I couldn't agree more. Having just gotten back from Paris recently I can say that by and large, we received very good and pleasant service from most of the loca

I couldn't agree more. Having just gotten back from Paris recently I can say that by and large, we received very good and pleasant service from most of the locals we dealt with. I don't speak any French, but at least I tried to be polite in the language as best as I could (using copious Merci's interspersed with nearly every thing they did), and I think people responded well. In fact some of the better, more courteous, service I received was from younger people waiting tables (Tribeca on Rue Cler for example). Of course not everybody spoke great English, but so long as I was appreciative of their efforts to work with me, things usually turned out pretty good. I've found this is definitely true no matter where I've gone, from NYC to Seoul. If you act like a self-absorbed, entitled brat, people respond negatively to that.