Of all the stereotypes of Europeans, this one is the most unfair

Sydney Morning Herald

15-07-2025

The guy in the Parisian cheese shop – OK, the fromagerie – greets me with a stream of French that frankly means nothing to me.
I'm terrible with French. I can't even read the words and say them out loud properly (why so many silent letters?), let alone understand what someone is saying.
'Désolé,' I say, holding my hands out apologetically, ready with my rehearsed lines. 'Je ne parle pas français.'
The guy breaks into a grin. 'Ha, sorry,' he laughs. 'Do you need some help?'
This is the grumpy, rude Parisian. He's a classic too, this guy, just as grumpy and rude as everyone else I've met in the French capital on this trip.
There's the lady sitting next to me at a restaurant who insists on introducing me to the ugliest dog I've ever seen, Monsieur Pierre; the guy in the wine store who slips effortlessly from French to English when he realises I'm struggling with the labels; the Parisian journalist who invites me out for dinner after we've only recently met; the waiter I see approach a Dutch couple struggling with phones pointed at their menus and offer, 'I can be your Google if you like?'
If you have a problem with people in France, it's probably your fault.
These people are not, of course, grumpy and rude. That's the stereotype, which is meant to apply to all of France, though especially to Paris. People in Paris hate speaking English, they despise tourists, they can't stand people who don't naturally fit into the ebb and flow of the French capital.
I'm here to tell you, it isn't true. I've often thought this about France as a whole, and I even wrote a column about it a few years ago, though many people told me then that what I wrote was true, except in Paris. In Paris, people will be rude to you.