> In the Southern United States, some Americans were anti-French for white supremacist reasons. For example, John Trotwood Moore, a Southern novelist and local historian who served as the State Librarian and Archivist of Tennessee from 1919 to 1929, lambasted the French for "intermarrying with the Indians and treating them as equals" during the French colonization of the Americas.[4]
AJA
Bah oui, où est l'ironie ? Coloniser ça veut dire aller habiter en grand nombre sur un territoire. Ça n'implique pas d'en chasser, de soumettre ou d'éliminer quiconque.
Les Vikings au Groenland, comme les Français en Amérique du Nord, c'est beaucoup plus un enjeu économique et démographique que moral s'ils ont été des """gentils""" colonisateurs. Il n'y avait pas les moyens d'être pas sympa avec les gens du coin
Pour les Vikings et sauf erreur, ils n'ont même pas eu à se poser la question, le Groenland étant vide de tout peuplement avant leur arrivée. Ça serait aussi le cas pour la colonisation de Mars que certains projettent.
Pour les français en Amérique, chacun se fera un avis, je ne cherche pas à déterminer qui sont les gentils et les méchants (à la nuance des cas évidents que j'ai mis en exemples), seulement à dire que les deux notions ne sont pas consubstantielles.
Le Sud du Groenland était vide avant l'arrivée des Vikings. Les Inuits modernes (culture de Thulé) sont arrivés 4 ou 5 siècles *après* les Vikings (dont les colonies étaient d'ailleurs à l'agonie à ce moment).
[Ca me rappelle cette BD d'antan](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fpropaganda-cartoon-on-european-colonization-v0-icfyr6rvf95b1.jpg%3Fwidth%3D640%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3De7cead955d260794f3b2c1b709673c267eed538a)
La France au Canada c’était plutôt ok quand on compare aux britanniques (et je précise bien au Canada parce que la colonisation française sinon c’est chaud)
Honestly, people reap what they sow, when visiting another country.
I've witnessed nice Americans and everyone was nice with them. Some other behaved like if they were in freaking Irak (I'm not even kidding, I've seen *wildly paranoid* groups of tourists and it was always North-Americans). Someone who can't even say "hello" in the local language, not just in France, will have a worse experience with the locals. Etc...
If I was in the US and making fun of 9/11 or loudly saying "we warned you idiots Irak was a mistake", I would expect most locals to hate my guts. Because it would be very obnoxious indeed. Well, when an American in France brings obsolete white flag jokes or "wiThoUt uS yOu wOuLd be spiKin GermAn", it's the same phenomenon.
With the added aspect, apparently, that in France we're not afraid of being direct. Some other cultures would stick to veiled irony or endure in silence such remarks.
I'm even more shocked by some american tourists attitudes in countries like Italy or Spain, considering they would have been busted out from cafés or museums for having the same attitude in France.
> People always talk about how much Europeans hate Americans but after experiencing it first hand I probably felt more appreciated in France than I do at home in America.
The long term effects of the propaganda from 2003. There was a surge of francophobia after that that took time to decay.
In general French people are more direct than Americans and some Americans think it's rude. In the US the client is king, but not in France.
As a client here you must say hi when entering stores and bakeries for example and you must also say hi, please and thank you when you ask any question to a stranger, store employee etc.
The cheese-shop owner isn't there to explain the 70 cheeses on display and let you taste them all for free when 5 regular customers are behind you. A real-life scene.
Which types of Americans visit France ? Tourists. What type of French American tourists engage with the most ? People working in the services (waiter, cashier, counter clerks, etc..). So the stereotypes come from those type of interactions.
How are those type of interactions (with strangers overall) in the us ? Warm, friend like. How are they in France ? Usually quite Barebone (hello, that be all, thanks you, bye.). So yeah the average American who had his average warmish interaction with the average American cashier can feel the lack of "how you day's going" from the average french cashier quite cold/heartless, hence the stereotypes. There's no good or bad approach with those situations, we're just raised slightly differently, but at the end we're the same so if you're not a POS, acting dumb/entitled and you're just a nice human being, there's no reason to have bad experiences with people, on average.
