Is Paris really the city of love?

By Emily Falcheck

Paris is considered the “city of love”, but when visiting this past February, warm, fuzzy feelings were scarce. Whether it was the herd of 30 teens that they felt bitter about or the just the fact we were Americans.

  The attitude that the French projected was bitter and cold. While walking by a café you would see them glare as they puffed on cigarettes. I wondered why I was feeling the cold shoulder. Was it because we were tourists or was it because of feuding between our countries? The feuding issue might be expected from the elder French, but you would think the younger generation would have a different perspective. I never had any personal interactions with the French where I talked one on one to ask their opinion on Americans; however, I did experience rude behavior from them, such as shoving, not saying excuse me or “pardon”, and neglecting the common courtesy of holding the door open for people.

  I wondered if I was the only one to feel this way when visiting France. I had a few conversations with some of the other kids on the trip and they all said the same thing. We agreed that the rudeness varied by city, and age. We all noticed that Paris was the rudest city. No one said excuse me or held the door. When walking in the city you would get shoved, and you would be constantly worried about getting mugged.  They were the nicest in Monaco, I think this is because they are not part of the France, and are a culturally diverse city. Monaco was full of Italian, French, and Roman cultures. The kindness also varied based on age, the old were rude and the young were nicer. The younger generations were not kinder by much but they seemed to be more accepting of American tourists.