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I'm an American who studied abroad in France for a bit a decade ago and did a little traveling around Europe, including to Austria. The Austrian train system wa

I'm an American who studied abroad in France for a bit a decade ago and did a little traveling around Europe, including to Austria. The Austrian train system was the best by far even without Klimaticket. Specifically, you bought a ticket that entitled you to a set number of kilometers and you could use it any time in the month. Moreover, the trains actually ran on time and customer service was helpful. By comparison, under the French system, the trains were often late, the customer service was almost hostile, and your ticket was for a specific train and if you missed it for whatever reason you were out of luck. This was a really big deal for me because the French government had just reneged on their commitment to pay my ~650 euro/month rent just a week or two before I arrived and consequently I chose to skip meals to save up a bit to make a couple of trips to Austria to Austria to visit my then-girlfriend-now-wife (I went from 175lbs to an unhealthy 140lbs over my 5-month stay). As a parenthetical, when I was planning to fly to Austria from Paris, I put my luggage in a 24-hour locker in Gare du Nord the evening before the early-morning flight, but the room the locker was in was closed from 10pm to 6am and the flight left CDG at 7am, so I was devastated when I had to eat the cost of the flight ticket. I begged the staff to unlock the door for me in my best, most polite French, but they would invariably say "c'est impossible" (in my experience, this is what almost all French employees would say to any request which wasn't strictly in their job description, including asking for directions which made it all the more shocking when I would ask an Austrian employee in English for some help and they were positively eager to assist, even if their English was not very good).