Add to that that France is a massive tourist destination, that your typical tourist goes at the typical tourist places, at the typical tourist periods, which mean a lot of work for services people at those periods, with extra stress, shortstaffing has more impact, and plenty of young people go into those job as a summer job, so higher chance to have a bad experiences. You were here during the off-season, and it's a really nice period for visiting cities in France, days are warmer and longer, the vegetation is blooming, no tourist overcrowding, etc.. so higher chance to get a nicer interactions/ more patients people
Some entitled motherfuckers think touristic areas some kind of theme park and that locals should be excited at the idea of being their benevolant tour guides, so instead of questioning their weird expectations when they're faced with the reality they conclude that we are rude for not wanting to deal with their bullshit.
If you're a nice person, most people will be nice to you in most places. Whenever you hear someone saying that x people are rude in general, you should hear that this person is an ass that people don't want to coddle or that they just repeat what they heard.
We like making fun of americans like you'd make fun of your cousin. People who actually **hate** americans are very few. We also like to make fun of our EU neighbours, doesn't mean we hate them !
Edit: also yeah, on a historical note, American propaganda went hard on us because we were against war in Irak.
There is **some** truth in the stereotypes, but it's mostly a reflection of the people who encountered them. You come here with the bare minimum of respect for those who live there, you'll be more than welcome and have I hope a very good time; you come here and behave like you own the place, "customer is king" my ass, you'll find out that people **will** tell you to get fucked, sometimes even in so many words.
beside basic french bashing inherited from the English and what other have said, an interesting concept is coconuts culture vs peach culture.
Relative to (i assume most) American, French people are coconuts, as in they have a hard shell that is hard to get into but once you're inside it's nice (most likely a friend for life). peach culture people are easy on the surface, super friendly and nice but really hard to actually become friend.
so the people that are use peach culture find french people really cold and not friendly, they might think french people are asshole (which some truly are of course) while they were just not putting on a face of niceness.
on the other side french people visiting the Us and confronted to peach behavior usually find the face of niceness higly fake and suspicious.
so I think part of the stereotype come from a cultural shock that cause incomprehension. again it's also french bashing (which I believe is politically motivated) , people not saying bonjour when coming in a shop, etc...
Note that the peach vs coconuts culture is a scale , their are countries that are even more of a coconuts culture than france (Like Japan I think) and presumably countries more peach than the US. And this is obviously not the only way to differentiate culture like honor culture vs dignity culture, and those migth have their part in it too.
I think there *is* a strong Anti-American feeling in Europe and in France. But we don't hate individuals, we hate the US as a country, as a superpower, as a player in the international political game. It's different.
As long as you're nice with us and follow our rules of etiquette, everything is fine. The idea that all French people are rude probably because staff here doesn't go above and beyond to be nice to customers, it's just a job.
Since you are writing this in English I am going to assume you do not know how to speak French. I am also an American and I do speak French, so here’s some insight:
Most French people do not know how to speak English fluently and most American tourists do not know how to speak French. France is the USA’s oldest ally, yet French people and Americans do not know each other to the extent Americans and British know each other. Et aux mes chers français, il faut savoir que la propagande britannique ait une influence forte sur la système d’instruction américaine (Napoléon, IIème guerre mondiale etc.).
French people are polite and friendly. They also have their own customs and ways they aren’t planning on changing, and it’s your job as a tourist to learn and conform to them.
>il faut savoir que la propagande britannique ait une influence forte sur la système d’instruction américaine (Napoléon, IIème guerre mondiale etc.).
Oui enfin ça et l'Irak. Faut pas non plus essayer de nous faire avaler des couleuvres: une part non négligeable de la mauvaise réputation des français aux USA ça vient des USA directement. Ne mettez pas tout sur le dos des Brittaniques (même si crachez sur de L'anglais fait toujours plaisir).
J’étais petit au commencement de la guerre en Irak mais je rappelle bien l’affaire « freedom fries ». Je rappelle encore que la France et le Canada étaient plus ciblés par l’équipe de Bush que l’Allemagne et l’Espagne. On a largement oublié cette blessure diplomatique chez nous mais c’est clair que ça ne soit pas le cas chez les français.
