Totally Frenched Out

From the blogger formerly known as Samdebretagne

Monday, February 23, 2009

Too bad to be true?

For the French speakers out there, check out this article on lemonde.fr. This seriously cannot be true, il y a trop de choses qui ne collent pas dans son histoire....

16 Comments:

Blogger wcs said...

I couldn't get past the first page. I don't believe that if your flight is canceled due to a strike, or any other reason for that matter, that your shit out of luck. That just can't be right.

I'm skeptical.

February 23, 2009 at 8:56 AM  
Blogger wcs said...

Sorry, that should be "you're" sol.

Man, I need to proofread!

February 23, 2009 at 8:57 AM  
Blogger MISS YURI said...

to me it def. sounds like she was fed up with her life at home and didn't really want to leave france anyway. she doesn't sound entirely mentally stable. i do feel sorry for her, though, because she's so trapped by her naivete that she can't even see reality correctly.

February 23, 2009 at 10:28 AM  
Blogger rhino75 said...

I agree I'm HIGHLY skeptical about all this. But it's a great find - thanks!!

February 23, 2009 at 10:51 AM  
Blogger Alison said...

C'est de la connerie, c'est histoire. Seriously, I call bullshit. And I say "What-everrrrrrr." Also, way to make it sound like the US is all harsh, like if you're down on your luck, you're SOL.

I think you should investigate this, K-Sam. ;-)

February 23, 2009 at 10:58 AM  
Blogger Greg said...

Sounds like her cheese has slipped off her cracker!

I agree that you should investigate. Go undercover perhaps?

February 23, 2009 at 11:11 AM  
Blogger Etienne said...

Absolutely BS - the embassy offers to help the next day after Le Monde contacts it and she says no thanks, she doesn't want to go back to the US? After whining about being stuck in France? It's nice to know that the embassy will front the return ticket home if you get stuck, never knew that.

February 23, 2009 at 3:49 PM  
Blogger Rebecca said...

And here I thought even our friend Sarkozy would step up with a ticket home rather than put up with another non-employed illegal immigrant.

Here's the EU legislation on cancelled and delayed flights: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32004R0261:EN:HTML:NOT

In a nutshell, unless the airline can prove that a ticket-holder's flight's "cancellation is caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken", they are required to adequately care for and to compensate the traveller. This has been in effect since 2004 or 2005. I'm not sure how good the complaint system is, but you're welcome to try it.

I agree with Miss Yuri and Etienne on this one.

February 23, 2009 at 6:37 PM  
Blogger Fned said...

I didn't open the link but I think I know what it's about: the Ann Webb thing, right?

It's funny but the first thing that jumped in my mind was: that flight cancellation thing is fishy (we went through something like that a few years ago and totally got scheduled in the next flight out).

Second: how on earth could she have mistaken the counters for the American citizen with the one for the French citizen one at the American Embassy? Does she NOT speak english?

Third: She found out how to get free internet AND HAIR COLORING/CUT but didn't speak the language well enough to find a way back home???!!

My conclusion: this girl is pitching the next Oprah Bookclub (fake) bestselling autobiography.

Fned.

February 23, 2009 at 8:25 PM  
Blogger L said...

Because I've kind of seen the behind the scenes of magazine/newspaper editing, I'm going to say that there clearly is an agenda here and this is not investigative reporting.

I agree with everyone else's conclusions, but would like to propose that maybe the woman is just really clueless and/or naive. That might explain why she didn't get her plane ticket rescheduled. If the first person she came across said "too bad, so sad" and she accepted that....

There's way too much of an agenda to show off all the great charities though. How many times was Emaüs mentioned?

February 23, 2009 at 10:07 PM  
Blogger Doc said...

OMFG Where did they find her? And seriously, who could have taken her seriously after the whole "Here, the embassy will fix it" thing. Just another crazy if you ask me.

February 23, 2009 at 10:53 PM  
Blogger A Tank said...

whaaat? i agree with yuri, she doesn't sound entirely sane and it sounds like she didn't really want to leave france in the first place. i highly doubt that no one in paris could speak english well enough to understand her situation or at least point her in the right direction. and now she says she wants to stay anyway, with no visa or anything? crazy.

February 24, 2009 at 3:16 AM  
Blogger islandgirl4ever2 said...

I had the same problem with the flight story, too! It just doesn't stick with me, either... Got to the end of the first page and stopped, too much reading for me!!!

February 24, 2009 at 9:25 AM  
Blogger corine said...

I say, nahh. Didn't happen. Unless she's mentally ill then all bets are off.

hello by the way, found you via..? cant' track my steps.

February 24, 2009 at 8:12 PM  
Blogger Cécy said...

Fishy! For one thing if you are looking for the best flight deal you get a round trip ticket. One way are much more expensive.
2nd usually if a flight is cancelled, they reschedule you, so maybe she didn't understand that from lack of French (if her story is real) and didn't do what she should have.
For the rest, I can understand confusion, and I would assume that after living in the streets she has a very gloomy view of the world.
I doubt her employeur would refuse to take her back after hearing that she was stranded in France... She needs psychological help and to have her employeur and landlord contacted in the US to see if they can help her back out there.
We all know how much medical positions are needed.
Oh and did she realized that Bush isn't president anymore?

February 24, 2009 at 8:50 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This whole story sounds invented for a little seasonal America bashing in my opinion. It's standard practice that embassies give out loans to help repatriate it's citizens.

February 24, 2009 at 8:52 PM  

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