“Annoying”, stingy… What image do the French really give abroad?

In 2022, the French want to escape more than ever. After two years marked by the pandemic and restrictions, this year the holidays seem unmissable.

Thus, according to an Opinionway survey carried out for the Liligo site, 42% of French people questioned planned to travel in 2022.

For two-thirds of them, France remains a preferred destination. 42% also plan to visit Europe.

Conversely, millions of foreign tourists set foot in France every year. “France is the world’s leading tourist destination in terms of visitors welcomed, with nearly 90 million international tourists in 2019”, specifies the website of the Ministry of the Economy.

What attracts them to our beautiful country? It is first of all the heritage, the landscapes and the gastronomy… The inhabitants, a little less. It must be said that the French drags a bad reputation around the world. Selfish, grumpy, useless at languages… The clichés circulating about our “savoir vivre” leave something to be desired. But what is it really?

In 2018, a Brazilian couple visiting the capital confided to the Parisian: “The only person who came to help us while we were in front of a metro map to find our way was… a Brazilian”.

By interviewing tourists, the daily has established a rating scale: for hospitality, France won a 14.08 out of 20. Could do better. With a nuance, however, specifies the newspaper: “the visitors crossed in province note in a much more favorable way (with an average of 16,6/20) the quality of the reception and the friendliness shown by their hosts than those visiting Paris (14/20)”.

Are the Parisians therefore the real problem?

In the meantime, discover in our slideshow how French tourists are perceived when they in turn travel to a foreign country, with these 6 character traits that locals remember from us, according to a 20 Minutes survey in 2019.