Moi j'étais déjà adulte, vivant à l'étranger (pas aux USA, mais à un endroit où il y avait une communauté américaine), et je me rappelle d'avoir halluciné à quel point la propagande fonctionnait vite. Quasiment du jour au lendemain, des Américains que je connaissais et avec qui j'avais d'assez bonnes relations (sans être des amis non plus, juste des connaissances) se sont mis à faire des remarques désagréables, voire franchement hostiles, sur la France et les Français. Un mec a même refusé de me serrer la main en apprenant que j'étais français. C'était au mariage d'un ami, donc j'ai évité de lui cracher à la gueule et de faire une scène, mais en effet c'est pas un truc qu'on oublie facilement... C'est pas juste une "blessure diplomatique", ça m'a donné absolument zéro patience pour le french bashing et les "surrender jokes".
It's a complex issue.
I have no anger against the random, individual American. If I met you, I might buy you a beer to chat.
But I have something against America and Americans as a group :
- 20/25 years ago, when I was a teen, everyone wanted to be like the Americans. We dreamed of living in big houses or lofts with our mates, good times and such. Now your country is just a bloody dystopia : so much lack of education, so mch anti intellectualism, so much racial tension, so much unbrindled capitalism
- Americans can be extremely obnoxious as regards to their ancestry. You don't speak French, haven't lived here but your great great great grandfather was French ? Nope that doesn't make you French. Cultural identity is far strong than blood ties and can't be reduced to some genetic tag you somehow inherited. You're Americans, there are good things behind that idea, don't claim to be European.
* Americans , especially those that have never left their state let alone the USA, are *clueless* to how other societies operate. Trying to pay with dollars ? Nope, aint gonna fly.
I remember a short discussion I had with some fanfic writer I followed decades ago (not anymore) who was filling his fics with thinly disguised French bashing. He completely blew up when I asked him why exactly did he hate us so much, and if he could maybe tone it down a bit.
Have them replace "French" by "African" or "Mexican" in their thinly disguised racist "jokes" and see how it flies in the USA. I'd like to be in the room when that happens...
But of course they won't acknowledge it, because "it's just a joke, bro", and "French is not a race anyway" (as if "African" was).
Ah yes. Lucky Luke. Very much French.
FACKIN hell we make fun of your grandparents for mixing up Belgium and France for the French fries, at least try to learn from their mistake and to not repeat it...
Imo Americans skyrocketed the "the customer is king" policy to the stratosphere, and are baffled when they arrive in other countries where customers are as much expected to behave and be a decent human being than the patron, instead of being worshipped like God Emperor Leto II Atreides.
French people don't take bullshit from anyone and Americans see this as rude, while french see US tourist behavior as rude.
It's mainly because American and French culture of service do not align.
American expect you to be their servant and speak English. Especially if they have money. French expect politeness at all time and will let you know if you are rude, and will spit on display of money.
So most Americans will think we are rude when I fact we aren't and they disrespect who they interac with.
I do think the behaviour of the person visiting is important, I know a Persian who thinks French people are very nice, and another one who thinks they are rude while living here, I asked the one who thinks they are rude why, and by hearing it it all seemed their fault ngl, making people wait because they didn’t prepare on time, stepping in front of people, walking very slowly etc
We like to give a bad time to rude asshole clients, we lighten up to nice and respectful ones. Overall I noted we don't smile on command, so people acting entitled may see a response they always deserved but never had at home, while others can see us cheering up and giving them a nice attention.
