JARDINE: No French kiss-off for this American

From e-mails, voice mails and other sources:

WON'T FORGET PARIS — All that stuff you might have heard about the rudeness of the French toward American tourists?

Forget it, Modesto musician Lynn Sampson said. He didn't find it to be true at all.

When organizers of La Nuit Blanche invited him to play during the all-night arts and music festival in Paris earlier this month, he immediately accepted.

Arriving Oct. 3, Sampson teamed with jazz guitarist Helio Fernandez, an expatriate Spaniard, and together they played free concerts at outdoor cafés to acclimate.

"We played a smooth, intimate style of jazz that they just loved," he said.

On the big night — which began at 7 p.m. Oct. 6 and lasted until 7 a.m. the following day — he and Fernandez played for two hours at the Serbian Embassy's Cultural Center museum and convention venue. It was one of 117 museums that hosted events drawing more than 2 million people.

When their gig ended, Sampson set out to enjoy the clubs and other venues. Throughout his week in the City of Lights, he said, he experienced the kindness of the French people, no more so than the morning after his last performance.

"At 5:30 a.m., I decided to make my way back to my hotel," Sampson said. "I stayed at the cheapest one I could find, and if you had a map of Paris, it was so far north that you couldn't find it."

At that time of the morning, the subway ticket office hadn't yet opened. His problem? The machines took only coins and he had only paper euros. He looked inside the office and saw some people there. One came to the door and Sampson explained his plight.

"She used her own pass to open the subway (gate) and let me on for free," he said. "Do you think that would happen in Chicago or New York?"

Or at a BART station 50 miles from home?

Earlier, while visiting a clothing store owned by an Iranian-turned- Frenchman, Sampson realized he dressed more like a Wall Street stock trader than a Parisian trumpeter. So he picked out a casual jacket and bought it. When he added a scarf, the proprietor refused to take his money for it and thanked him for the conversation.

"He gave it to me," Sampson said.

The French, he said, made every effort to communicate in English, which was good because Sampson knows only a couple of words of French. (He really nailed merci and bon jour, though.)

"The real story (of the trip) is how everybody was so kind to the clueless American," Sampson said.

He plans to return for next year's all-night Parisian party.

SPREADING THE WORD — Many years ago, Ballico Farm and Home Supply owner Don Ferrari installed a large outdoor blackboard to advertise products and specials at the store his family has owned for more than five decades.

Over time, though, the chalkboard became a community message board.

"It announced the births of my sons, the dates for the school pancake breakfasts, etc.," his daughter, Nancy Hamaguchi wrote to me in an e-mail.

Ferrari died Thursday at 84. The blackboard's most poignant and touching message is posted now: "Donald Ferrari, Feb. 28, 1928-Oct. 11, 2012. He will be missed by all, many prayers to his family."

"I can't count the number of phone calls my siblings and I have received, because people driving by the store along the Santa Fe Drive in Ballico have read the message on the chalkboard," Hamaguchi said. "They've been stopping to take a picture of the message."

HIGHER (PRICED) EDUCATION — A recent story in the San Francisco Chronicle detailed the hiring of City College of San Francisco's newest interim chancellor. This might interest you for a couple of reasons.

The new interim chancellor replaces the — drum roll, please — old interim chancellor, Pamila Fisher. Fisher spent a dozen years as Yosemite Community College District's chancellor before retiring in 2004.

When CCSF hired Fisher for the interim spot in May, she told them she would stay only until October. She received $23,000 per month ($276,000 annually), plus expenses to cover trips to and from her Bozeman, Mont., home, along with housing and car allowances in San Francisco. According to Oakland's KTVU (Channel 2), the district in May and June alone paid $15,195 for her rent, plus a total of $4,000 for air fare, car rental and two parking spaces. That, by the way, was atop her $101,752 annual California State Teachers Retirement System pension (CalSTRS).

That is chump change compared to what her interim successor, Thelma Scott-Skillman, will score. According to the Chronicle, she gets the same $276,000 annual base pay, housing and car allowances accorded Fisher. Add in Scott-Skillman's $95,041 annual pension from the state Public Employees Retirement System and $74,076 more from CalSTRS, and her annual salary totals $445,117. Oh, yeah … plus expenses.

CCSF is in such bad shape financially and managerially, according to the Chron, that it might have to shut down if the problems aren't corrected by mid-March 2013.

In Modesto, permanent Chancellor Joan Smith makes $254,000 a year plus a $14,000 car allowance to run the YCCD, which includes Modesto and Columbia colleges. An accreditation team in February placed MJC on probation for the second time since 2008, while Columbia College recently received a warning.

Meanwhile, students are paying higher tuitions and fees, and scrambling for seats in fewer classes, taught by fewer staff members.

Jeff Jardine's column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays in Local News. He can be reached at jjardine@modbee.com, @jeffjardine57 on Twitter or at (209) 578-2383.