Technology

Yes, they are

Here's the thing - the french motto is Freedom, Equality, Fraternity

They're massively into the equality thing. Whether someone's a waiter, a cleaner, a doctor or a judge, you must treat them with the same amount of respect

The only types of people that I've ever seen saying that the french are rude are the types that think cleaners are beneath them, and that everyone speaks English if you say it loud enough

I spent one day in Paris, let me give you the highlights...

1. We arrived, left the train station, and were immediately accosted by like 5 people trying to sell us friendship bracelets, or little string bracelets
2. We left the area and walked to a local Metro station to get across the city, we wanted to check something, so we went to the nearby information section, where the lady refused to speak any English, despite the signage indicating that English was spoken there
3. We figured it out on our own and entered the station, which smelled exactly and completely of piss
4. We got off the train and walked along the river for about 10 seconds before being accosted by a conman pretending we'd just dropped some jewelry. Apparently it's a common con. We ignored him and moved on.
5. We had an ok time for the rest of the day trip, until we got back to the original train station, where we sat in a café beside a family who decided to change their kid's diaper at their table, and then threw the used one to the nearest bin like they were playing cornhole

I'm not in a big rush to go back.

I have only ever had great experiences visiting france, but then again I avoided Paris for the most part