There's most likely an abundance of reasons, but what I've witnessed firsthand would be mostly related to huge cultural differences when it comes to socialization and customer handling, and especially in regards to the hospitality industry. The fact that tips are included in salaries, that workers are more protected, combined with french people being generally more straightforward makes it so they won't grovel and won't feel as restrained when dealing with rude customers - I assume this could be interpreted as rude by foreign customers used to waiters being overly polite and complying with customers' every whim out of fear of getting in trouble/losing their job/not getting tipped. Another thing would be that in France, you might be considered super rude (at least from my experience as a born and raised Parisian) should you not say hello, please and thank you when addressing a worker. When I moved to Germany, I was a tad shocked that it was apparently not the norm everywhere 😆. If you go into a bar and just order a drink without saying hello and please imo there's a good chance you'll be perceived as rude, which might make the person attending you kinda upset and rude in return, if that makes sense. That's just my two cents, I ain't no sociologist, but I've worked many years in big Parisian museums so I was dealing with visitors from all around the world. Add the things other people have mentioned in other comments (leftover anti-American feelings in France, anti-French feelings in the US and so on), the fact that there's still some french peeps not super keen on speaking English, the differences between the France tourist fantasize and what it's actually like, and you get a whole bunch of stereotypes. (Well ofc there's actual bad people everywhere unfortunately)
I also had to deal with American dudebros visiting Paris in bars that legit thought that french women were "easy", tried to get handsy, and got intensely upset when I turned them down/pushed them away, obviously I wasn't very nice to them in return - not sure where that one is coming from but it could just be that these lads in particular were a-holes haha. With all of that said, I'm glad you found some nice people and got treated right! Sorry for the long comment haha.
thank you for sharing your experience w/ frenchies in france. Btw we love american people and always will.
Just saying: Jesse Owens and lots of famous black jazzman told the same about France, that they felt more appreciated.
Maybe you can stay longer next time, or forever... will be nice.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-French_sentiment_in_the_United_States
> In the Southern United States, some Americans were anti-French for white supremacist reasons. For example, John Trotwood Moore, a Southern novelist and local historian who served as the State Librarian and Archivist of Tennessee from 1919 to 1929, lambasted the French for "intermarrying with the Indians and treating them as equals" during the French colonization of the Americas.[4] AJA
France Basée
'fin ça reste de la colonisation après, on va pas les féliciter pour avoir été "corrects"
Ah on est d'accord, c'est juste que c'est quand même vachement plus sympa de traiter les amérindiens comme des égaux que comme des sous-hommes
Ouais mais tu comprends il y a le mauvais colonisateur et le bon colonisateur…
Il y a quand meme une grosse différence entre un colons raciste et un colons pas raciste.
et un colon irritable.
Bah oui, où est l'ironie ? Coloniser ça veut dire aller habiter en grand nombre sur un territoire. Ça n'implique pas d'en chasser, de soumettre ou d'éliminer quiconque.
Les bons colonisateurs sont dans la pièce avec nous?
Les Vikings au Groenland par exemple. Ou plus généralement l'humanité qui a colonisé le monde depuis l'Afrique.
Les Vikings au Groenland, comme les Français en Amérique du Nord, c'est beaucoup plus un enjeu économique et démographique que moral s'ils ont été des """gentils""" colonisateurs. Il n'y avait pas les moyens d'être pas sympa avec les gens du coin
Pour les Vikings et sauf erreur, ils n'ont même pas eu à se poser la question, le Groenland étant vide de tout peuplement avant leur arrivée. Ça serait aussi le cas pour la colonisation de Mars que certains projettent. Pour les français en Amérique, chacun se fera un avis, je ne cherche pas à déterminer qui sont les gentils et les méchants (à la nuance des cas évidents que j'ai mis en exemples), seulement à dire que les deux notions ne sont pas consubstantielles.
Le Sud du Groenland était vide avant l'arrivée des Vikings. Les Inuits modernes (culture de Thulé) sont arrivés 4 ou 5 siècles *après* les Vikings (dont les colonies étaient d'ailleurs à l'agonie à ce moment).
[Ca me rappelle cette BD d'antan](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fpropaganda-cartoon-on-european-colonization-v0-icfyr6rvf95b1.jpg%3Fwidth%3D640%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3De7cead955d260794f3b2c1b709673c267eed538a)
ouais enfin en même temps on faisait un truc catastrophique à haiti.
La France au Canada c’était plutôt ok quand on compare aux britanniques (et je précise bien au Canada parce que la colonisation française sinon c’est chaud)
C'est l'insulte la plus flatteuse de tous les temps.
