What you will expect when travelling in France. Everyone knows french stereotypes like the famous "baguette", red wine or Paris "the beautiful city of love" but do you really know how France in reality is ? Let me take you over some misconceptions and unveil the reality of a country that is going bad days after days. French people are not as much welcome as you may think. Coldness is what they are the best for and welcoming foreigners is something that most of french people are actually scared of. As the english level is bad because of an unefficient school system and massive judgements from students upon the others, people basically do not dare speak up or trying to speak in english and avoid you that is why they look so cold in the eyes of tourists or international workers/students. There is a huge laxity from the french police which means you will never feel in security. In fact, big french cities are filled with massive robberies, drugs trafficking in dark areas and many uncivilised behaviors on all means of transports: people spit on the floor, throw cigarettes, garbages everywhere, push the others to get on the mtr or bus and so on. French people are also very intolerant, you can be insulted or criticised for free because of your differences in the way you dress or speak. Racial and sexual orientation discriminations are very present. Their sense of humour is kind of disrespectful, they will consider as normal when it is about using people culture and background to make fun of it which sound more like racism to me or criticizing and looking down on anyone who would be different. They also have a particular mentality which consist in considering smoking as a trend", a "cool attitude" that explains the huge amount of people who smoke in the streets. Unruly French people are lazy, very negative and pessimistic, they complain all the time and go on strike very often. Don't be shocked if you will have to face with so many issues from the transport network, it will only because of their complains about little issues resulting in many demonstrations. They have a beautiful culture but their attitude and the way they consider human relations is inhuman.