hagbard_c 5y ago
> As a parenthetical, when I was planning to fly to Austria from Paris, I put my luggage in a 24-hour locker in Gare du Nord the evening before the early-morning flight, but the room the locker was in was closed from 10pm to 6am and the flight left CDG at 7am, so I was devastated when I had to eat the cost of the flight ticket. I begged the staff to unlock the door for me in my best, most polite French, but they would invariably say "c'est impossible" Hm, was in a very similar situation at a Greyhound station in Merced when I returned from a hike through Yosemite. I had parked half of my luggage in a locker at the bus station when I took the shuttle serve to the park (which ended up with me having to put the snow chains on the shuttle bus since the driver had never performed that task...). When I returned to the station and wanted to retrieve my luggage to take the Greyhound which would eventually take me to the airport so I could catch my flight back to the Netherlands the station was closed, and would remain closed until past my bus department time. There was a cleaner in the station who I eventually managed to persuade to open the door... otherwise I would have missed the bus, which would have made me miss my flight. Since then I have made sure to check opening times on buildings containing luggage storage to avoid these problems.
- ghaff 5y ago
  Luggage check in most places (other than hotels with 24 hour desks) is pretty hit or miss. Even if I’m traveling light as I usually am I have a large enough carryon that I can’t easily schlep it around a city especially if I want to go into a museum or something like that.
frereubu 5y ago
Just as a counter-anecdote to "c'est impossible", when I was young and naive I went on a cycle tour from La Rochelle to Toulouse, thinking I could just book a train ticket with a bike from Toulouse to Paris and put my bike in the luggage carriage as you could at the time in the UK. In fact, technically, you had to take apart and box your bike before they'd allow you to put it on board. I arrived on the platform with my bike and spoke to the guard who told me what the rule was, looked up and down the mostly empty platform, and gestured towards the guard's van. Sometimes you get a Gallic shrug rather than "c'est impossible". (The difference may also be to do with Paris vs the rest of France, as tends to be the case with capital cities vs everywhere else in a country).
- throwaway894345 5y ago
  Thanks for the counter-anecdote. I certainly don't think that all French employees are difficult, but the distribution of difficult employees certainly seems to vary from country to country. FWIW, I was studying in Rennes, not Paris, although I had bad customer service experiences in both locations.
- _Wintermute 5y ago
  My experience from living in Paris is that "non, c'est pas possible" isn't "no, that's against the rules", it's more of a "that sounds like it requires effort on my part, please go away". One of my first experiences when moving there was before I got my travel card and was using the paper tickets, but all the ticket accepting machines on a metro entrance where closed. I asked a staff member what to do, he looked up and down the barriers and just shrugged and said "jump".
  - throwaway894345 5y ago
    > My experience from living in Paris is that "non, c'est pas possible" isn't "no, that's against the rules", it's more of a "that sounds like it requires effort on my part, please go away". This captures my experience as well.
pjerem 5y ago
I'm sorry for your experience in France. French people are not really friendly to strangers (not in a racist way, more in a "i don't even know what language this stranger is talking"). I'm 50% sure the locker staff didn't even understand what you wanted from them and just reacted with stress. But Paris have the reputation to be pretty hostile, even to the rest of french population. Our other cities are much more open and friendly. Our countryside is also pretty friendly but don't expect anyone there to understand you but at least they'll friendly try to fake that they can.
- throwaway894345 5y ago
  > I'm sorry for your experience in France. French people are not really friendly to strangers (not in a racist way, more in a "i don't even know what language this stranger is talking"). I'm 50% sure the locker staff didn't even understand what you wanted from them and just reacted with stress. To be clear, I was speaking French, and by that time my French pronunciation was good enough that everyone could understand me without extra effort (probably no longer true). In my experience, the French were quite warm when they weren't "on the job". For example, my French classmates (even those I didn't know well) were happy to help me navigate campus and answer questions and so on. > But Paris have the reputation to be pretty hostile, even to the rest of french population. Our other cities are much more open and friendly. It could definitely be regional, but most of my experiences were actually in Rennes and Nantes (not Paris)--although on one visit to Nantes, there was a big protest by farmers over the construction of an airport which probably had people a little more aggravated than normal: the farmers were deliberately blocking traffic with their tractors, including dumping large piles of dirt in certain intersections which was an interesting sight to behold until some anarchists came and started setting fires and otherwise behaving dangerously. > Our countryside is also pretty friendly but don't expect anyone there to understand you but at least they'll friendly try to fake that they can. My school was actually in rural Rennes (ENSAI) near the village of Bruz--I only spoke French because I had quite a few experiences where people would be angry or annoyed if I asked if they spoke English. Almost every time I tried to call and order a taxi in English (when I first arrived, before my French was very good), we would make the appointment, but the taxi wouldn't show up (very stressful because I was poor and very worried that I would miss a train or flight because the taxi didn't show up). One of my English classmates suggested I start making the appointments in French, and then the taxi showed up every time! But in general I didn't mind having to speak French--I know if you walked up to an American and started speaking French they would probably be annoyed as well, and generally I feel like if you're living in a country you should make every effort to speak the language (and I wanted to learn the language better anyway--that was one of my goals for studying abroad). Even though I had bad experiences, I still like France and the French, and my wife and I have since gone back and visited Paris once because we now have "fuck you" money (which is to say, we don't have to beg and plead for help, we can afford to miss a flight here and there). We also ate breakfast at a charming little cafe near our AirBnB in the 17th every morning, and contrary to my other anecdotes, the staff were very friendly. :)

hagbard_c 5y ago

> As a parenthetical, when I was planning to fly to Austria from Paris, I put my luggage in a 24-hour locker in Gare du Nord the evening before the early-morning flight, but the room the locker was in was closed from 10pm to 6am and the flight left CDG at 7am, so I was devastated when I had to eat the cost of the flight ticket. I begged the staff to unlock the door for me in my best, most polite French, but they would invariably say "c'est impossible" Hm, was in a very similar situation at a Greyhound station in Merced when I returned from a hike through Yosemite. I had parked half of my luggage in a locker at the bus station when I took the shuttle serve to the park (which ended up with me having to put the snow chains on the shuttle bus since the driver had never performed that task...). When I returned to the station and wanted to retrieve my luggage to take the Greyhound which would eventually take me to the airport so I could catch my flight back to the Netherlands the station was closed, and would remain closed until past my bus department time. There was a cleaner in the station who I eventually managed to persuade to open the door... otherwise I would have missed the bus, which would have made me miss my flight. Since then I have made sure to check opening times on buildings containing luggage storage to avoid these problems.

ghaff 5y ago
Luggage check in most places (other than hotels with 24 hour desks) is pretty hit or miss. Even if I’m traveling light as I usually am I have a large enough carryon that I can’t easily schlep it around a city especially if I want to go into a museum or something like that.