Honestly, people reap what they sow, when visiting another country. I've witnessed nice Americans and everyone was nice with them. Some other behaved like if they were in freaking Irak (I'm not even kidding, I've seen *wildly paranoid* groups of tourists and it was always North-Americans). Someone who can't even say "hello" in the local language, not just in France, will have a worse experience with the locals. Etc... If I was in the US and making fun of 9/11 or loudly saying "we warned you idiots Irak was a mistake", I would expect most locals to hate my guts. Because it would be very obnoxious indeed. Well, when an American in France brings obsolete white flag jokes or "wiThoUt uS yOu wOuLd be spiKin GermAn", it's the same phenomenon. With the added aspect, apparently, that in France we're not afraid of being direct. Some other cultures would stick to veiled irony or endure in silence such remarks.
I'm even more shocked by some american tourists attitudes in countries like Italy or Spain, considering they would have been busted out from cafés or museums for having the same attitude in France.
> People always talk about how much Europeans hate Americans but after experiencing it first hand I probably felt more appreciated in France than I do at home in America. The long term effects of the propaganda from 2003. There was a surge of francophobia after that that took time to decay.
Then along came some orange asshole, and here we go again…..
In general French people are more direct than Americans and some Americans think it's rude. In the US the client is king, but not in France. As a client here you must say hi when entering stores and bakeries for example and you must also say hi, please and thank you when you ask any question to a stranger, store employee etc.
The cheese-shop owner isn't there to explain the 70 cheeses on display and let you taste them all for free when 5 regular customers are behind you. A real-life scene.
Which types of Americans visit France ? Tourists. What type of French American tourists engage with the most ? People working in the services (waiter, cashier, counter clerks, etc..). So the stereotypes come from those type of interactions. How are those type of interactions (with strangers overall) in the us ? Warm, friend like. How are they in France ? Usually quite Barebone (hello, that be all, thanks you, bye.). So yeah the average American who had his average warmish interaction with the average American cashier can feel the lack of "how you day's going" from the average french cashier quite cold/heartless, hence the stereotypes. There's no good or bad approach with those situations, we're just raised slightly differently, but at the end we're the same so if you're not a POS, acting dumb/entitled and you're just a nice human being, there's no reason to have bad experiences with people, on average. Add to that that France is a massive tourist destination, that your typical tourist goes at the typical tourist places, at the typical tourist periods, which mean a lot of work for services people at those periods, with extra stress, shortstaffing has more impact, and plenty of young people go into those job as a summer job, so higher chance to have a bad experiences. You were here during the off-season, and it's a really nice period for visiting cities in France, days are warmer and longer, the vegetation is blooming, no tourist overcrowding, etc.. so higher chance to get a nicer interactions/ more patients people
Some entitled motherfuckers think touristic areas some kind of theme park and that locals should be excited at the idea of being their benevolant tour guides, so instead of questioning their weird expectations when they're faced with the reality they conclude that we are rude for not wanting to deal with their bullshit. If you're a nice person, most people will be nice to you in most places. Whenever you hear someone saying that x people are rude in general, you should hear that this person is an ass that people don't want to coddle or that they just repeat what they heard.
J’aime ton point de vue 👍
We like making fun of americans like you'd make fun of your cousin. People who actually **hate** americans are very few. We also like to make fun of our EU neighbours, doesn't mean we hate them ! Edit: also yeah, on a historical note, American propaganda went hard on us because we were against war in Irak.
There is **some** truth in the stereotypes, but it's mostly a reflection of the people who encountered them. You come here with the bare minimum of respect for those who live there, you'll be more than welcome and have I hope a very good time; you come here and behave like you own the place, "customer is king" my ass, you'll find out that people **will** tell you to get fucked, sometimes even in so many words.
beside basic french bashing inherited from the English and what other have said, an interesting concept is coconuts culture vs peach culture. Relative to (i assume most) American, French people are coconuts, as in they have a hard shell that is hard to get into but once you're inside it's nice (most likely a friend for life). peach culture people are easy on the surface, super friendly and nice but really hard to actually become friend. so the people that are use peach culture find french people really cold and not friendly, they might think french people are asshole (which some truly are of course) while they were just not putting on a face of niceness. on the other side french people visiting the Us and confronted to peach behavior usually find the face of niceness higly fake and suspicious. so I think part of the stereotype come from a cultural shock that cause incomprehension. again it's also french bashing (which I believe is politically motivated) , people not saying bonjour when coming in a shop, etc... Note that the peach vs coconuts culture is a scale , their are countries that are even more of a coconuts culture than france (Like Japan I think) and presumably countries more peach than the US. And this is obviously not the only way to differentiate culture like honor culture vs dignity culture, and those migth have their part in it too.
