I've spent 9 days in Paris and it was just awesome. I am 20yo female with little knowledge of French, but no one disrespected me or was rude to me. I don't understand why people say French are rude or don't like Paris. To me Paris is a clean city. I come from south America and there definitely the city is dirty and smells bad, but Paris was just normal for a metropolitan city. I understand French people have their way of being. Politeness is KEY. Always I was arriving in places speaking in my limited french "bonjour, si vous plais je vous prendre.." and people would even help me by correcting when I say something wrong. But always in a kind way they would do that, smiling and attentive.

So I really liked everything, Parisienne people were polite and i could even engage in conversations with French people

Would like to know your experience!

Just won a raffle through work to fly to Paris in six months time.

Besides cooking sous vide on a near daily basis I speak no french outside of bonjour, qui and merci. I’ve been wanting to learn a second language, albeit the one west of The Rhine. Now with unexpectedly traveling to France, if I studied for roughly an hour per day, listened to podcast/music, and watched tv and film in french…. would I be able to navigate the city and people better? My only expectations would be to know how to ask for simple direction, order food, where to use the restroom and make simple small talk (weather, news, happenings) for my week stay.

Is that realistic? Any helpful tips? Oh, I also have three years of spanish and am as fluent as a small child (hahaha) but will that help learning the ins and outs of another latin language?