Many people claim the French are rude which is not my experience at all.
99.9% of this is from US-americans who visit just Paris and speak very loud US-english to everyone. The Parisians are not as nice as the rest of France and no one appreciates an ignorant tourist speaking loud US-english into one’s face as if it were a walmart in Texas or something.
I think it’s a power-thing. Some Americans follow the ‘customer is always right’ thinking and expect staff to be servile. But my experience in Europe is that when you interact with a waiter or a shop assistant you’re interacting with an equal who happens to be serving you at that moment, and who also expects a certain something from you.
I still remember a waiter who was very disappointed in me because I didn’t know which wine I wanted to have with my fish 😂 Sorry, Danes don’t know much about wine. Anyway, the only time I’ve encountered rude staff was in Belgium and only once or twice - and probably just because we seemed impatient.
99.9% of this is from US-americans who visit just Paris and speak very loud US-english to everyone. The Parisians are not as nice as the rest of France and no one appreciates an ignorant tourist speaking loud US-english into one’s face as if it were a walmart in Texas or something.
In general the French are nice people.
I think it’s a power-thing. Some Americans follow the ‘customer is always right’ thinking and expect staff to be servile. But my experience in Europe is that when you interact with a waiter or a shop assistant you’re interacting with an equal who happens to be serving you at that moment, and who also expects a certain something from you.
I still remember a waiter who was very disappointed in me because I didn’t know which wine I wanted to have with my fish 😂 Sorry, Danes don’t know much about wine. Anyway, the only time I’ve encountered rude staff was in Belgium and only once or twice - and probably just because we seemed impatient.