A TikToker attempted to go viral by saying she had sneaked onto a train while on vacation in Europe, and complaining that she was caught out and handed a fine. She did gain millions of views, but the response wasn't positive.
21.07.2023 - 07:31 / roughguides.com
Travel writer and former Parisian Madévi Dailly responds to the results of a recent Rough Guides poll which saw our readers denouce Paris as the world’s unfriendliest city.
Hundreds of Rough Guides readers have declared Paris to be the most unfriendly city in the world – news as surprising as the best croissants being made with butter.
“Brusque”, “unwelcoming”, “snooty”, “surly” and “rude” are just some of the accusations levelled at locals by Rough Guides readers, and indeed by travellers the world over. Paris may be one of the most visited places in the world, but its residents, it seems, aren’t exactly happy about it.
The body of evidence is impossible to ignore. “There is something glacial, fishlike, and prodigiously remote about Parisians”, quipped American storyteller Pat Conroy in My Reading Life. “At the sound of an approaching foreigner, their faces are as bland and expressionless as salamanders.”
Eager beret-clutching visitors to the City of Light are in for a rough ride. If they survive the gauntlet of louche cab drivers on arrival, they’ll have to deal with a whole cast of Parisians ready to wreck their stay.
Distracted hotel staff will ignore them at reception. They’ll get barked at in bakeries for hesitating too long between subtly different baguettes, and dismissed by sales girls telling them they don’t stock larger sizes. Lap-dog wielding grannies won’t hesitate to jab them out of the way with the sharp end of their walking sticks. Waiters will rush past them instead of welcoming them with a smile.
A Parisian market vendor. Snooty? It's nothing personal © Shutterstock
This can be so shocking to visitors that Japanese tourists have even coined a term – ‘Paris syndrome’ – to describe the psychological distress they feel when confronted with the reality of the city of their dreams.
But as a former Parisian, it’s my duty to roll my eyes at this damning indictment. Parisians have every right to be appalled when hordes of hapless, selfie-snapping visitors descend on their city year-round, demanding to be shown the way to the “Louv-rah” and fuelling a proliferation of flower-covered Instagram-ready cafés. Sorry to break it to you, bébé: it’s not us, it’s you.
That’s right, you’re doing Paris wrong. You’re pushing already stressed Parisians over the edge with your inability to operate the metro doors, roll your Rs, or cross the street without causing an international bicycling incident. You’d do well to heed the advice admonishing tourists to make an effort to fit in.
Getting familiar with etiquette basics is a good start: say “bonjour” and “bonne journée” to waiters and shopkeepers, don’t mangle our beautiful language (we’re sticklers for good pronunciation and grammar) and move out of the way
A TikToker attempted to go viral by saying she had sneaked onto a train while on vacation in Europe, and complaining that she was caught out and handed a fine. She did gain millions of views, but the response wasn't positive.
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