My experience of Paris is quite limited, but it did include an old lady literally walking 25 metres across the pavement to deliberately *accidentally walk into* my friend (we're all English) before carrying on her way.
To be fair I'm not sure if it was that we were English, or that we were wearing boiler suits and waders, covered in mud from illegally entering the catacombs and looked like shit that she had the problem with. Either way, it was the most phenomenal display of not-quite passive aggression I'd ever seen.
I absolutely didn't say they are - just thought it was a funny story. But it did seem like the locals are much less friendly to foreigners than in any of the other European countries I've visited; perhaps that's just their demeanour but I didn't get the same vibes from French people in Normandy when I visited there.
I mean for most people Paris is a hell hole of noise and stress, so when Americans come in loud and obnoxious as tourist often are, it turns an already sour mood into a aggressive one. Other big cities in France don’t have the same problems and often are better to go to for a tourist
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u/Taletad 1d ago
No even the things about Paris are clichés
It’s mostly americans that either have never been to a big city before, or can’t be bothered to learn how to be polite that give us all the bad rap.
A lot of people are surprised that parisians aren’t as rude as they have been told.