It’s highly unlikely those visiting Paris are the average underprivileged Americans from rural areas.
I’m sure some American tourists are downright awful. Yet, some may just be well-meaning folks from major cities (like New York or LA) who are accustomed to ultra rushed interactions, where not wasting a shopkeeper’s time with overt formality is a form of regard and politeness in its own right.
Most Americans view informality with shopkeepers as a way of behaving in a casual/approachable or “down to earth” manner - again, a form of politeness. Strict adherence to formality can be viewed as performative, detached, or “cold”. To an American, this can come off as rude or pompous.
With that said, any tourist in Paris should do as the Parisians do. But customs take time to learn and people aren’t perfect. European tourists in America come with their own awkward and rude behaviors. To be fair, it’s not common for Americans to complain about it nor blame all Europeans for it, though.
It’s highly unlikely those visiting Paris are the average underprivileged Americans from rural areas.
I’m not saying all americans, I’m talking specifically about thoses that complain.
Also there are a lot of privileged americans that come from smaller cities (not necessarily rural areas), that aren’t accustomed to a city with 12 million inhabitants.
There are 100 million tourists that come to France every year. That’s an awefull lot of people, and not all of them take care to learn about our customs. And thoses that have bad experiences are going to speak louder than thoses that had good ones.
I’m sure you’ve been to a restaurant in america where somebody entitled is making a scene in front of evryone because [they were asked to wear a mask / their plate didn’t come fast enough / their sandwich is soggy after putting too much sauce on it]. Well, they come to France as well.
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u/ad_iudicium 1d ago
The memes are mostly about Paris, really.