As an American with French friends, I think these comments are pretty much bordering on racism. I don't really think the French are the ones being pretentious here. These attitudes are about as correct as the US being full of nothing but cowboys and hot dog carts. :brick:
I hope you don't see my thoughts in a pretentious or racist light as they are not meant to be taken that way. The experiences I cited really happened and are not of course intended to represent the French people, just an individual I spoke with. Our goals were to create a richer experience for them as we saw their tastes as more sophisticated and wanted to reach them with more detail and richness than less. Hardly a slur. If you read what the French leaders said who were elected officials against the park, saw the anti-mickey signs along the sides of the road, then naturally you can think that their voice represents more than one person. Most of my department was French and believed in the project and had to explain to their own why it was so special. Today they are devout fans and have done an amazing job given the dire fiscal situation that have to deal with. My comments about how the parents were concerned about their kids loving Disneyland came from real people, I did not make that up. All people of course, don't feel that way as the park is loved. This was just may experience. They really do ban English words. That's their right.
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/world/117078-french-say-non-to-english-words
The park is visited by Europeans and all cultures, yet as with all Disney parks, cultures accept and treat each park according to their own customs and experience. Wine is like bread in France and considered part of a meal. The guests asked for it. So we added it. DLP sells less souvenirs. These are statistics made by observation. I was later the VP in charge of design at TDL in Japan. Huge difference in how the CM's overall work, act, and how guests see the product. Vandalism is higher and lower in some parks. No one applies an ethnicity to any of this, it's just a statistic. Same is true here in the USA.
We have French posters that read this column and Alain Littaye is a good friend of mine and we support him as well. I have many French friends as well living there that I met on the project. Paris is my second home and we will return there this year to see some of our friends. I found that there is an unfair American stereotype about the French in general and vice versa. I sat through countless dinners being insulted about the park (by Americans as well) but that is considered the "art of conversation" over there and you give it back. It is brinksmanship. If you take the time to get to really know French people (or any culture) you can make lifelong friends as I have and no doubt you have. My comments come from them telling me what they feel and how others saw Disney, how they judged the park prior to it's opening, and from living there socializing with them. Some felt the USA was Elvis and Hot Dogs, others more than that. MSUSA did not want to speak politically, but culturally to expand that identity of who Americans were. I am from a Sicilian Immigrant family, and latin just the same. My point is, that after all of that controversy, the park was embraced once they experienced it. Like we see on these and other message boards, the fans worry and complain about something new, only to accept it once they see it later. Fear of the unknown.
Seriously, I felt part of our role over there was to exceed expectations and leave the largest cultural statement in US history on their soil. They gave the USA the Statue of Liberty, to remind Americans about what they had, and they got Disneyland, a place to remind them about the child that lives inside all of us.
