Why do so many British people seem to dislike Paris / France / French people on here?

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For the sake of clarity, I am not British and I am not French. I love Paris and visit France frequently, I think it is a fabulous city.

Yet I see time and time again Paris being cited as the worst place people have ever been etc. And I wondered why there's such an animosity towards it. Is it historical? A sort of general 'not getting on with the neighbours' type of thing.

Because I honestly don't recognise some of the descriptions of Paris that I read here - 'filthy, unsafe, smells of wee, full of rude people, etc'

It's baffling and I'm curious about it.

I've lived in Paris and absolutely loved it and I visit frequently and always have a good time there.

Paris suffers from the same problem as Rome and London.
Beautiful city populated by arseholes.

Paris is a real city with real people and people are often shocked by that. Must admit my Parisian friend is deeply unimpressed with how the physical environment has declined in recent years and the homeless situation seems unending (even when housed the hostels often burn down).

I've been groped on the Metro (at 16), walked through some pretty sketchy areas and felt tense and threatened, been aggressively approached by people selling tat at Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower etc. And I loathe the Metro.

But Paris has so MUCH to offer I can't leave it alone. Must add, every interaction I've had with a Parisian has been at least polite and often very positive, like the lovely yoga teacher who let us shelter in her premises and drink her green tea when we had a long wait to get into our accommodation. (I do speak reasonable French.)

Going for a day trip next week (part of a longer holiday in France) and can't wait to get the Luxembourg Gardens, Le Bon Marche, the Musee Rodin. (DDs can't wait to get to Sephora...)

I don’t think we hate French people. On the contrary, many Brits are Francophiles, including me. At their best the French have such class. You do get the occasional stupid anti-French headline on the front of The Scum, and those silly books in Waterstones with titles like ‘1,000 Years of Annoying the French’. It has always puzzled me. I’m in my 40s and have lived here all my life. All my ancestors were Brits as well, so I know this country inside out. I have never felt that ordinary British people hate French people. Not deep down. It just isn’t there. It’s a weird but stubborn myth.

As for Paris, yes, there is a dislike. But it isn’t so much dislike as disappointment. We grow up watching old French films, and reading things like Maigret, and then form an image of what Paris will be like. The reality is a shock. Paris has lost its identity. It’s a very different place. Also, it suffers from the same problems as Venice, Florence, New York, and every other famous tourist spot - too many goddam people, and too many goddam cars. In 1900, the world Proust wrote about contained a billion people. Today there are eight billion. The world’s population has exploded in the last century, and that fact,, combined with mass tourism, traffic and hideous new buildings, has ruined the world’s most beautiful cities.

I am not a fan of Paris but appreciate there are some beautiful bits. My dislike entirely stems from one bad experience when someone tried to mug me when I was a teenager. Irrational to avoid a city on that basis but there you go. I dislike Birmingham for the same reason.

I used to live in Paris. Most people living there don't really like living there unless they're wealthy (so have a weekend home/family outside the city for frequent breaks).

But for visitors, it's because they think they're going to a sort of Amelie/Emilie in Paris fantasy-city and then discover it's not run by Disney. It's got the multi-layered inconveniences of not being an amusement park coupled with being in a different country, so there's different language and culture. And, shockingly, the inhabitants don't give a crap about how we do things and whether we think they're polite. They think their culture is better than ours (no matter where we're from) and we aren't used to that. After all, we're tourists, guests, visitors with money to spend, they're supposed to be nice to us.

Incidentally they treat French people from outside the city in a similar way.

Outside Paris people are more normal. But they still aren't British, so live according to their cultural norms, not ours. As they should!

The only thing we liked about Paris was Notre Dame. I found that beautiful.

The rest, we didn’t. Just didn’t like the feel of the city. It was dirty, I was harassed catching up with DH and the kids when I was on my own. I found staff in shops and restaurants unnecessarily rude. We love city breaks but this was, by far, the most disappointing.

My DH is French and hates Paris. And I see why. It’s dirty, stinky, dangerous, people are rude and the food is boring unless you’re willing to pay loads. We live in central London so know what it expect from a big city and in general love France, holiday on the Cote every year, but nope Paris is just a dump. We’ve lived in Chicago and it honestly felt safer.

I don’t like paris but I can’t stand london either. Big cities have a massive hype but they are normally fully of people rushing, smelly alleyways and over priced food.

100% not a French issue it’s a city issue

Even my french teacher who was from the south of France used to go on about how much she hated Paris and Parisians.
I have no real opinion either way, but Paris isn't somewhere that interests me to visit.

I think it's because for a certain type of British person who also dislikes London, Paris is London, only with a different language that kind of British person is unlikely to speak. So, basically, the hated capital, with all the ordinary brusqueness, litter, infrastructural problems, petty crime etc of any busy capital city, but with FOREIGNNESS! and LANGUAGE ISSUES! into the bargain.

And this romanticisation of it, which is frankly silly ( yes, in many ways, it's a beautiful city, and some of the most romantic moments of my life have happened there (I have very fond memories of the Square du Vert-Galant), but it also just a city, full of people who live there, work there, do their dry-cleaning there and buy their toilet paper and UHT milk there) -- if people are expecting Disney, they will be disappointed.

