The above quote is from the brilliant Felicia Goodman who yelled it at me at some point during my day in Paris when I was talking too loud in a Paris Metro station. Although I cannot recall whether I was making fun of French people, or the French as a whole for loving to surrender, I'm sure it was something of the sort.
So I went to Paris with a strong anti-French bias and looked forward to hating Paris. That was certainly not the case. I actually love Paris, much more than London. Yes, that's right, I liked Paris more than London. (I am shocked too--especially for me). My stereotypes of the French, that they were rude and mean especially too Americans, were shattered. Every person I ran interacted with, whether in French (yes, I actually speak about 15 and a half words of French) or in English (that would be most of the time), was very pleasant and most polite. They always said "merci" (thanks for those of you who are language challenged like me) even for the smallest things.
Compare that to London, where it was impossible to get anyone to be kind to me, even as I went out of my way to be kind to them. I was surprised and my opinion of the French most definitely changed to a very positive one.
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