French people: love them or hate them? Sources say, love (mostly).

There is something you all should know. I have an arch-enemy here in France. She's a very small middle-aged who I have seen wear animal prints and florals. Together. In public. On purpose. But this isn't my (only) problem with her. I don't know her name, but I would recognize her piercing voice anywhere. Every time I see her, she smiles, but there is evil in her eyes. She is my neighbor and she NEVER. STOPS. COMPLAINING. The other women on the floor hate her. I personally have been known to cross the street when I see her coming so she can't talk to (complain at) me. When was having my Thanksgiving feast, she banged on the wall to tell us to be quiet. At around 10 pm. She was not trying to sleep. I know this because I had literally just heard her walk in the door. Rude. The next day, she cornered me in the hallway, shook her finger in my face, and yelled at me (in French, so I don't know if I caught all the mean names she was calling me) that I didn't have the right to throw huge loud parties till 1:30 am. For the record, I had 5 people over and everyone left well before midnight. I'm not exactly a difficult person to live next door to. I told Victoria and Najet about it, and they both said everyone in the building knows she's crazy and not to pay attention to her. Victoria laughed at me and told me to try not to get too far on her bad side, though, because she might beat me up. I told Victoria it's fine, I can take her.

In the defense of French people everywhere, though, I have to say that I've encountered a great number of very nice ones. They say that the French are very cold and rude and that their national pastime is complaining, and that can be true to a certain extent. But they can also be unexpectedly and unnecessarily kind and helpful. The other night, it was raining and freezing and I was standing at the bus stop at around 10:30 pm where I had been waiting for forever, and out of nowhere this lovely old French lady stops, pulls out her iphone, looks up the bus schedule on ratp.com, tells me my bus will arrive in 8 minutes, and goes on her way. Love her. And the other day I was talking to a nice old French man about his recent visit to New York, and he spread his arms wide and said "I love your country!" It was so cute. That's not really a sentiment you get a whole lot around here, so I spread my arms wide and said, "I love your country, too!"