It didn’t seem like stress, it seemed like they genuinely enjoyed being superior entitled assholes.
And as an American, I thought I had a high threshold for that.
The rest of Europe was incredible, the Nordic countries are my vision of heaven on earth. Mostly moved to Sweden, yesterday basically cut my last ties.
It’s also cultural, when you go to a café or a shop or a restaurant in Paris, you go to someone elses place (theory is that as it’s so small in overcrowded Paris, it was actually someones home too and history made the rest), you are not some golden client and instead you are on their turf, so they can ask you to move, not serve you etc.
Maybe that’s why some people think the french are rude.