I'm not British, speak formerly good, now rusty, French and lived in Paris for a few years as a graduate student, aeons ago, and I've never found it particularly rude/unkempt etc compared to London, where I lived for ten years.

For instance, I see people complaining about the rudeness of shop assistants, but by French norms, a customer is being very rude not to say 'Bon jour' when they enter. You adjust to the host country's norms.

I had to make a choice about whether to accept a job in Paris or in London, and I chose London, ultimately -- which I think was the right choice. My issue with Paris is how conservative it is in many ways, but I'm still fond of it, and spend a fair bit of time there.

So, basically, the hated capital, with all the ordinary brusqueness, litter, infrastructural problems, petty crime etc of any busy capital city, but with FOREIGNNESS! and LANGUAGE ISSUES! into the bargain.
Nonsense, I've been to other capital cities and managed to not-hate them. I would go so far as to say that I love Rome!
We have found the French, generally, rude brusque so we gave up on them years ago. There are much friendlier places to go for holidays, so we go there instead.

@TheWrenTheWren Plenty of people love London, Berlin, Rome, Madrid, Barcelona etc despite not speaking the language but still think Paris is a dump. I'm one of them, as are all my French relatives. We always contrast how grim Gare du Nord is compared to Kings-X/St Pancras and how they are metaphors for the wider city. At least the RER between Gare de Lyon and GdN is straightforward enough so we don't have to spend too long there when changing trains.

It’s the people for me. I’ve been many times as a child and an adult. And they are the most ableist, racist and sexist people I have ever come across. The way they openly degrade, mock and bully disabled people is just astonishing to me.

Have been to Paris twice and was just so very 'meh' to me. Live in London and lived in NYC. As soon as we stepped off the eurostar was aggressively followed by a man. I am sure there is an element of subconsciously always expecting visits to other international cities to be nicer - if I had been followed outside Kings Cross he would have been told to fuck off and i wouldnt have thought any more of it.

I’ve lived in 3 capital cities and visited far more including many weeks in Paris. It’s not somewhere I would ever choose to go for many of the reasons stated. So much dirt and so uncomfortable, just not for me. If I’m honest even rural France isn’t high on my list of places. I don’t think French people really care though. They certainly don’t seem to try to be likeable in anyway.

I am half French and have citizenship, but live in London. I love France, and Paris is so so beautiful, but it feels much less safe than London, and doesn't change much year on year, unlike London which is constantly evolving and reinventing itself. There's also very little green space. The Parisians are much like any people living in big cities - friendly and nice but out of necessity keep to themselves on public transport etc.

I cant speak for all Brits but I can say that I adore France. I spent some time there earlier this year and fell in love with the place. Its very clean, public transport is amazing, the food is lovely and the people are just so nice and friendly (the ones I met were anyway). I would happily move there as it seems a very happy place to live.

Part of it may be high expectations from the romatic city it’s portrayed to be in movies. Think about how amazing the Eiffel Tour looks in films. In reality, it’s full of beggars and people harrassing to buy cheap knock off products.

I studied French at uni and lived in Lille for a year. I found Paris just quite boring, apart from EuroDisney lol. The Lille metro constantly broke down while I was on it. I once got groped by a drunk French man in the train station. You can’t practice your French because even the staff in Mcdonalds will speak English to you once they hear your accent. I was also once refused entry into a club once the bouncer heard us speaking English. On and where I worked, the buses stopped at 7pm so I had to have a very long commute to work if I wanted any kind of life. And they always strike lol. I visited other places like Nice and found them to be quite boring with not much to do.

And the gendarmes !

Live in France, less than two hours from Paris so I visit several times a year and have many Parisian friends. I don't recognise the country, city or people as described frequently on here.

I have integrated well and in five years only had one person be unpleasant based on my language skills, and I'm almost fluent.

I've found a lot of kindness here.

I actually like most French people, but don’t want to holiday in France again as I find French food - classic French food - really boring. Just very generic and lacking in spice. And the stupid baguettes. They seemed to be literally all you could ever find to eat at lunchtime. Hard to chew and just really flipping dull.

We ended up mostly eating Middle Eastern/Moroccan food when we were there.

I was also attacked in France by a gang of young men. I got no help, no sympathy, nothing from the French authorities. It’s unfair of me
to judge all French folk of that experience, but I do.

I like Paris, but then I pay no attention to the romanticised version of it. Same applies to New York and LA. Even my city (London) is romanticised (e.g. Richard Curtis movies)

The absence of escalators and lifts in a lot of the metros is a legit concern.

I agree about the romanticisation of Paris, could apply in some cases to London, a bit to Amsterdam as well.

I think the wider dislike of France is reducing.

I love Paris but I was miffed when the French people there had no time for my attempts to speak French and just answered me back in English! I guess in Paris you must get sick of tourists which is fair enough, I've lived in Edinburgh and know what a pain it can be at times.

I am not too familiar with areas outside Paris in France but I imagine in more working class or rural area's its different. I guess in terms of feeling like I could live somewhere Berlin win's hands down.