Oh how we can change......

I need to try Paris again as well. We went a couple of years ago and I didn't enjoy it. I encountered rude people every day that just made for a bad experience. So far it's my least favorite city (sigh). I am open minded to visit again.

First time to Paris I saw all the 'must see' sights and really enjoyed it, but thought I had no need to return. Then, traveling with other friends, grandkids, a tour group, etc. I ended up returning again and again to Paris and each time I became more enthralled with the city. It was kind of a friendship that ended up turning to love:) Now I also long to visit it again and again....

Great example of how a first rushed trip can spoil your view of a place. We spent a miserable weekend in a crummy hotel in Florence and felt totally hassled the whole time about 35 years ago -- later we spent a couple of months there and it is one of our favorites. Paris really repays time. I am afraid you are hooked for life.

When we can no longer rent an apartment for a month or two we will stop going, but until then we spend a month or two there every year.

I totally agree. I went for the first time in 2011, and while I liked it alright, I didn't fall head over heels in love like I did with Berlin, Budapest or London.

I returned in April, and loved every minute. I made friends the first time I was there and returned to see them, and I really think that helped.

Sorry Photobearsam -- no such cure exists ;-) ... Just revel in the pleasure of loving the city, like so many of us do. ... And start planning your next trip, no matter how far off it may be (airfares have been the lowest I've seen in more than 10 years, so...).
Pilgrim: glad to hear you're keeping an open mind about Paris. My first trip, right after college, solo, I arrived (was a country bumpkin from a farm in Kansas and had never traveled, literally, anywhere) and was promptly scammed/robbed of the price of a carnet of tickets at metro -- I realized it was a valuable lesson, which only cost me $3 or so, to always be alert and pay attention to my surroundings. The next day I ordered a croque Monsieur at a cafe, and the surly waiter slid the plate the length of table, with a charred black sandwich on it. I immediately slid it right back at him, stared him down, and said forcefully "Non!" He quickly returned with a perfectly cooked one. The experience made me proud I could stand up for myself ... And now, more than a dozen trips to Paris on the books, I'm so glad I didn't let those 2 small negative experiences cloud my view of the city, or people. In all my trips there, I've since only been met with friendliness and generosity from Parisians. If you don't know any French, study enough to learn the bare basics, and then use them. I don't think you'd regret another visit.

We started our first trip to Europe in Paris and didn't enjoy ourselves. Jetlagged (from California) and not smart enough to at least look in a guidebook before going into a restaurant led to bad meals and service and a bad over all impression. I knew we didn't give it a fair shot and on our second trip we ended with 5 nights in a Paris apartment and now are dreaming of going back. Just like the OP.

Shelley, we did use the basics - we were actually able to use our high school years of French class. Waiters were still rude. I could go on with the stories. At Notre Dame, I went to open the door to the public bathroom only to realize it was still closed for another 5 minutes. The attendant opened the door and started chasing me with a broom LOL. There are more stories - now we laugh at them - but I still love London and Edinburgh so much more. I'm actually headed to Italy next year and I've been learning Italian an hour per day - definitely trying to do my part on trying to "fit" in. LOL

We've managed to get Paris into 3 of our 5 trips to Europe and I'm trying to figure out how to convince hubby to not return to London next year but to go back to Paris for a few more nights (but he really enjoys London). Some places you just never tire of - Venice is my place. 4 out of 5 trips, and still hoping to go back for a week for Carnivale in a few years.

My husband is like...ugh, but we've already been to these places (especially Venice...lol)! But I find the huge popular cities get even better on return visits after you have already seen the touristy stuff and can just hit the lesser know places or, alternately, just wander and relax and not be in a rush to hit the next sight.

London is getting like that for us - we usually fly in or out of there, so we've been there for at least a few nights all 5 trips and now we return to the same shops (Forbidden Planet for hubby while I go to Hotel Chocolat across the road), stay with the same people (our couchsurfing friends in London we've stayed with all 5 times), take the same tube/bus/train; and the familiarity is nice - you don't feel as much of a tourist. That's why returning to a place over and over (for me) is a joy. A combo of the familiar and the let's see what hidden gem we can find on this trip.

