While I was getting ready to depart to France, I was being lectured by my so called ” well wishers” about the racism I may have to experience while being in France. I was reminded of the colonial times and how the British , French , Portuguese and Dutch were competing to oppress the brown skinned Indians. I was also told that I may have to face mistreatment as I didn’t speak French.
With such thoughts in mind ,my wife and I landed at Nice airport. We had to reach Sophia Antipolis which was around 15 KM from the airport. We checked at the airport help desk and got the information that there was a bus which departed from the airport to Sophia Antipolis. However, we were not able to find any. We randomly asked a stranger lady if she knew anything about such a bus which departs towards Sophia Antopolis. She was a French lady and spoke very little English. She understood what we were trying to ask and she told us in her broken English that she has not heard about any such bus . So we thanked her left her and moved towards a tram with the hope that we could take a tram to reach the bus station in Nice and we may get a bus from there. As we were about to board the tram , we heard someone running towards us asking us to stop. We turned back and saw the lady we had asked for help. She told us that the bus we were enquiring about was actually available not from inside the airport but from a stop called airport promenade which is a small bus stop outside the airport terminus. She even told us the bus number and stop location. We were overwhelmed ! She had gone to bus enquiry place and procured this information for us and she sprinted all the way back to us for giving us this information !
This is the welcome I got in France. We had been fed on stories of how Europeans are racist and have a disdainful attitude towards the rest of the world whereas I have found courteous and gentle human beings. The very reason I have started this blog is to discredit such false narratives. The story about the French lady is not a unique one, I had numerous such instances where I had been helped and received gracious behavior from the people in France. More such stories are on the way in my upcoming blog. Keep reading. Merci et Au revoir. A bientot.
#indiandiaspora #france #europe #culture #indian
IndianinFrance 