"rude" Parisians?

We just returned last Friday from almost a month in Paris and Normandy. I speak a little French- my kids and husband speak zero.

Our experience interacting with French people were 99.9% pleasant. There was one very harassed waitress near the Pere Lachaise cemetery who was kind of crabby.

Here are a few experiences I choose to remember-

the off-duty cab driver who stopped with his first aid kit when my mom cut her leg on the street-

the bus driver who stopped when I chased his bus trying to retrieve a forgotten package- and patiently let me retrieve it and smiled during the whole episode-

the lady on the bus who helped me get my Dad with the broken foot to the D%26#39;Orsay-

the nice Metro guy who let us on the train even though none of our tickets worked in the turnstiles (I had put them in my purse next to my cell phone- don%26#39;t do that- it kills them)

the nice bus driver who did the same-

the very gracious hotel manager at Mont-St-Michel who kindly suggested and arranged a change of rooms for us when he saw how tall my husband was-

the very metrosexual hunky guy at Sephora who spent ten minutes filling samples for me- and he was NOT flirting- I looked like a sweaty grandmother that day-

the shopgirls somewhere near Les Halles who drew me a map to the shop that would have what I wanted-

all the waiters who brought my Dad extra ice everywhere- with no eye-rolling-

I could go on and on.

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Very amusing sparadis- what an eventful trip! glad you enjoyed it and found Parisians helpful.

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In my humble opinion sparadis, in most of the worlds large cities, the way you get treated is often a reflection of the way that the tourist acts. I know that this isn%26#39;t always the case but I think your post paints a good impression of you as well as Paris.

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Thank you.

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A tip: If you demanatize your metro tickets you can take them to the ticket window and they will exchange them for you. Glad you had a great time!.

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Personally, I don%26#39;t care if people are rude to me or not. I try to be a humble person and don%26#39;t expect any special attention or extra friendliness. I work at a counter and deal with customers everyday and I%26#39;m rude to them all the time. Just kidding, I try to be pleasant with smiles. The thing is, we%26#39;re all human and we all have bad days. Once in a while, I may have an upset stomach or a bad pain somewhere in my body and it may be hard to be smiling at customers. If you do run into someone who does not seem friendly, maybe that person is going through a difficult time like a divorce or maybe that person found out that his mother has cancer. We all go through difficult times and sometimes it%26#39;s not easy to smile everyday. So if a person is rude, try to be understanding. Sometimes rude people are wonderful people. Once I met a %26quot;rude%26quot; girl and it turned out that she gives wonderful warm hugs and smiles. Rude people can be very caring and good people deep down inside. So I usually try to be offended if I encounter a rude person.

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oops. I usually try NOT to be offended if I encounter a rude person.

THat%26#39;s what I meant to say in my last sentence.

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My wife and I returned from a visit to Paris after travelling around the continent and England. We did not encounter any rude Parisian. We did have a nasty waiter at a cafe near the Gare de Lyon one late night, but he was waiting on tables (about 15) all by himself, and apparently had been there most of the day. But having experienced this phenomenon in Chicago, New York City, and sevral other large cities in the U. S., I did not attribute his negativity to being French or that he just didn%26#39;t like Americans. (We were the only Americans there, and the rest of the patrons seemed to be French, and they received the same treatment.)

I must also say that there are still many rude Ugly Americans out there, seemingly straight from New York City, Miami Beach, Los Angeles - loud, aggressive, crass, demanding in attitude, who unwittingly have brought negative feelings to a lot of European people all around the continent.

Generally speaking, the service in bistros, and everywhere else was really great, with smiles and helpfulness extended everywhere.

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See, we are nice ;)

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Now why couldn%26#39;t I have met these people! It just goes to show what a difference the local people make to a holiday.

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I know, evolution- I felt for you when I read your post. I wished you had had the same type experience as we did.