I was a Francophile

[diamond age]

It was one of the few subjects at school I was any good at. I'd aways enjoyed reading poetry and was most inspired by Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire. Yet my first ever visit to Paris in 2024 was tinged with sadness. I went into an English themed bar one day and met a Liverpudlian (they get everywhere) who told me not only did he have a French girlfriend but he lived in Paris for so many months out of the year. Hold on one jolly moment..  I'm the Francophile not him! It is I who should be courting a young French woman. This really embittered me toward French culture and insult was added to injury by the fact I got piercing stares from two young French women during the course of my belated holiday to the city of love. Not only that but I bumped into an honeymooning British couple on my way to the Eiffel Tower who looked like the odd couple (a short squat fellow with a stunning beauty who towered over him). I swore I'd never read French poetry again.

[ArMaP]

It was one of the few subjects at school I was any good at. I'd aways enjoyed reading poetry and was most inspired by Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire. Yet my first ever visit to Paris in 2024 was tinged with sadness. I went into an English themed bar one day and met a Liverpudlian (they get everywhere) who told me not only did he have a French girlfriend but he lived in Paris for so many months out of the year. Hold on one jolly moment..  I'm the Francophile not him! It is I who should be courting a young French woman. This really embittered me toward French culture and insult was added to injury by the fact I got piercing stares from two young French women during the course of my belated holiday to the city of love. Not only that but I bumped into an honeymooning British couple on my way to the Eiffel Tower who looked like the odd couple (a short squat fellow with a stunning beauty who towered over him). I swore I'd never read French poetry again.

Other people's choices shouldn't dictate what you do.
That's one of the reasons I (usually) do not watch videos, as they dictate how I should spend my time.

Do you like French poetry? Keep on liking it, regardless of what an extremely small portion of the French speaking population does! They probably know nothing about poetry!

I'm sure some of your favourite poets could make a poem or two about that.