Being a member of a group of 10 wearing kilts is good fun. Being a member of hundreds, if not thousands also in kilts who have ventured abroad to support their team is simply something else. The kilts don't only clearly mark us as Scots*, they seem to make us really approachable. Not only did we speak to many people who we normally wouldn't have, but I lost count of the number of people who wanted to take or have their photo taken standing next to us. (Although even if we'd charged a Euro per photo it wouldn't have made a dent in a round of beers.)
Communication was far from what I expected it to be. I thought our abilities at speaking French would be far inferior to our hosts' abilities at speaking English. What I found was that whilst there were several people who could speak better English than I can, the majority could speak near enough about as much English as we could French. I'm curious to know if my observation is indicative of:
- The kind of people we were chatting to;
- Parisians;
- The French as a nation;
- ... anything!
Anyway communication wasn't a problem, just for a different reason than I'd expected. I'm not exactly sure how I got nominated as designated French speaker for the latter part of the weekend though! My French is "pas mal", but as a nation I think we should be pretty embarrased by our linguistic abilities.
In short: the Parisians are a very hospitable bunch, and I'll definitely visit again. I do however hope the price of a pint is much lower the next time I visit...
*I was born in England, but both parents are Scottish. I don't know if I'm Scottish or English, and various people have offered their own interpretations of my nationality. I'm definitely British, and I'll happily support Scotland... unless they're playing England.
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