wishlist of BASE places to live...

[gweeks 1]

My wife and I spent the first half of our honeymoon in Paris. Over 5 days we had many interactions with waiters, store clerks, people on their way to work whom we asked for directions, etc. Without exception the people we met were pleasent and helpful. We don't speak any French apart from what we learned listening to a cassette tape for about a month, but we were respectful and polite and that went a long way.

[sabre210 0]

I utterly agree.

Up until this summer, the closest wind tunnel for us Brits was the aerokart centre in Paris, which i visited quite a lot (being in a 4way team you tend to).

Like most walks of life, what you put in you you generally get back, so if your are respectful and polite and slightly apologetic for not having the ability to converse in their language then you'll find parisians no different than any other metropolitans in the western world - slightly preoccupied and hectic but essentially friendly.

I have found rural French people to be amongst the most hospitable on the planet. The added bonus for us BASE jumpers is that whereas in the UK and the states where people are often concerned about their level of liability and how what we do might effect them, in rural France they just shrug and tend to take the view that if you're stupid enough to jump off a bridge then fair enough.

About 2 and half years ago I rolled up to a 350ft bridge in the south of france (a stunning bridge constructed very much in the Eiffel style) and explained to the owner of the Hotel at one end of the bridge, in very limited and inaccurate French that i wished to jump off it. They couldn't facilitate me enough, getting out timetables for the trains that passed over the bridge so i wouldn't get hit (or spotted by the driver). I then hiked to the landing area to explain to the landowner who again vaguely understood and just shrugged as if to say 'why you asking me'. I waited for a gap in the trains and jumped. Overdelayed a bit, got an instant 110left and ended up dangling from some trees about 3feet above the river. As i was spinning in my harness, amazed at not being injured or wet the old man i spoke to earlier came over to the bank, waved, said "bon jour" then walked off at a snails pace back to his house. I climbed out my harness, got a soaking up to my knees in the river and then stood on the bank wondering what to do next. The old guy re-appears with an axe and beckons me to use it on the tree - his tree - to free my parachute. I absolutely flatly refused and eventually got the canopy free by tugging and yanking on it. Not for a second did that guy look pissed or put out. He was smiling the whole time and couldn't have been more helpful. I dropped off a bottle of wine to him to say thanks and he was genuinely gob-smacked.

The owners of the hotel were great too, letting me spread out my canopy to check for damage and eventually pack it. I stayed in their hotel too where they went out their way to prepare me vegetarian meals (and nothing baffles the french more than non meat eaters).

Next to the Hotel is an old disused train station. The old guy who lives there is the old station master and as i was packing he came out and started gesticulating with frustration. I thought I was in trouble but what he was saying was he was annoyed he hadn't been in when i had jumped cos he would have loved to come and watch.

The hotel owner then gave me some info on a motorway bridge i was intent on jumping about 1mile away which proved to be very useful.

How's that for hospitality and tolerance. And remember, these were not legal jumps off legal objects.

So, Viva la France is what i say. We could learn a lot by taking the odd leaf out of the frenchies books.

[piisfish 140]

When you're polite and no-one has been an a**hole before you, there's no real reason for the locals to be nasty after you.

You spread good karma, and it came back to you...

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM