the french

There's a lot of strong opinion expressed about the French from travellers. It seems that people will have a lot to say both positive and negative. It's puzzling that they are subject to such frequent and strongly-expressed opinions compared to other nations . Why is this?
I think it made us interested in seeing how we found people there.
We were a bit apprehensive about stories of people insisting on being spoken to in french (Jenny knows basic french but I know very little) and also tales of French rudeness and arrogance. Here are a few doodles of French stereotypes......

Firstly I would say it is true that the French are definitely keen for you to try to speak their langauge. It's worth starting off in very simple French at the start even if it only to apologetically ask if they speak English - I think most would not be impressed by someone presumptuously launching into English from the outset, especially given that many French did not seem to speak much English at all. Regardless of their English skills, they seem to really love their mother tongue and want you try to use it even if they speak better English than your broken French. It's like they are sure you will grow to love speaking their pretty, soft language as much as they do and perhaps do away with you ugly clunky one altogether. Without exception the french were very patient even with very patchy French so there is no need to stress about being fluent. Just giving it a try made most people we met warm to us quickly.
As for the other stereotypes of rudeness and arrogance, we cant say we found them there at all. Even in Paris people seemed very relaxed and casual, almost serene compared to other sizeable cities. They also seemed very patient as a whole. We often found ourselves farting about trying to find change for metro tickets, using automated machines incorrectly or bumbling onto the wrong places on roads and never once did we receive exasperated sighs or angry toots.
Their relaxed attitude to life definitely had an appeal to us. It was aslo reflected in the French landscape of unmanicured fuzzy fields of wildflowers and towns of softly crumbling stone covered in ivy.