"It Is All That I Love."*
*Literal translation of French version of McDonald's ad slogan "I'm Lovin' It."
I swore to myself I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't. Hell, I hadn't set foot in a McDonald's in probably 2 or 3 years before coming to France (and definitely not since I read Fast Food Nation), so why start now in a city with some of the best cuisine on the planet?
But there are days when I'm tied up in meetings until after the cafeteria quits serving, or they're serving your choice of beef tongue or boudin noir (blood sausage), and it's too rainy to go get a sandwich and eat in the park, and I don't have time to spend the two hours it usually takes to eat in an actual restaurant. Days when I have a choice: get something from the vending machine, or go to the McDonald's down the street [Photo: service entrance to McDonald's at Grange Blanche].
I was very self-conscious when I went in there, feeling like the cliche Yank tourist, half-expecting everyone to turn around and point: "Where's your fanny pack, Lardy McShovelburger?" Ever seen a Mexican family scarfing breakfast burritos in Taco Bell? Me neither, but I'm sure they'd feel the same way.
Vincent Vega was right: The little things are different. Yes, in France you can get a 12-ounce beer (more precisely, 33cL) with your extra-value meal--which, by the way, is confusingly called a "Pack Best Of." With your Pack Best Of, you also have the choice of frites or "deluxe potatoes", which are thick like steak fries. Not "patates de luxe", but "deluxe potatoes". Are you supposed to say this with a French accent, or drop out of your stream of French and deliver those two words as a straight Americanism? Regardless, they come with a packet of herbed mayonnaise to drench them in...not bad, actually.
Your Pack Best Of Royal Cheese (not "Royale"--Travolta must have pronounced it wrong--and not "avec fromage", either) will set you back Eur5.80. Try not to convert the exchange rate into dollars while you're eating.
I know I've complained about French customer service before, but McDonald's is one of the very few places where it's better than in the States. Maybe it's because jobs are relatively scarce here, but French McDonald's seems to actually hire people with IQs approaching average. And the burgers! Why, they look just like in the ads! The bun's not squished, and the lettuce isn't all falling out one side! For $7.25, it had better look nice.
Still, I don't go very often; for all the official French opposition to creeping Americanism and Disneyfied cultural hegemony, the place is always packed--and not with American tourists.
I swore to myself I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't. Hell, I hadn't set foot in a McDonald's in probably 2 or 3 years before coming to France (and definitely not since I read Fast Food Nation), so why start now in a city with some of the best cuisine on the planet?
But there are days when I'm tied up in meetings until after the cafeteria quits serving, or they're serving your choice of beef tongue or boudin noir (blood sausage), and it's too rainy to go get a sandwich and eat in the park, and I don't have time to spend the two hours it usually takes to eat in an actual restaurant. Days when I have a choice: get something from the vending machine, or go to the McDonald's down the street [Photo: service entrance to McDonald's at Grange Blanche].
I was very self-conscious when I went in there, feeling like the cliche Yank tourist, half-expecting everyone to turn around and point: "Where's your fanny pack, Lardy McShovelburger?" Ever seen a Mexican family scarfing breakfast burritos in Taco Bell? Me neither, but I'm sure they'd feel the same way.Vincent Vega was right: The little things are different. Yes, in France you can get a 12-ounce beer (more precisely, 33cL) with your extra-value meal--which, by the way, is confusingly called a "Pack Best Of." With your Pack Best Of, you also have the choice of frites or "deluxe potatoes", which are thick like steak fries. Not "patates de luxe", but "deluxe potatoes". Are you supposed to say this with a French accent, or drop out of your stream of French and deliver those two words as a straight Americanism? Regardless, they come with a packet of herbed mayonnaise to drench them in...not bad, actually.
Your Pack Best Of Royal Cheese (not "Royale"--Travolta must have pronounced it wrong--and not "avec fromage", either) will set you back Eur5.80. Try not to convert the exchange rate into dollars while you're eating.
I know I've complained about French customer service before, but McDonald's is one of the very few places where it's better than in the States. Maybe it's because jobs are relatively scarce here, but French McDonald's seems to actually hire people with IQs approaching average. And the burgers! Why, they look just like in the ads! The bun's not squished, and the lettuce isn't all falling out one side! For $7.25, it had better look nice.
Still, I don't go very often; for all the official French opposition to creeping Americanism and Disneyfied cultural hegemony, the place is always packed--and not with American tourists.
posted by Frogmarch @ 4:24 PM
5 Comments:
At 7:42 PM,
Anonymous said…
You know what you're going to get...
When asked why he eats at MacDonald's in France, Italy and England, my brother replied that one knows exactly what one will get there.
Aside from mayonnaise and beer, the menu is pretty similar to what we have here. Plus once you figure out that they use horrible horrible mustard on their filet-d'-poissons you know to ask them to hold it. It will be the same the next time you go. There won't be a new chef who thinks that boiled Brussels sprouts go well with everything.
I suspect that those people are all doing exactly what you are doing there. Unless they have a Parisian level of Militancy about being French, then they too think 2 hours for lunch is too long. Lyon is on the cutting edge of world culture. Lunch should take no more than 90 minutes, plus nap time.
At 7:30 PM,
Anonymous said…
More on that:
1.) Some people look like Americans while others just are American. Back in the 80s when I first went to Europe there was an idea floating around that if one sewed a Canadian flag to his back pack, then he would face less ridicule. My reaction to that was, "Why don't you just not sew ANY flags to your gear?" The Mickey Mouse sweat shirt, the Nike shoes and the baseball cap all pretty much give one away. Invariably the Mickey Mouse shirt is accompanied by a University of somewhere sweatshirt on the first person's traveling companion. I'm proud to American, but when I choose to display it, it's by being loud drunk and obnoxious.
2.) Have you ever tried European fast food? My brother and I went to a Whimpy's once. It was right next door to Victoria Station. Ew. English fast food. Shudder. I later learned that there is much delicious Middle Eastern food and Indian food available at a reasonable price. Kebabs.
What it the Frogmarch take on other Americans in Lyon?
At 4:41 PM,
Frogmarch said…
See, that's a pretty big question, and one that probably deserves its own post rather than being buried in the comments here. It all ties back into "what do they think of us", and there are all sorts of layers to that.
But one fun fact: most French people cannot tell an American accent from an English one. Here in Lyon, where there are relatively few Yanks, if you speak English you will be presumed British. Even if you are loud, drunk, and obnoxious. *Especially* if you are loud, drunk, and obnoxious.
At 7:16 PM,
Anonymous said…
Right. Germans think you're British too, especially if you make a lame move on the road.
I was hoping for a full post on the subject.
At 8:45 PM,
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