are there any French left in France?

the rains have finally caught up with the season- a bit, not as fanatical as last year though- the new 'road is holding up wonderfully well and the buses arrive almost on time and the summer holidays in the west have given us quite a good little season in this outpost: but.... most tourists are French - very French....and they speak the French - and nothing besides. ( and they are cheap and drive the local guides and restaurant owners to distraction- me too.). the other day i sat in a cafe and listened to two French guys bitch as how uncivilised everybody here was as not to speak French. after listening to them for a while i asked them (in French) how it came that if the French were that highly educated and intelligent they had soooo much trouble learning English. ( they did not like that one)
last week i had two older ladies from (zee France ) no English whatsoever, nor any other language'. what the khmers thought of the french- they asked...( am i gonna lie? i wondered, then decided they deserved the truth) and told them they hate them . why they asked: because many French are rude and cheap- i said. ooh but not us they said and then told me how they bought a lot of stuff at some charity in Seam Reap and bargained them down 20%....outch!!

today was one of those days from third world hell that are ' fun for later as the dutch would say:
 it actually did start yesterday: no electricity; now to be fair i had neglected to pay my bill- as had most of the village- so i stormed to the office of electrique du sen monorom- just to find the majority of the town already in line to pay their equally overdue bills- just to find out; no we had not been shut down; the town generator was broken.
being at the office already we all did pay our bills anyways and went home assured that by 5pm the electricity would be back' an lo and behold it was. it was. mine was also for about 20 minutes; a neighbor sold me some high quality chickens - to be killed and cooked for the week end and when he left me the screaching load of young roosters in a wire cage crapping like there was no tomorrow (the roosters- not the neighbor)- and of course there was none for them- there was a kaboum! sound and:
 no more lights and night falling; electrique was phoned and came just to tell me that my main cable was fried and they would be back tomorrow.as they were too afraid of snakes to work on the problem in the dark...
so i closed the joint- albeit grumbling - and went for a few cold ones to town where lo and behold a few nice french were met and they would come to dinner tonight- but;
 this morning no electrique du cambodge. and no electric eihter. bong serrei and me proceeded to kill the four roosters: quite a bit of a chore as there was one that we had left for dead already  took off in the classic chicken without head fashion: man, i never knew they could run that far. quite a pursuit through the wild rainy season greenery!  in the midst of this mayhem a few moto dops arrived to help me move some of my signs in town. they called the electric company just to find out that the generator is down again and they can't test for faults in the cable- after a long telephone fight that i follow through a mist of feathers while plucking the fowl, the electrician arrives anyways. and they find the problem. meanwhile still no electicity of course.
 we truss the birds put them in the cool box, move the signs to more visible points in town and wait for the ( 2!) buses that arrive every day from phnom penh , the first one nets 6  French, the next one 12 French and four israelis.why not some nice dutch or germans. no, not today...french and israelis it is...
when i finally make it home lo and behold there is electricity!great!! i plug in the garden lights and: kaboum!  the electric is still there, but now  the cable for the garden lights a is fried! so: how are my customers gonna find me in this dark town. not. i realize: let it be. after seeing what arrived in town today it probably saves me a lot of aggravation! and tomorrow is another day!!!