French gentlemen

I was at the bar the other night where a couple of friends met me out for drinks. After our first drink, a loose acquaintance says to me, "Can you offer me a drink?" I feign laughter; hahaha good one Florent! He asks me again; I articulately reply 'no' because apparently my first response didn't translate. So, he turns to my friend Niki, who's never said no to anything her whole life, and poses the same request. She reacts the exact same way I did, except that on his second attempt, she ceded. That didn't surprise me. Here's what knocked my socks off: He actually held her to it. He literally took her money to the bar and bought himself a drink. Let me be clear: he didn't offer to pay her back later or give her some lame excuse like 'I forgot my wallet' or 'payday is next week'. He took her 10 euros and bought a beer, came back to the table and begrudgingly gave her the 3 euros change. What fucking universe is this? Dudes don't ask cute girls to buy them drinks, they offer to buy the drinks, no?. Is this not internationally consensual?



I've encountered facets of this behavior in my 20 months of Parisien life. Dudes will mosey up and make the obligatory conversation to establish that we have a modicum of mutual interest. After some time, they'll ask if I want a drink, point me to the bar and hang back. Huh? Let me get this straight: You want me to get myself drunk? I think no. I'm no hooker, but if you can't shell out the 25 euros it's going to take for me to make some shitty decisions then I'll stay sober enough to make you think I'll go home with you until the lights come on, in which case I'll haul ass to the mètro, leaving you desperately scouring the leftovers.



Either French women are having to put up with a lot of douchbags or I'm attracting the wrong guys. Unfortunately, I feel like it's probably the latter, but in any case, I'd never met dudes like this in the States. French guys get so much undeserved credit for romance, chivalry and kissing. I've yet to be impressed on any count. Congrats American guys; you get the point in all 3 areas.