The Changing French

Most Americans have the preconception that the French, especially in Paris, are very rude to tourists. I have personally made three trips to Paris in the past fourteen years and have found their attitude ever evolving. On my first trip in 1995, I generally agreed with the rude stereotype. In 1998 however, I spent two months in a Paris suburb and tried to speak as much French as I could with locals. In that time, I found that most Parisians were fairly kind recognizing that I was trying to speak in their native language but still they were not entirely friendly either. This past February, Roxi and I traveled to Paris with my brother and his finace and we were amazed at how nice everyone was to us even when we were not speaking with our best French accents. I jokingly thought that it was happiness brought on by our new president but I mostly chalked it up to a decline in American tourism due to the current economic climate. According to an article that Roxi forwarded to me this morning, it appears that I was mostly correct about the decline in tourism. They also go on to talk about the new "smile ambassadors" who are tasked with helping to foster a more friendly environment in the city. I'm not sure if they're really necessary though since we found the City of Lights to be a whole lot happier five months ago.