Pourquoi tant français?

I've been noticing it more and more in the past month, but at tonight's BBQ buffet at Casa de Arena, it reached the point of being rather ridiculous. What's with all the French people around here?! All of a sudden, they're everywhere. At the dinner tonight, out of about 15 people, Chris and I were the only non-French-speakers around. Everywhere we've gone lately, we've seen massive French tour groups, of 20 or 30 Froggies, turning up at places all at once. Mon dieu, c'est ridicule! I mean, what's a French invasion doing in South America? Eh? None of your business!

The explanation, of course, is that it's currently the high season for tourism the world over, since it's summer vacation time for all of Europe and North America. So in the past few weeks, we've been seeing more of everyone: more Yanks, more Canadians, more Brits, more Germans, and even (impossible though it may seem) yet more Israelis. But really, the sudden increase in French tourists has far surpassed the increase from anywhere else in the world. Apparently, they get more annual leave than the rest of Europe; and I guess that they really like to take advantage of it.

Anyway, it's now official: fluency in Spanish is 100% optional, in order to travel around South America. Instead, Hebrew is highly recommended, and French and German are very useful as well.