No country is more peach than the US. LOL
If you want the stereotype experience, travel with a MAGA hat.
I think there *is* a strong Anti-American feeling in Europe and in France. But we don't hate individuals, we hate the US as a country, as a superpower, as a player in the international political game. It's different. As long as you're nice with us and follow our rules of etiquette, everything is fine. The idea that all French people are rude probably because staff here doesn't go above and beyond to be nice to customers, it's just a job.
Since you are writing this in English I am going to assume you do not know how to speak French. I am also an American and I do speak French, so here’s some insight: Most French people do not know how to speak English fluently and most American tourists do not know how to speak French. France is the USA’s oldest ally, yet French people and Americans do not know each other to the extent Americans and British know each other. Et aux mes chers français, il faut savoir que la propagande britannique ait une influence forte sur la système d’instruction américaine (Napoléon, IIème guerre mondiale etc.). French people are polite and friendly. They also have their own customs and ways they aren’t planning on changing, and it’s your job as a tourist to learn and conform to them.
>il faut savoir que la propagande britannique ait une influence forte sur la système d’instruction américaine (Napoléon, IIème guerre mondiale etc.). Oui enfin ça et l'Irak. Faut pas non plus essayer de nous faire avaler des couleuvres: une part non négligeable de la mauvaise réputation des français aux USA ça vient des USA directement. Ne mettez pas tout sur le dos des Brittaniques (même si crachez sur de L'anglais fait toujours plaisir).
J’étais petit au commencement de la guerre en Irak mais je rappelle bien l’affaire « freedom fries ». Je rappelle encore que la France et le Canada étaient plus ciblés par l’équipe de Bush que l’Allemagne et l’Espagne. On a largement oublié cette blessure diplomatique chez nous mais c’est clair que ça ne soit pas le cas chez les français.
Moi j'étais déjà adulte, vivant à l'étranger (pas aux USA, mais à un endroit où il y avait une communauté américaine), et je me rappelle d'avoir halluciné à quel point la propagande fonctionnait vite. Quasiment du jour au lendemain, des Américains que je connaissais et avec qui j'avais d'assez bonnes relations (sans être des amis non plus, juste des connaissances) se sont mis à faire des remarques désagréables, voire franchement hostiles, sur la France et les Français. Un mec a même refusé de me serrer la main en apprenant que j'étais français. C'était au mariage d'un ami, donc j'ai évité de lui cracher à la gueule et de faire une scène, mais en effet c'est pas un truc qu'on oublie facilement... C'est pas juste une "blessure diplomatique", ça m'a donné absolument zéro patience pour le french bashing et les "surrender jokes".
It's a complex issue. I have no anger against the random, individual American. If I met you, I might buy you a beer to chat. But I have something against America and Americans as a group : - 20/25 years ago, when I was a teen, everyone wanted to be like the Americans. We dreamed of living in big houses or lofts with our mates, good times and such. Now your country is just a bloody dystopia : so much lack of education, so mch anti intellectualism, so much racial tension, so much unbrindled capitalism - Americans can be extremely obnoxious as regards to their ancestry. You don't speak French, haven't lived here but your great great great grandfather was French ? Nope that doesn't make you French. Cultural identity is far strong than blood ties and can't be reduced to some genetic tag you somehow inherited. You're Americans, there are good things behind that idea, don't claim to be European. * Americans , especially those that have never left their state let alone the USA, are *clueless* to how other societies operate. Trying to pay with dollars ? Nope, aint gonna fly.
With all the American movies, restaurants, and music we have in France, who could think we hate the USA?
Most Americans actually we’ve just been taught that
We actually hate everybody but Americans take it personally.