Just to add - I can't think of any rudeness on any of our visits to anywhere in France. None that have stuck with me. There was one kinda less than friendly waiter in the south of France (I don't even think he was the waiter but the proprietor) but he wasn't rude, just...indifferent perhaps. I had a rude tourist get all up in my personal space on the Eiffel Tower (she was actually standing right against my back as we were in the line to leave - after a few minutes of this blatant disregard for my sanity, I stood aside and motioned her ahead of me to which she gave me this...'what did I do?' look. I think she was Middle eastern). But that wasn't the fault of Paris. :)

I recall distinctly that during my first trip to Paris in 1973 as a 23 year old I told the woman behind the post office counter one of the few lines I knew in French, ie, "I don't understand." She threw up her arms and gave me that so called Gallic shrug, which I thought was weird at the time. Of course, I had heard all these myths about French rudeness to Americans, etc. Later on (some years later) French people I met in Calif told me this woman's behaviour was totally justified. Did this one incident (there might have been others, don't remember) deter me from wanting to go back, rudeness or not, ie who cares? Not at all. I knew I would be going back after that first time in Paris, but when? (regarding finances, etc). Fortunately, I was able to go back in 4 years, going solo, and flying Air France the first time.

I miss going to Paris too, one of the top 4 in Europe for me.

For those who have experienced rudeness whilst in France, take heart. The French are very proud of their culture, and particular about their customs. Even their social interactions are different.

The key is to assimilate. The French will treat you like gold when you make an effort to fit in. I have spent over a month in France, and did not once encounter any rudeness. So read up on their customs, ask others, etc to give you insight before travelling. It will make for a better experience.

Photobearsam, how we change and how things change.
In the Fall of 1985 I signed up for a high school whirlwind trip of Europe. We would go to London, Amsterdam, Frankfort, Lucerne, Venice, Rome, Florence, Nice and finally Paris. In 25 days.
Forty four people signed up for the trip. Then came April 1986. Terrorist attacks. Four killed on a Trans World Flight and 3 killed in a disco in Berlin. When we left in June, only 22 people were still willing to go.

For those brave enough to go, it was an unrepeatable experience. At the Tower of London, in late June, there was a five minute wait to get in to see the Crown Jewels. In the Vatican in July, the line to enter started at the top of the Bramante Stair Case.

Our trip ended in Paris. We were tired and homesick. And pretty broke. We didn't go to the top of the Effel Tower because we were pretty saturated with seeing all the sites. And we 18 and could still by beer and wine, and that would end when we went home. Dilemma, go to the top or drink. So it was buy a postcard, and some bottles of wine. About rude experiences, I remember entering the Louvre. I went to pay, and I had a bill and a bunch of change. As I was sorting through my coins, adding up my francs, and I had a lot of them, the lady just reached out and grabbed the bill, gave me the ticket, and an icy stare.

Paris was my least favorite of all the places we visited. It is the only time I've been there, and I understand that my visit was not under optimal circumstances. But to tell the truth, I've never had a desire to go back. There are other places I would rather go to first. Now Rome on the other hand …

One last thing about how we change. In 1986, if you were in, say Paris, and you wanted to call home, you had to have a lot of change or go to the telephone bureau and make the call from there. Before I ended every call home, I would set a day and time with my parents. Two or three days might have passed between calls. If we wanted to know what was happening in the world, or the States we had to buy the International Herald Tribune to see the days old baseball scores. In the hotels there was no CNN or FOX. Two weeks ago I was in Granada, and there was an American tour group of high schoolers. At one point we were all kind of milling around in front of the cathedral, and of course they all had their cell phones, sending whatapps, facebook, etc. I really is a different world.

I have a lot of friends who will never go to Paris because they have heard the French are rude. What a loss for them. They have never been to France and don't even know anyone from France. Their opinion is based on comments made by other people who took tours to France/Paris and were treated rudely. I found that a lot of tours don't prepare the tour members for how cultural differences can shape opinions in a negative way. If the tours would have just invested a little time in explaining how a cultural difference should be embraced instead of looked down on, everyone would benefit. Perhaps there would be fewer ugly American tourists. I have been to Paris on three occasions starting in 1975 and have never been treated rudely.

I have the "Paris Rule" - if you are in Europe you must go to Paris!

