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

[ShoeSearch]

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.

MargotBamborough, I agree, I have found in Paris (and other parts of France) that there's a certain formal politeness in the culture. I like it; it greases the wheels a bit and I feel like I will at least be able to get along with people on that level.

The tube good with a wheelchair??
You might want to ask a wheelchair user.

fwiw as a wheelchair user and being both British and French, I’ve heard very similar complains from both about the underground.

I agree the tube isn't wheelchair friendly at all and as a disabled person I thought some of the commuters were pretty rude towards me/uswhen I was trying to get off I walked off and dh bumped my wheelchair off because people were clambering over me . To get on !

For what it's worth regarding French people and how they treat foreigners with non perfect French - I know it's not pleasant and not okay - but I have a theory that it's stems from the childhood trauma of the French education system been more or less based on humiliation when it comes to learning foreign languages.

Or that’s simply because french people HATE IT when brits arrive expecting them to speak English. And only speak louder and louder when they don’t get a response.
Start with saying Bonjour followed by Anglais?? Or English??? And you’ll get a much better response.

(fwiw french people have similar reaction to Americans assuming theyll obviously speak English)

@ShoeSearch it seems you aren’t quite getting an answer though. But more of the Paris and Parisians are awful compare to London argument 😁😁

I've been to Paris about 20 times, mostly with work but occasionally as a weekend tourist.

When working, colleagues are normal and absolutely fine. But as a tourist I admit I found the Parisians rude, and the city itself dirty with a lot of dog poo.

The whole 'Paris in springtime' romantic thing is usually a disappointment because Paris is freezing until late May or June.

Maybe the locals just don't like tourists.

No beef with Paris generally but visiting for the first time in about ten years recently I couldn't believe the state of the Metro. I'm a Londoner so use the tube a lot and sure, it has its issues, but compared to the Metro it's an amazing and luxurious service. Dirty, antiquated and falling to bits.. and you still need either a paper ticket or a mad card that wants to be an Oyster but is more expensive and harder to use. When I googled though I did read that despite Paris/Greater Paris having more people than London, the Metro only gets about a third of the funding that TfL do. So that'll be the problem.

France has a serious problem with anti semitism. Far beyond anything in the U.K. that’s a problem for me.

It’s this. They’re right next door and we’ve spent the last thousand years fighting, ganging up on other countries together, fighting again… they’re our closest neighbours and we have more in common with them culturally and historically than with any other country. There’s almost nothing to separate us.

I studied in France for a year in Lyon. That city has my heart. But not for the French people! I grew to understand their quirks and quite often they seem rude when they don’t mean to be. But most of my friends were Italian - much more fun!

As a result of my love for Lyon, Paris will never come close.

I found the racism (particularly towards N.Africans) shocking. But that it well known and historical , doesn’t make it ok or any less shocking though. Think that applies to many places in France

The views and experiences of Paris make me very sad. I haven’t been there in 18 years apart from flying visits to Eurodisney. 18/20 years ago, the Parisians still had a certain reputation for rudeness but I never experienced that - quite the contrary. I made a huge effort there to be exceptionally polite and speak French - always Bonjouring and merci- ing and smiling. I found people responded in kind with great courtesy. I remember too my dear old Dad enjoying his first visit there - he had several long conversations with Parisian shopkeepers and waiters asking them to correct his French and exchanging thoughts on food, life , the universe and all. I’m prepared to believe things have changed for the worse but there may also be an element of finding what you expect.

My Mother was Parisienne and she wasn't keen on Paris either 😁

DH and I watched Le Weekend last week (I don't recommend it). I was chatting about it with three colleagues the following day and all four of us were saying how much we love Paris.

Outliers obviously.

I went to Paris a couple of months ago with DD and everyone was friendly to us.

We had a great time and were very lucky with the warm weather.

I do speak a tiny bit of french and have lived abroad so I'm used to different cultures and not easily offended. I'm not entitled so all I'm doing is trying to communicate without expectations if that makes sense.

However when we went on holiday to Spain and stayed on a resort with french teenagers my teen DC were really shocked at how racist they were and the boys were very sexist and predatory.

I'd happily visit Paris every year for a long weekend because it's easy to get to and navigate. It's also very walkable which I love and not particularly expensive.

The metro is far nicer than our underground and it has aircon in reply to a PP

It was spotless and not intimidating at all

The difference was very noticeable to us as we'd travelled on both on the same day

I'll take Paris over Manhattan every time.

I have never met anything but politeness and a warm welcome when in France. However, I have always stayed well away from Paris. My DW who has been there is one of those who thinks is a filthy second rate dump of a city.

Well au contraire, on mumsnet I find people fanatical about france and how everything is better there

Are you talking about the Paris metro? It’s not a patch on the tube!

Dirty, badly signposted, ancient trains, paper ticketing. It made me realise how good the tube is.

This is fascinating! I was in Paris this summer with my dh & 18 year old dd. We were there for 5 weeks (work project for dh) & only once did I hear a waiter being rude & that was to a person at the next table to me.

We did not encounter any other issues at all. The metro was clean & easy to use & most def not as crowded as the tube.

In our 5 weeks we covered a lot of the city & I was bothered more by homeless people begging in London recently than there.

I walked 15 - 20k steps most days there.
I was regularly on my own & was never harassed once.

I think it is architecturally a stunning city & we greatly enjoyed the galleries & museums & literature etc

I'm still surprised by so much negativity towards it

@MadamWhiteleigh that was not our experience of the metro this summer - my observations are more like @HappiDaze

My parents live in a beautiful part of rural France and have some lovely french friends. I've found that part of France to be welcoming and lovely. However, I really don't like Paris. I found it unfriendly, dirty and difficult to navigate. Just not my thing.

Mid range hotels in Paris are awful. In my experience far worse than same price in London. So a trip can be disappointing due to filthy rooms and no bar/lounge.
also, Parisians are VERY unforgiving of poor French skills.