It has been reported in the French press that a deprived family visiting the Musée d’Orsay on Saturday was escorted out of the building because other visitors had complained that these people smelled bad. The family, two adults and a child whose age varies according to which report one reads but around 10-12 years of age, had come to the art gallery with a volunteer from ATD – quart monde France. This group was set up to fight for the dignity of people (Agir Tous pour la Dignité). According to one report the volunteer bought the entrance tickets and then lunch for the group in the restaurant. While visiting the Van Gogh room, the group was asked by one museum attendant to leave because other visitors were complaining of its unpleasant smell. The group disregarded this request and moved on to another room with fewer people in it. Then four attendants surrounded the group and escorted them out of the front door, where their entrance fees were refunded.
The Musée d’Orsay has apologised for the incident, but also pointed out that deprived people do not need to pay for admission. ATD should have known that. Was this some sort of stunt? As usual the most interesting section is the comments page where many readers feel that ATD should have spent the cash on filling up the larder for this family and possibly adding some soap. It’s a ticklish problem. An ATD spokesman has commented that this is the sort of treatment meted out to those who “have poverty written on their faces”. I’ve never come across such an incident before. Have any other Charioteers?
Boadicea's Chariot 
Hi Sheona.
Oh those crazy French! Can we be absolutely sure that the ‘famille defavorisee’ had not just had too much garlic and Camembert during their restaurant lunch?
Of course we can. Said stench of garlic and fetid cheese are but one small part of the miasma formed by the pong of filthy foreign muck and infrequently washed body parts which hangs over the whole of France and which is completely undetectable to the natives. Joshing, of course, and not a word meant.
In truth, I admire the French directness in such matters. Wouldn’t happen here where we would just tolerate the smell, mutter about it to each other and,then, if we felt really strongly about it, go home and compose a strong letter or e-mail to somebody which we would probably think better about sending.
I’ve told this one before. For me,it still encapsulates the French and why I like them so much. Mrs M and I were doing the tour of Victor Hugo’s house in Place des Vosges. There was a French family going round at the same time. The father, who had obviously peaked and lost interest, sank down on a chair in the corner. Said chair was clearly marked that it was reserved for the use of ‘blesses de guerre’ and the like. The room attendant came out of her corner like a bat out of Hell and screamed abuse at him. The rest of the room, excluding Mrs M and me but including his wife joined in the chorus of vitriol and he ran from the museum.
More importantly, thanks for the link. Some superb stuff there. I particularly liked the one about the follicly-challenged tourists who go to Turkey to have moustache implants.
In Korea there are certain seats in each underground car reserved for the elderly, disabled, and pregnant.
There is none of this “priority” seating — they are reserved and unless one is elderly, disabled, or pregnant one does not sit there. It does not matter if it’s rush hour and all seats are empty — one simply does not do it. The second anyone sits down there who should not is met first by filthy stares, stares which are filled with absolute hatred and contempt. If that does not work people will promptly make comments and begin physically removing the offender from the seat. That is why many people would rather stand than risk sitting in the wrong seat. It’s something I really admire about Korea — their patience for nonsense is simply non-existent.
The museum attendants were, of course, correct in their actions. The museum is there for the greater enjoyment and cultural betterment of mankind. If people wish to fill the room with odour they should be told to leave, it’s simply not acceptable for everyone else to be expected to live with that.
It is sad that there need to be chairs reserved for the elderly, pregnant and infirm. Our own understanding of good manners ought to dictate that whoever was sitting there would offer his place to a more deserving individual. But of course in the modern society in which we live, individual responsibility for respectful behaviour has been taken from us by the state and been replaced by legislation that determines how we behave.
I blame the parents.
Mornin’ Shena. I agree with you that ATD has perhaps got its priorities wrong. Help with the basics of life is surely more urgent than visits to museums.
OZ
Sipu, even thirty years ago pregnant ladies were not offered seats in crowded London tubes. I used to travel home with a colleague who would regularly remark loudly, “Oh look at all these gallant gentlemen getting up to offer you a seat.” Never had any effect.
I see the British press has now caught up with this story.
Glad you enjoyed the link, JM.
I thought all the French were famous for underutilisation of soap anyway 🙂
Normally society tends to self segregate, so you don’t actually come across these smelly people very often.
I suspect the charity was up to no good and agree it would have been far more useful to buy them food and soap!
I do notice that different races smell differently, no doubt because of diet amongst other things. No race appears to particularly like the smell of the other and tend to self segregate in restaurants, churches, public places etc, generally without actually vocalising such.
It really isn’t much surprise when other mammals smell so differently, horses, cows and sheep are all totally different to each other and yet all eat grass.
It is not clear from the report as to whether these at the museum were different race such as pikies? They smell revolting, I remember them as a child, quite disgusting.
Again it does not make it clear whether the smell was racially based or plain old sweat and dirty clothes.
Mind you for sheer rank horror try wet sheep in winter when the fleece is long and adorned with ‘daggings’!
Notably no one ever brings in wet sheep, two reasons, they get pneumonia and drop dead in 48 hours and the stench is ineradicable! You have to wait till they are dry and then bring them in for lambing etc. Even then, sheep barns do not have solid walls but slatted to allow for movement of air.
I also think it is relevant as to what you are used to. Modern society has a far lower tolerance to smells unless you were born and bred in the country with animals around. Personally I can’t stand that section of motorway that comes from the Rhineland through the Liege area to Calais. The stench of Liege is positively eyewatering, always rather put me off France for a holiday destination, prefer sheep!!!
Sheona, your #6. 30 years ago is but yesterday. I first visited London in 1974. I spent my whole time on the Tube, bobbing up and down offering my seat to all sorts of people whom I felt were more deserving. The looks I attracted, even then, varied from the irritated, to the bemused, to the incredulous, to the adoring. I was brought up in a colonial environment that had inherited the values, even then, of a bygone era. My parents were almost Edwardian, certainly pre WW2. They had not been infected by the American (with all its non Anglo Saxon influences) culture that has so damaged our own. Honour and integrity played a far bigger role than the ‘human rights’ and ‘litigation’ that Washington’s lawyers introduced to our world. I despise the people responsible for stuffing up our society.
CO, the last para of your #8. One of my earliest olfactory memories is that of pigs that were bred on the farm in Rhodesia where I arrived aged two. As a result, I love the smell of pig shit. It feels like I am coming home. Weird, huh?
Chacun à son gôut! 🙂
Christina, welcome back from the surgeon’s tender ministrations! Hope you’re now less ‘stoned’! 🙂