Wow I can’t believe the French would not help someone get up if they fell on the sidewalk.
They don’t have the public friendliness and “we’re all in the same boat” mentality that Americans have. They keep to themselves more.
And some Parisians (in the days before gps on your phone) actually found it enjoyable to give foreign people wrong directions with a straight face, then laughing hysterically after.
New Yorkers don’t give wrong directions purposely but they do it unintentionally all the time.
Just the other day I noticed two guys looking around mystified and it turned out they were looking for the Dublin House, which is on 79th Street, and they were on 96th. Someone no doubt confidently gave them the wrong information. Check smartphone. Back on the subway.
When I first got to NY I was trying to get to Brooklyn and somebody said take any of the West Side trains going downtown. Except the local, of course, but they didn’t say that. When the train started going back uptown, I figured I had done something wrong.