"French people are scary"

During the long weekend, we decided to visit France. After about a 4 hour drive, we were able to make it to Montpellier, a French town on the Mediterranean. It is amazing how much difference there can be in people who are only separated by 4 hours of road. As we walked through the square of Montipellar, it looked like practically everyone was a little annoyed at something. In the middle of the square, my son pulled me aside and whispered in my ear, "I think French people are scary". Being the ever understanding father, I whispered back, "Don't look now, but I think they've surrounded us."

My wife was also having difficulties. We were having trouble finding the restaurants that our hotel recommended, so she tried out her French to ask a women for directions. The conversation went something like:

< >Wife: "Do you know where the restaurant, Guía, is?"
< >Woman: "Gooeu"
< >Wife: "Oue (yes), Guía"
< >Woman: "Gooeu"
< >Wife: "Oue" Showing the restaurant name on a piece of paper
< >Women: Rolls her eyes and says, "Gooeu" again.
< >Wife: "Gooeu"
< >Woman: "Gooeu, I have no idea"

The woman wasn't going to help us, but she just wanted to make sure that my wife didn't mangle the French language. This was followed up with the waiter at the restaurant saying (in an annoyed tone), "Look, why don't we do this in English", after we tried to order.

Even the people in the fancy French chateau where we stayed lacked warmth. They had 3 concierges, and they all were similar. They were all attractive women in their 20s, dressed to the hilt, but they all did their best to try to pretend that both you and they were invisible. They would ignore you unless you talked to them directly, and then they would talk in hushed tones. It seems that the hight of French hospitality is to make it seem like there is no one else around you. Given what the other French people were like, maybe this is understandable.

There was one notable exception. The breakfast at the chateau wasn't great, so on our second night I zipped out with my daughter to a McDonalds to get breakfast for the family. To my great relief, the people working at McDonalds not only spoke English, but were also both cheerful and nice. The McDonalds in France don't have a breakfast menu, so we ordered chicken sandwiches that took a while, but it was such a good surprise to meet nice French people that we didn't mind. I read someplace that when McDonalds opened in Moscow, they had to have smiling lessons for the new hires. I'm not sure whether the people in France went through special training, but there was something definitely different about them.