In the midst of a tour of the Latin Quarter, Kelly, a Canadian on vacation in Paris, lists the unpleasant experiences she’s had since arriving in the capital three days ago. The glass of Coca-Cola charged at €7 on the terrace: “At that price, in Canada, I get a whole pack!” The policeman to whom she asked directions in English and who cut her off by shouting “Circulez!” (“keep moving!”). “I was scared. I was stunned!” The cab driver who wouldn’t turn on his meter and charged her €50 for a trip from Pigalle to Concorde. But it was important to put all of this into perspective: “These are 10% bad experiences out of 90% good ones. We had been told that people in Paris didn’t like tourists who didn’t speak French. In fact, we’ve met a lot of very nice people,” said the 50-year-old from Toronto.

Amir Hajianfard, her tour guide, often hears the same thing. The problem most frequently encountered by his customers is that of overcharged cab fares. “I recommend VTCs to them, because the price is fixed in advance, and it’s possible to put in a comment,” said the man who, on this particular day, was organizing a guided tour in the footsteps of the Emily in Paris series for the Fat Tire Tours agency. On the Place de l’Estrapade, where the Netflix series heroine is supposed to live, he recalled the “Emily Not Welcome” graffiti that has appeared on the walls. “These inscriptions have been erased, only to then reappear. It illustrates Paris’ complicated relationship with tourists,” he told his clients for the day, who have come from Denmark, England and Canada.

During the Olympic Games, Paris will be under the world’s spotlight. With 4.5 million French people coming from outside the Île-de-France region, and 1.5 million foreigners expected to visit the capital, how the city welcomes these visitors will be one of the key factors in the event’s success.

Crime, a ‘major scourge’

But when it comes to welcoming tourists, Paris hasn’t always had a good reputation. Uppity waiters or employees with little command of English, complexity in understanding the transport system, restaurants on the outskirts of tourist sites offering expensive but low-quality menus, the list goes on. Not to mention the crime that targets foreign tourists, “a major scourge in Paris,” as revealed by a parliamentary report, published in 2019. Foreign tourists make up 23% of victims of street theft (pickpocketing, simple or violent), according to Police Prefecture figures cited in the document.

However, visitor experience has improved in recent years. “When I arrived in Paris in the early 2000s, tourists were often offended by the very abrupt nature of interactions. But that’s changed, especially since Covid. Retailers have realized that tourists won’t always be there. And with social media, nothing remains a secret: This leads them to be more careful,” said Lindsey Tramuta, an American journalist who lives in the capital.

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