Seriously, what does the average French person think of us Irish folk?

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white spirit

TrÃ¨s bonne question.
I am french, and I endeavour to answer as honestly as possible.
In a general way, Irish are very much appreciated in France, and more particularily in the area I live in, the Southwest of the country. I guess that this fact is mainly dur to visitors' behaviour. Irish are kind and friendly, therefore, french are the same in return. You see, they are more appreciated than english, because to do nat hezitate to enter in contact with people. In my region , plenty of english have decided to live., because this is a nice and agreable area. There even own complete villages, sometimes. English group themselves. No exterior contact. This is even funny...I know a 74 english gentleman who has been living in france for more than 20 years and who is still perfectly unable to speak a poor word of french!!! And this case is quite a general rule!
Irish apply the sentense "at Rome, live like at Rome!"
They communicate with french very much and endeavour to learn at least the necessary words of french useful to be polite.

echo

I am lucky to have a holiday home in Brittany.
When my local friends found out my Irish heritage they thought I was wonderful.
Now on a regular basis I hold an Irish stew dinner for them.
During the last world cup I was sat on the balcony with my little Irish flags flying as my neighbours went past they all tooted their car horns & waved at me like mad [ may be they think I'm barking mad]
Our good friends have just held a Burns night supper which went down extremly well.it was held at home but are now realising that the rest of the village would like to join in so she is looking for a good supply of haggis & help to prepare for next year.
Being in Brittany anybody with a celtic background is warmly welcomed.
If you are British or Irish & you act like an @rse then any local community will not like you very much.

We don't like strangers

Everybody loves the Irish.

James H

they love the irish and despise the english

Graham I

I'd say the Irish are generally viewed positively in France, as are the Scots. Partly it's because they treasure their celtic heritage (glossing over the fact that the Franks were a Germanic tribe ;-) ), partly it's simply a result of having a common historical "enemy" in the shape of England, and partly I think the Scots and Irish are just friendlier and travel better.

echo - please can you email me? I'd love to know if your friend gets a good source for haggis!

Claire H - Well done for trying - don't give up trying to speak French even if they answer in English. This sometimes happens even to people who speak fluently - probably the people you meet are really proud of having learned English (the French consider themselves as a nation to be very poor at foreign languages), so they want to show it off every time they get a chance. Or sometimes if you're in a tourist area they're just too used to speaking English and only respond in French to French people.

abdoucondorcet

i have NEVER seen a french person who think of irish people in a negative manor.
obviously many of us have clichÃ© about irish people : red-haired, black beer, raining, rugby, IRA, ocean and celtic music and culture...
but it's often in a good way and with good intentions. we admire the fact Ireland is a special island, and people who fought for independance and then fight for defending culture.
i come from toulouse and used to play rugby, so i always love the irish rugby teams.

Claire H

This comment is to "white spirit"...i dont know what area of France you are from but i am currently learning French...I have been to France numerous times...and everytime i speak to a French person they always reply back to me in English! even when i am trying to speak their language! So how are we ment to learn French when they are very unhelpful.. once i stopped and asked someone the time and they carried on walking and completely ignored me!

MÃ©phisto

As far as I know, we do appreciate the irish here in France. I guess we love you got free from the british as we had to fight against them so many times (these peoples never give you a break).
Personaly, I had to work in Brussels in the EC few years ago, and my office collÃ¨gue was irish. I had real great time with here, lot of laugh, jokes and friendship.
So to be HONEST, just come over there;
We do like you !!!

qriste

from what I heard (people who went to Ireland or talked to Irish people), everybody said that they are very nice and warm. (I find English people very nice and helpful too)

to Claire: well it happened to me in London too, I asked something to a shop employee in English, and he answered me in French, I answered back in English (to show that I wanted to speak English) and he answered again in French!! lol!.

demoune

We think that you hate english more us so we see you as friend
first irish stereotype in france you have all red hair
you drink everytime and you are a little bit crazy

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