Polishing the image of the Parisian snob

Paris is probably the number one tourist destination in the world, yet most visitors to the city claim its inhabitants to be rude and unhelpful. The mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe is attempting to change the old stereotype, and has made suggestions to taxi drivers to smile more often and that waiting staff in restaurants should try their English when speaking to foreign tourists.

On the flipside, he urged visitors to the city to try to eat locally instead of falling back on old failsafes like Starbucks and McDonald’s. The mayor says the campaign is to bring to light that tourists are very important for Paris, and that Parisians shouldn’t treat them with disdain and indifference.

A recent visitor to Paris was Brazilian Joana D’Arc de Almeida, who commented, “I think Paris needs to learn a lot about how to deal with tourists, because that’s what brings money to the city. It looks like they have so much money from it already that they don’t care about people anymore.”