The French have a reputation for being rude.
In the theatrical play "Picasso at the Lapin Agile," written by Steve Martin, there's the funny line, "You can’t just insult somebody out of the blue," to which someone replies, "But I'm French!"
There was a restaurant waiter in Vancouver who claimed he was fired for being French after he was fired for being "aggressive, rude and disrespectful" to customers.
A brother-in-law of mine, who briefly dabbled in trying to learn French before quickly giving up, said his family had rude experiences on vacation to France.
I'm steadily learning French and my first vacation to France will be in the summer of 2025, so I don’t have any direct experience yet of the full French experience, but from the best which I can tell from listening to others, here are the broad explanations.
1. Touristy areas
France is the most visited country in the world (about 200 million tourists a year, with 30 million to Paris). Naturally, the people who live and work in crowded areas are sick of dealing with people and may be short with you.
2. You didn't say “Bonjour”
The French are exceptionally polite, but they have higher standards of politeness. You must say “Bonjour” (or “Bonsoir”) before saying anything to anyone, or you will get a death stare.
You will also get better customer service by at least putting in some effort to speak the language. It doesn’t take long to learn a few basic phrases. There are some Americans who think they don’t need to learn a language when traveling abroad because “Everybody speaks English.”
3. Cultural difference
Americans in particular are known to be warm and instantly friendly. The French are colder at first impression and slower to warm up. From what I understand, the French view your instant friendliness as aggressive and view you with suspicion. The French have friends for life, stay friends with all of their ex-girlfriends, they don’t make small talk with strangers, and are more private, so they may view your instant friendliness as you trying to come at them with some sort of angle.
In the theatrical play "Picasso at the Lapin Agile," written by Steve Martin, there's the funny line, "You can’t just insult somebody out of the blue," to which someone replies, "But I'm French!"
There was a restaurant waiter in Vancouver who claimed he was fired for being French after he was fired for being "aggressive, rude and disrespectful" to customers.
A brother-in-law of mine, who briefly dabbled in trying to learn French before quickly giving up, said his family had rude experiences on vacation to France.
I'm steadily learning French and my first vacation to France will be in the summer of 2025, so I don’t have any direct experience yet of the full French experience, but from the best which I can tell from listening to others, here are the broad explanations.
1. Touristy areas
France is the most visited country in the world (about 200 million tourists a year, with 30 million to Paris). Naturally, the people who live and work in crowded areas are sick of dealing with people and may be short with you.
2. You didn't say “Bonjour”
The French are exceptionally polite, but they have higher standards of politeness. You must say “Bonjour” (or “Bonsoir”) before saying anything to anyone, or you will get a death stare.
You will also get better customer service by at least putting in some effort to speak the language. It doesn’t take long to learn a few basic phrases. There are some Americans who think they don’t need to learn a language when traveling abroad because “Everybody speaks English.”
3. Cultural difference
Americans in particular are known to be warm and instantly friendly. The French are colder at first impression and slower to warm up. From what I understand, the French view your instant friendliness as aggressive and view you with suspicion. The French have friends for life, stay friends with all of their ex-girlfriends, they don’t make small talk with strangers, and are more private, so they may view your instant friendliness as you trying to come at them with some sort of angle.
