This probably the only place I have ever encountered the mythical poor service in Paris. It was unfortunately delivered by a young teenager who was apparently annoyed by my basic french and gave some attitude. This was quickly resolved when I asked him if he spoke English, Spanish or German, to which he answered no on all counts.
So I reminded him in Spanish that I spoke 3 languages, which was 2 more than his single tongue and so he needed to chill out, since I was the paying customer. After going through several shades of red, rage I pressume, he quickly realized that in the western world, the paying customer should be treated with respect.... The same respect, I may add that I had been treating him with, until he decided to be snot nose.
I must give him credit for his quick turnaround since from that moment on, he became the helpful, polite young man, that his parents no doubt raised him to be.
The manager also smoothed things over, by promptly getting involved and speaking to us in pretty good Spanish and also gave us a card good for 1 hour of Wi FI access so cheers for making it right.
Coffee, baguettes, sandwiches and OJ and we were ready to tackle the frigid Parisian morning. read more