frereubu 5y ago

Just as a counter-anecdote to "c'est impossible", when I was young and naive I went on a cycle tour from La Rochelle to Toulouse, thinking I could just book a train ticket with a bike from Toulouse to Paris and put my bike in the luggage carriage as you could at the time in the UK. In fact, technically, you had to take apart and box your bike before they'd allow you to put it on board. I arrived on the platform with my bike and spoke to the guard who told me what the rule was, looked up and down the mostly empty platform, and gestured towards the guard's van. Sometimes you get a Gallic shrug rather than "c'est impossible". (The difference may also be to do with Paris vs the rest of France, as tends to be the case with capital cities vs everywhere else in a country).

throwaway894345 5y ago
Thanks for the counter-anecdote. I certainly don't think that all French employees are difficult, but the distribution of difficult employees certainly seems to vary from country to country. FWIW, I was studying in Rennes, not Paris, although I had bad customer service experiences in both locations.
_Wintermute 5y ago
My experience from living in Paris is that "non, c'est pas possible" isn't "no, that's against the rules", it's more of a "that sounds like it requires effort on my part, please go away". One of my first experiences when moving there was before I got my travel card and was using the paper tickets, but all the ticket accepting machines on a metro entrance where closed. I asked a staff member what to do, he looked up and down the barriers and just shrugged and said "jump".
- throwaway894345 5y ago
  > My experience from living in Paris is that "non, c'est pas possible" isn't "no, that's against the rules", it's more of a "that sounds like it requires effort on my part, please go away". This captures my experience as well.

pjerem 5y ago

I'm sorry for your experience in France. French people are not really friendly to strangers (not in a racist way, more in a "i don't even know what language this stranger is talking"). I'm 50% sure the locker staff didn't even understand what you wanted from them and just reacted with stress. But Paris have the reputation to be pretty hostile, even to the rest of french population. Our other cities are much more open and friendly. Our countryside is also pretty friendly but don't expect anyone there to understand you but at least they'll friendly try to fake that they can.

throwaway894345 5y ago
> I'm sorry for your experience in France. French people are not really friendly to strangers (not in a racist way, more in a "i don't even know what language this stranger is talking"). I'm 50% sure the locker staff didn't even understand what you wanted from them and just reacted with stress. To be clear, I was speaking French, and by that time my French pronunciation was good enough that everyone could understand me without extra effort (probably no longer true). In my experience, the French were quite warm when they weren't "on the job". For example, my French classmates (even those I didn't know well) were happy to help me navigate campus and answer questions and so on. > But Paris have the reputation to be pretty hostile, even to the rest of french population. Our other cities are much more open and friendly. It could definitely be regional, but most of my experiences were actually in Rennes and Nantes (not Paris)--although on one visit to Nantes, there was a big protest by farmers over the construction of an airport which probably had people a little more aggravated than normal: the farmers were deliberately blocking traffic with their tractors, including dumping large piles of dirt in certain intersections which was an interesting sight to behold until some anarchists came and started setting fires and otherwise behaving dangerously. > Our countryside is also pretty friendly but don't expect anyone there to understand you but at least they'll friendly try to fake that they can. My school was actually in rural Rennes (ENSAI) near the village of Bruz--I only spoke French because I had quite a few experiences where people would be angry or annoyed if I asked if they spoke English. Almost every time I tried to call and order a taxi in English (when I first arrived, before my French was very good), we would make the appointment, but the taxi wouldn't show up (very stressful because I was poor and very worried that I would miss a train or flight because the taxi didn't show up). One of my English classmates suggested I start making the appointments in French, and then the taxi showed up every time! But in general I didn't mind having to speak French--I know if you walked up to an American and started speaking French they would probably be annoyed as well, and generally I feel like if you're living in a country you should make every effort to speak the language (and I wanted to learn the language better anyway--that was one of my goals for studying abroad). Even though I had bad experiences, I still like France and the French, and my wife and I have since gone back and visited Paris once because we now have "fuck you" money (which is to say, we don't have to beg and plead for help, we can afford to miss a flight here and there). We also ate breakfast at a charming little cafe near our AirBnB in the 17th every morning, and contrary to my other anecdotes, the staff were very friendly. :)