I had a similar experience. I wanted to go to their Horse Races, and found a guy looking over their racing paper in a park so I asked him how to get to the track. He knew enough English to tell me to, "Get lost." The French are SO classy. But still there is something classy about the city, the food and the wine. (The croissants aren't bad either.) I guess it's some sort of "Je ne sais quoi."
ML/NJ
Speaking of horse races, how about that little $9,500 horse trailered behind a pickup from NM?