A review on Yelp of The Parisienne French Bakery

Don't put an American in here.

A cafe is not just a place to flatter one's appetite or to chat.  It is also an atmosphere that may or make others comfortable, a place where one can divulge, intentionally or otherwise, personal details of one's life.

Unfortunately--in my experience of Seattle cafes and restaurants--it becomes a golden opportunity for many people to yak, yammer (as much on their smartphone as with the person seated opposite them), talk over the din of those who couldn't care less how their boisterous behavior makes it unpleasant for others to dine and have a civilized conversation, and to display one's social self-importance.




I try to avoid the herd, not join it.

I am happy to report that this cafe is close as possible to a cafe in Paris,  even though the clientele is mostly American.  

Very good baked goods (including the pizza), passible coffee.   Low-key, located on a shaded street in Belltown, without the overblown tourist cachet of Le Pichet or the obvious "in" hoopola of Cafe Presse, the People magazine version of a French cafe.

I love Americans, for their friendliness in particular.  But I do exception with a few other cultural markers,

Let me explain.

One of the effects of the Americanization of the world I witnessed in Sienna in April, where a young Italian woman, dressed like in a rather typical, casual American manner,  came up to and stood next to our tour guide and started talking very loudly, practically shrieking.  I dawned on me what we do in our culture to get attention. no matter how boorish and obvious.

The Americans who come to this establishment presumably are capable of behaving differently.  (As are the Germans who speak loudly in public and are disliked for that reason as well, but they don't live or come to Seattle in droves).

And they are obviously of a different genus from the ones who love to hear themselves talk--each person in the conversation, respectively, enjoying herself in this way--as much as love to incessantly take "selfies" or some version thereof.



I am half-amused, half-saddened listening to Americans who have been to France come back and say, "Well, they w-h-i-s-p-er in cafes!"  Which, if an American could try to put himself or herself in another's shoes, would mean that "in public Americans shout, shriek, but do anything but speak."  

Unfortunately it is becomingly increasingly difficult, at home or abroad. , to avoid Americans of this stripe--the bull in the china shop.  Hopefully the buffalo and cows won't here often to trample things.

Let them be content, as they are, with the ersatz Boulangerie in Wallingford or friendly but very loud and voluble Le Reve--more in the way of a daytime nightmare in my view--on Queen Anne.  

The the faux-nouveau-riche in Seattle will have their way.

I am so awesome.

A stereotype that Americans are loud?  Not in my experience.

You couldn't pay some Americans to not talk loudly, much less keep their mouths shut for two minutes.

I think that it is difficult for many Americans to accept that another country, church, museum, city hall, bar, restaurant, health club, library, department store, university, etc. are not the same as one's home (screaming children, ESPN television, and all).  It is true, however, that the door stops at the bedroom.  Everything else, well, the attitude is to just let it all hang out, others be damned.

No, I don't think it's such a good idea for people--anyone--to talk loudly in public, bray, shriek, and otherwise call attention to oneself, which to me is a thinly diguised, embarassing, narcissistic, inconsiderate cry for attention.*

It is a shame that the younger generation of Brits resembles so closely its American counterparts, having mostly shed the predisposition towards discretion and understatement of the elder generation(s).

One thing I have never (or at least very rarely) witnessed in the United States is French people, and Francophones in general (with the exception of the Quebecois) carry on and talk loudly, shriek, and/or bray in this country, which I think is a sterling quality for a visitor away from home.

The penchant for shameless self-promotion is in the cultural DNA of the United States (and to a lesser extent Canada and wherever American culture finds a foothold).




* The ascension, domination of African-Americans (music, lingo, sports, movies, politics, etc.) does not help matters, for whom belly-aching in public is so often a source of self-pride, has cultural implications that I am deeply ambivalent about.