Our first time there my husband hated it! Made me promise we'd never have to go there again - ha!

Been 7 or 8 times - going back in 2017! We don't even have to see a major site - our last visit we went to a special exhibit at the Hôtel de Ville of Haute Couture through the years. What a beautiful space and so cool they use it for special exhibits like that.

Alas - there is no cure - thankfully!

I'm with Christi -- if I'm within 1,000 miles of Paris, it's on the agenda.

I never understood the Parisians are rude thing, and I have pretty thin skin when it comes to rudeness. I do understand why someone might not fall in love with Paris right away. They knocked a lot of buildings down around the time of Napoleon and replaced them with neoclassical architecture that can be a bit cold and monotonous in apearance. That said, Paris is probably the greatest art museum city in Europe—this counts a lot for me. The Musee d'Orsay ties for my favorite with the Prado. The first several times I went to Paris, the weather was pretty rainy. On my fourth visit we had five glorious warm sunny days and then I got it. Funny how that works.

We got the Paris bug too, just not quite as bad as the Amsterdam bug so we are returning there first for several weeks this winter. When we were leaving Paris at the end of our RS 21 tour last fall we knew we would go back as one can only see a few tidbits in two days. We saw enough of Paris to know we would like to see more. And as cliche as many view the Rue Cler, we loved it. We sat and ate donuts and people watched for a good hour and enjoyed every second of it. I'm a friendly outgoing person and found the French to be very polite and kind except for one instance when browsing in an expensive candy store. We did a very bad thing and only went in to look, not buy, as the price of candies was more than I was prepared to pay. I think the woman was exasperated that people would waste her time just looking. She didn't speak rudely to us but her face shut down, going from a cool greeting to blank and expressionless, and she wandered away as soon as we made it clear we were only there to marvel.
In another instance as we were walking from d'Orsay to Rodin I kept seeing street signs that were not on my map. I knew we were on the correct road to get there but stopped to double check the map. A woman walked up to us, and helped us find our way, leading us to the end of the street and pointing down to where the Rodin Museum is located. She spoke little English and we spoke no French other than common courtesies but we still managed to communicate. For the fall or winter of 2017 we are contemplating combining a Paris trip with London/GB for 5-6 weeks as we've never been there. One thing I have learned from this forum and my own experience is that staying longer in a town is the best way to travel. Deciding on what towns and then doing all of the research and planning is going to be great fun for that trip and I know I will be coming to the forum for help and advice.

Talking about 30 years ago and making a transatlantic call in 1986: I was in Paris (and Germany) in 1987 and true that was the way it was, likewise in Germany when I called my folks. "They" made the call for you and told to go to certain telephone booth. This was was done at the post office or the train station as was the case in Hamburg. In 1986 the French already had Minitel, which one could use at the post office. I saw that in Metz.

I just made my first trip to Paris in May and already want to return-- it was so spectacular, felt so comfortable, and did not disappoint in any way. Some cities one visit is more than enough (so far that's just been Prague) and others I could see easily returning to annually, like Budapest--went in August 2014 and returned in May, now need to see more of Hungary and of course more time in Budapest.

I have decided to allow myself to go wherever the mood strikes, and even though I have a list of several places I want to visit if the urge to spend more time in Paris or Budapest is strong I will act on it instead of just checking off places everyone tells me I must see.

My first trip overseas was to Israel with an overnight stop in Paris. I had the opportunity at the last minute to spend up to 3 days there, but I was in a hurry to start my Israeli adventure. For years I kicked myself for that decision.

When I had finally had the opportunity to spend 2 weeks there in 1980, I didn't hesitate. I didn't get as much out of it as I'd planned. A friend who lived there was going to show me around, but ended up having to go out of the country for work, so we only had a few days together. I loved it even though I hadn't done any planning and kind of wandered aimlessly for the most part. Hated the Louvre (it was the only place Parisians were rude to me - but they were rude to all the visitors, Germans, French too).

Since then, I've been back 4 or 5 times, the shortest visits were 8-9 days each, the last was 16 days a year and a half ago. If I could go back tomorrow, I'd be packing now!

There's no cure, but take heart, it's chronic, not terminal.

Looks like I'm in good company. Ahhhhhhh can't wait to be there again.