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.

I live here. 😊

But it was just an observation that the unspoken social rule is more that the customer and the shop assistant or waiter should politely greet each other, not so much that the customer should make the first move.

I think it's an égalité thing actually.

I always say hello if I walk into a shop / restaurant and I'm English.

I mean obviously I don't enter a Tesco Extra and go up to the till staff to give a cheery greeting. But a smaller shop or one with staff / security near the entrance - I always says hello. I would say this is fairly common place in both the small town I am from and London.

I always say thanks to the bus driver when I get off the bus, which my city friends find hysterical and “quaint”. I think manners cost nothing.

No idea. Paris isn't perfect but no capital city is. I've been a few times and not once has any Parisian been anything but helpful or charming. My French isn't good but I do try, maybe that helps? Everywhere in the world I've been people guess I'm English before I even open my mouth so I don't look French either.

@Spambod where on earth were you staying that as working adults you were warned not to stray from your group for fear of street crime??
As I said we spent 5 weeks there this summer & had zero issues at all.
Unless people were staying in hotels outside Gare du Norde I'm finding it hard to picture feeling too intimidated to walk around- particularly around Le Marais, The Latin Qaurter, St Germain & 6th & 7th etc

I'm in London and always say thank you to the bus driver (unless it's a bus where you have to get off at the middle door rather than the front). While not everyone does it, a fair number of people do. In small-town and rural England I've come across some drivers who don't bother to reply when I say thanks.
I don't think it's a city vs non-city thing.

but nope Paris is just a dump.

There isn't an eyeroll big enough for such a statement.

I've spent a lot of time in Paris for studies, then work and also pleasure. It isn't my favourite city but in no way is it a dump.

I've been once and haven't returned. I also found it very dirty, and didn't like the disdainful way we were treated in restaurants. Rude, really. So many wonderful cities in Europe, Paris is bottom of my list.

I love Paris and France.

But I'm Scottish, not English

I do like Paris but I did go when all the Parisians were on Summer break. Conversely I now hate Brittany because we stayed in quite a nice hotel there last Summer that was full of holidaying Parisians who were extremely unfriendly. France is the only place in all my travels where people actively mocked my attempts to speak the language. People in Spain are much nicer about it. Am hoping Italy will be better this year.

Then there was something wrong with your attitude. That's never been my experience and I have been numerous times.

French are known as being aloof. Very much into their own culture.

Pissed off that English is a world language, not theirs

LOL

Had wonderful times in France.....

Pretty well traveled and speak reasonable french (I married one) and generally quite a confident person. Paris is the only place a taxi driver made me cry with his rudeness and refusal to understand me. A quick "I can't understand" even a Gaelic shrug would be fine, he was breathtakingly awful.

I have a degree in French but it's many years ago so I am very rusty! I can pass myself in French but I find most Parisians want to practice their English! Not one person has mocked my attempts to speak French in all the times I've visited.

On my most recent visit, in February, I found Parisians bent over backwards to communicate with me, even though I was trying to speak to them in French! I got on a bus in Paris, fully expecting them to take electronic payments, only to find out that they didn't. I was waiting for the bus driver to either say, go on, you're ok, or get off the bus, and an older French lady rushed up to give me a ticket! I dropped my bag on another bus, and a French lady picked it up for me.

My first trip to France was in 1982 (ok I had a school trip before then when I was 16) when I spent a month in Grenoble. My eldest lived in France for a year and travelled widely. DD2 spent some time in Paris with her French friend, and again, no issues.

I don't recognise all this anti French shit!

I'm not in the UK and everyone I know here who has been to Paris raves about it.

Oh God how awful. I stopped there whilst travelling at 22. I was terrified by the absolutely constant harassment from men. It was relentless . I just got on a train and got out. Went with OH years later and loved it.

That’s complete bollocks mate. France is full of stuck up twats and Paris is full of even worse stuck up rude cunts. “We love them really” is such misinformation. Don’t involve others in your horrible opinion on that rotten place you love so much. I doubt they’d like you as much as you think they do…

I went to a local French eaterie Birmingham, and even though the staff spoke in Birmingham accents, they switched to heavily accented French when asking you about food/drinks.

It struck me that the way they moved their mouths when speaking French felt really aggressive to me. Pushing their lips outwards in a kind of pout. I wonder if that's something to do with it?

I love Paris, and France in general. We’ve been a lot. I guess it’s romanticised and people get a shock it suffers from the same issues as any other major city? I find most of the people who hate it and talk about rudeness etc haven’t bothered to learn a drop of French…and maybe they stick too much to tourist areas and don’t get a real feel for the place outside of that? I realised once you start talking (trying anyway) French, 95% of the French switch into friendly mode and English anyway, but the effort is appreciated same as anywhere. Can’t wait to take my daughter this summer again

Personally I love Paris and France. I’m leaving London soon (which I also love) to live there.

God knows

I bloody love Paris and always find locals friendly

I hated Paris and would never return because it's the only city I didn't feel safe in (3 separate incidents) in 5 days.
I think that's a valid enough reason.

The people outside of Paris are much nicer and willing to attempt to understand my poor, but not totally awful, French. For example, in Paris people seem to either not understand or repeat back to me rudely if I've used the wrong gender (I expect a lot think this is a helpful lessom but I would never do the same to a French tourist in the UK trying to speak in English). It's odd, because out of all Europeans I find French speakers seem to struggle the most abroad when no one speaks French, and I fairly often step in to help them despite being pretty crap at French, so you'd think they would be more empathetic. It is definitely a sibling-rivalry thing more broadly, love them really.

ETA it is absolutely not everyone in Paris, and at crucial moments (post Bataclan...) they are ultimately decent people. There is a tendency to remember bad experiences more.

Brits prefer the Germans, even though they had two world wars with them

Why?

I have no idea

I think it’s because we are fatties and secretly don’t trust a nation that claims to have the best cuisine but clearly prefers smoking to eating much of it.