Talking by NiceLife
The French love conversation. Everywhere you look you will see people in conversation, especially when dining out on lettuce leaf in an alfresco setting. Contrast this with dull silence that accompanies so many of our encounters in other countries.I attribute this to the fact that French television is truly awful. Quiz shows, dubbed American cop shows, the British Inspector Barnaby, three hour round table discussions, and adverts that endlessly about food and more food - kitchen setting, cooking, and the perpetual washing machine repairman telling the dim-bulb houswife she should have used "Calgon"
As a result of the poor quality of entertainment and substitute relationships though the media, people actually communicate a lot with other people, and the pleasant climate facilitates doing this outdoors, far from the reach of television.
People in Nice are endlesly engaged in conversation.
Try it yourself, but remember the topics so loved in the Anglo-Saxon world - " Hi - what do you do? (and how much money do you make!) are absolutely forbidden. The weather is usually a safe opening, followed by some existential observations on life.
Be sure to observe "La Politesse" - the public politeness of greeting and farewell on entering and leaving a shop. When the merchants' greeting "Bonjour!" next hits you as you enter a shop , respond in kind. "Bonjour!" Then on leaving - "Au revoir!" Bon apres midi! This is normal. It doesn't constitute a conversation.
