I’m going to disagree about Paris. Yes, the locals can be a bit surly. I myself did not find them to be excessively so. Let it be said that if these “reviews” were written by people thinking that an entire city should be sort of waiting around for their entitled selves to be shown around in pampered kind of way, disappointment is likely to result.
I visited Paris twice in 2005 for a grand total of about 4 hours each. I was working on a cruise ship which docked at Le Havre, from where we had to take a 2 hour (each way) fast train ride to Paris. You miss the return train, end of story. So one time I joined with 4-5 much younger folks who had mapped out a blitzkrieg high-velocity precision walking tour of the Tower, l’Arc de Triomphe, buzz by the Louvre, and some Seine walking. The other time I just hung out, wandered around in a small circle near La Gare (train sta) and looked at old buildings, wandered into a perfume museum, and sat down for a coffee.
Because of my absolute time limitation, not to mention poor funding relative to how freaking expensive things are in Europe, I nevertheless had a great time wandering around looking at old buildings and shops and sensibilities.
I also got a haircut there (much cheaper than on the boat, even w/my discount) and had a great conversation with the barber who cut my hair about GWBush and the state of things in the world at that time. I was initially a tad concerned about expressing a generally pro-American viewpoint with someone who held a blade near my corotid artery, but found the man to be a nice guy and rather pro-US.
It’s a city. Get over it. People are there to earn their livings, and some of those livings derive from outrageously wealthy people who think nothing of spending $300 on lunch. If that ain’t you, you won’t feel comfortable. It reminded me a lot of NYC. Stuff to look at everywhere you look, new, 100 years old, 200, 300, 400, 500 years old, juxtaposed together. You don’t go there expecting a nature preserve.
Milwaukee, on the other hand . . .
All those paintings where the shutters look like they're going to flow down the side of the buildings. There are some neighborhoods where that's more realism than impressionism. Stayed in Montmartre in the middle 90's. Very cool place. I saw a damn beautiful city. I live in a city. I'm used to ignorant Aholes. Am one myself when I need to be.