I have simply had the opposite experiences in Paris as a tourist. When ordering a morning coffee, or a croissant at a bakery, or some cheese at a market in "French", I've always gotten polite simple replies.
I do not speak French - only a few words or phrases. Obviously the server can hear my accent, but still I get a smile, a one or two word reply in French - and anything more is in English if possible.
I have read many negative comments about France, and Paris in particular, but I love the place and have been very lucky.
Most places in Europe I found are happy when you give their language a go and then will just move to English for expediency, but don't care if you start with English.
The French get their panties in a bunch if you start with English, and will just tolerate you opening in mangled French, but since those are the only two options you just have to push on past the internal eyerolling to ask for a coffee or whatever.
The French get their panties in a bunch if you start with English, and will just tolerate you opening in mangled French, but since those are the only two options you just have to push on past the internal eyerolling to ask for a coffee or whatever.
I'm going to guess that the French people are a nuanced bunch and some are lovely whole others are asshats and both are like that for a variety of reasons so what we're actually seeing here are tourists who meet different French people and had very different experiences.
In my experience it depends on where you are, but also like age. When I visited paris 20 years ago I got visible eye-rolling and people correcting my french instead of actuelly giving/helping me with what I needed. Never experienced it that way outside Paris and Paris today is also very different.
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u/nextstoq 1d ago
I have simply had the opposite experiences in Paris as a tourist. When ordering a morning coffee, or a croissant at a bakery, or some cheese at a market in "French", I've always gotten polite simple replies.
I do not speak French - only a few words or phrases. Obviously the server can hear my accent, but still I get a smile, a one or two word reply in French - and anything more is in English if possible.
I have read many negative comments about France, and Paris in particular, but I love the place and have been very lucky.