the French post office) or simply order them online. The cards come with an illustrated envelope with the stamp incorporated in the art. Very cute.

Also see more French Christmas cards

Window Displays in France

More photos in this series to be posted here on Monday

See other animals below:
Friday Ark, Carnival of the Cats, Carnival of the Dogs, WE DB

Tags: france, french, cats, dogs, window+displays