Back home from Paris. I personally never have enough of this loved-hated city, however I appreciate that some people feel different about it, especially, when it comes up to people from Paris... The stories of stuck up Parisians and extremely rude waiters in Parisian restaurants are so popular that almost cliche.
It was my third visit to Paris so far and I must say that I can't remember one single person being rude or even unfriendly to me. Maybe I am just gifted with a Parisian spark, so the people treat me exceptionally well, or maybe I am just clever. And what I mean by my cleverness is that I simply chose to speak French straight away without expecting anyone to understand English. Never mind, I don't really speak French, or let's be clear my French is very basic, just enough to get around. I know that the French adore their language and part of this love is that they tolerate the grammar errors when a foreigner speaks. I just get on with it. It's a beautiful language after all, so why not?
I could list here right now at least three famous world cities of which you would less expect its people to be rude, and yes, they're even if you speak their official language. This could be the topic for a different post, so I won't do it, either my point is to compare Paris to those cities. What I am trying to say is that a few things worked out for me in Paris and these are: (in order)
- a smile
- speaking broken French (in a funny or cute way - this is for you too choose)
- wearing the stuff you would wear back home on your "good days", so no scruffy, "comfortable" tourist outfits
(there is always a way to wear comfortable clothes and look good, but again, this could be a topic for a spare post, so let's just agree on using your imagination)
Actually, if you think of it, these few things should work out well pretty much everywhere, assuming we are dealing with a reasonably well behaved society. And regardless my tips and hints the most important is that you get what you give. EVERYWHERE.
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