While dawdling in the St. Germain bookstore La Hune (next door to Cafe Flore) until it was time to keep an appointment, I happened upon the above-titled book which began with a blog, Stuff Parisians Love. Turns out they love New York-- images of which they get from the movies You've Got Mail and Sex and the City -- and speaking Englsh. This is a great consolation! Now I know that when a French person switches to English with me, it's because they want practice speaking English, not because my French is lousy (although it may well be!).
A bientot!
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French people switching to English while you're speaking French to them will never stop. I've learned this over the years and thus have decided:
1)never to be surprised when it happens, and
2)not to worry about the state of my French when it does--just keep speaking French and learning.
On my first trip to Paris at age eighteen (I'll only say that was long ago), I thought this was snobbery. Later, after many, many trips to France and having a few good French friends here in the States, I realized that often it's just that le français/la française wants to make you comfortable in their land by speaking your language. (Also, as you have pointed out, just as we want to learn their language, they want to learn ours.)
I remember a conversation with a taxi driver in Paris some years ago. As he drove me from the Gare du Nord to our hotel at La Défense, I spoke French to him the entire ride and he spoke back to me in English. I did NOT switch back to English when I spoke with him.
We had a fun ride, with him practicing his English and me practicing my French.
After we arrived at the hotel, he unloaded our luggage from the trunk and took it into the lobby. Before he left to go on his way, the taxi driver kissed my hand.
Not only will I never forget him, he also taught me something--don't worry about what the French think of you or how you might be lacerating the language they're so proud of. Just enjoy them!
(Just a little story to illustrate the point of your post.)
Un bisou
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