Reputationally, a visit to Paris is rife with rudeness: the maitre d’hotel looking askance at you over the rooftops of his European-sourced eyeglasses, the apron-bedecked waiter ignoring your pleas for service, the elderly, compression-stockinged resident, baguette clenched firmly in hand, contemptuously turning her back as you ask for directions. The reputation is inaccurate. Paris is…
