thank you for your time.

Bob Chastain

On the first couple points.

The churches in Paris are beautiful, but they are in disrepair (outside of the largest and more famous) and are largely empty. The people walk by every day oblivious to these works which give glory to God and hold Him in the Blessed Sacrament. Does that make them sinners? On Sundays, yes it does. But beyond that, too many clearly do not realize what they pass by every day – treating the Church as a museum is to ignore the sacred patrimony the French have been given.

Doing better than Americans on abortion is a very low bar to set for the first daughter of the Church. And having any is too many.

I would argue that the world is still suffering from the excesses of the so called enlightenment, the French revolution was one of those excesses. The idea of a prostitute on the altar of Notre Dame as the “goddess of reason” is difficult to understand. It is hard to deny the martyrs – I saw the skulls of the 115 priests and bishops killed at Église Saint-Joseph-des-Carmes, though I was told that these are not things people want to discuss. I also found it sadening how the revolutionists took the remains of St Geneviève, the patroness of Paris, and burned them. These are certainly not things to be proud of – yet they are the first fruits of the revolution. I think the excesses of the revolution and its atheism have had lingering effects for France and the whole world as well.

We Americans have King Louis XVI to thank for our independence. It was the king’s willingness to help the colonists because of his animosity toward England, which was decisive. Unfortunately, it was also a colossal financial blunder that helped bring about the French revolution and eventually cost the king’s own head.

France has a tremendous patrimony provided by the Church – something we Americans don’t have and the French seem to not fully appreciate – well, the French are not religious but they do value churches as monuments. That does not make them sinners. And btw, there are fewer abortions in France than in the US and late abortions are banned in France.

France is still suffering from the sins of the French Revolution – depends on the point of view. A more balanced view would be that the French Revolution brought liberty (French revolutionnaries were the best friends of Americans) and helped introduce capitalism to France by abolishing old corporations. On the other hands, some excess happenned (think of the executions), but really only between 1793 and 1794, the period known as “La Terreur” in French.

French food is fabulous (most of it) – true! but this tends to be less and less the case. Lots of cheap fast-food and junk food these days.

French people are very friendly (unless they are working – especially in a government job) -; Sometimes yes. You’re right about government workers. They’re not friendly, and even worse, always on strike.

The French metro is fabulous – if you can handle stairs – the Paris metro is very efficient indeed and cheaper than the London metro. There’s actually no need to own a car in Paris. You’ve got cheap bikes for rental, a good subway system and good buses. Plus, you’ll save time.

Paris is NOT handicap accessible- True. But rembember that cities in Europe are older -in those days, nobody cared about the handicaped.

France is quite expensive – True, but less so than some European countries (UK, Switzerland, Norway…). Food is more expensive than the US though.

At least some French see Obama as a superman who will save the world – Quite true. The French love Obama and have now a much better opinion about the US.

Believe me, I will spread this far and wide.