No stereotypes here

There is a French stereotype. Now, we should not be typecasting an entire nation and instead respecting the individually of each person, but the reality is the stereotype exists. You’ve seen portrayed in all types of media and in people’s stories from years of travel. The French are rude, they are arrogant. If you don’t speak French, they talk down to you or won’t even speak to you. These are all the things you hear when you tell people you’re headed to Paris for the Summer Olympic Games.

Now, I’ve been very fortunate in my life, and this is now my fifth trip to France in just over 30 years. And I can say no matter where I’ve been in this country – Paris, Lille, Nice – none of the above has ever held true. And it’s never been less true than during our last week here for the Games.

The French people have been incredibly welcoming in all regards. Not sure why your ticket won’t work on the subway? There is a person with an Olympic purple vest there to help you. In English. No person in a purple vest there to help you (because that is their job)? Then there’s an everyday Parisian commuter there to lend a hand. In English.

Want to use your high school French from nine years of bilingual school which seems to be coming back better every day? Then a server will compliment your broken French, speak to you in French long enough that you no longer know what to say, and then smoothly slide back to English. Can’t figure out how to get from a venue to the next Metro stop? There’s a volunteer there to not only show you how to get there, but to download an app on your phone that will help you in the future. In English.

This last example happened to us as we made our 20-minute walk from the Centre Aquatique venue (where we watched Canadian divers Caeli MacKay and Kate Miller just miss out on a medal, finishing fourth in the 10-metre synchronized event), to the nearest Metro station. The only time where all the above doesn’t hold true is when asking a police officer for directions. Not because they are rude, quite the opposite. It’s because they really don’t know where anything is. Four police officers asked to date, and four times we have been sent in the completely wrong direction. We’re not asking police officers for directions anymore.

After diving, we made our way down to the Tour Eiffel for the beach volleyball competition, where we caught the France-U.S. women’s match at 3 p.m. in the afternoon. It was 34 C when we sat down and we literally burned our bums through our shorts on the plastic seats. It was incredibly hot, and incredibly fun, but also incredibly hot. Snoop Dog was also in attendance, fanning himself like the other 10,000 people in the coolest venue I’ve ever sat in, in the Parc du Champ de Mars at the base of the Eiffel Tower. The U.S. beat France two games to none in just over an hour and that was enough for us to vacate and head back to our air-conditioned apartment for some much-needed rest and recovery time. It’s not just the athletes that require this in Paris; being a spectator here is hard work.

We met my Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Sport Institute Network (COPSIN) counterparts back down at Canada Olympic House (COH) to watch Ilya Kharun win bronze in the men’s 200-metre butterfly and then hunkered down to watch the Canadian women’s soccer team pull off the impossible with three straight wins in group play to move on to the quarterfinals. Their 1-0 win over Columbia was nerve-wracking and had the entire COH quiet until they scored with 30 minutes left in the game.

The Games are not even half over and from a Canadian perspective, this women’s soccer team is already the story from Paris. Their never quit attitude despite what many would consider insurmountable adversity is a story that will be told for years, no matter how this tournament finishes for them. The quarterfinal game against Germany goes Saturday night here in Europe, when Allison and I will be in an airport hotel in London awaiting our early Sunday morning flight home, but we’ll be cheering just as loudly as if we were still back in Canada House.

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Don't forget over the next few weeks to support our Alberta-based athletes by participating in our 50/50 draw – now at $20,000 –?which you can find at

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