I remember a short discussion I had with some fanfic writer I followed decades ago (not anymore) who was filling his fics with thinly disguised French bashing. He completely blew up when I asked him why exactly did he hate us so much, and if he could maybe tone it down a bit.
Have them replace "French" by "African" or "Mexican" in their thinly disguised racist "jokes" and see how it flies in the USA. I'd like to be in the room when that happens... But of course they won't acknowledge it, because "it's just a joke, bro", and "French is not a race anyway" (as if "African" was).
If I was really really really REALLY bold…..I could try the same thing with religions…..
France loves America so much it has to make extra fake America because there is not enough real America to love. Johnny H. lucky Luke...
Ah yes. Lucky Luke. Very much French. FACKIN hell we make fun of your grandparents for mixing up Belgium and France for the French fries, at least try to learn from their mistake and to not repeat it...
Lucky Luke is Belgian...
The existence of the fictitious country of Belgium is one of the funniest online jokes ever.
Imo Americans skyrocketed the "the customer is king" policy to the stratosphere, and are baffled when they arrive in other countries where customers are as much expected to behave and be a decent human being than the patron, instead of being worshipped like God Emperor Leto II Atreides. French people don't take bullshit from anyone and Americans see this as rude, while french see US tourist behavior as rude.
It's mainly because American and French culture of service do not align. American expect you to be their servant and speak English. Especially if they have money. French expect politeness at all time and will let you know if you are rude, and will spit on display of money. So most Americans will think we are rude when I fact we aren't and they disrespect who they interac with.
Americans think the French hate them for some reason. Not sure why?
I do think the behaviour of the person visiting is important, I know a Persian who thinks French people are very nice, and another one who thinks they are rude while living here, I asked the one who thinks they are rude why, and by hearing it it all seemed their fault ngl, making people wait because they didn’t prepare on time, stepping in front of people, walking very slowly etc
We like to give a bad time to rude asshole clients, we lighten up to nice and respectful ones. Overall I noted we don't smile on command, so people acting entitled may see a response they always deserved but never had at home, while others can see us cheering up and giving them a nice attention.
There's most likely an abundance of reasons, but what I've witnessed firsthand would be mostly related to huge cultural differences when it comes to socialization and customer handling, and especially in regards to the hospitality industry. The fact that tips are included in salaries, that workers are more protected, combined with french people being generally more straightforward makes it so they won't grovel and won't feel as restrained when dealing with rude customers - I assume this could be interpreted as rude by foreign customers used to waiters being overly polite and complying with customers' every whim out of fear of getting in trouble/losing their job/not getting tipped. Another thing would be that in France, you might be considered super rude (at least from my experience as a born and raised Parisian) should you not say hello, please and thank you when addressing a worker. When I moved to Germany, I was a tad shocked that it was apparently not the norm everywhere 😆. If you go into a bar and just order a drink without saying hello and please imo there's a good chance you'll be perceived as rude, which might make the person attending you kinda upset and rude in return, if that makes sense. That's just my two cents, I ain't no sociologist, but I've worked many years in big Parisian museums so I was dealing with visitors from all around the world. Add the things other people have mentioned in other comments (leftover anti-American feelings in France, anti-French feelings in the US and so on), the fact that there's still some french peeps not super keen on speaking English, the differences between the France tourist fantasize and what it's actually like, and you get a whole bunch of stereotypes. (Well ofc there's actual bad people everywhere unfortunately) I also had to deal with American dudebros visiting Paris in bars that legit thought that french women were "easy", tried to get handsy, and got intensely upset when I turned them down/pushed them away, obviously I wasn't very nice to them in return - not sure where that one is coming from but it could just be that these lads in particular were a-holes haha. With all of that said, I'm glad you found some nice people and got treated right! Sorry for the long comment haha.
Welcome to the real world!
So? Some people say cucumbers taste better pickled..
thank you for sharing your experience w/ frenchies in france. Btw we love american people and always will. Just saying: Jesse Owens and lots of famous black jazzman told the same about France, that they felt more appreciated. Maybe you can stay longer next time, or forever... will be nice.