Bienvenue à Paris, have a lovely day!

The notoriously rude Parisians should perhaps take a leaf or two out of New York's new, friendly book. The city's mayor has launched a campaign called Just Ask the Locals, whose strategies to improve New York's grumpy image include tips for visitors easily accessible via a phone line, special maps on street corners, videos designed for tourists in taxis, 50 street teams of chirpy "ambassadors" and the support of several high-profile celebrities, including a grinning Robert de Niro and an unusually cheery-looking Julianne Moore.

I can't quite see residents of the French capital taking this idea on board, though the odd improvement in their general attitude towards the rest of the population sometimes wouldn't go amiss. It has even been known for a bizarre psychiatric problem labelled "Paris Syndrome" to develop amonst Japanese tourists, triggered by the shock of an aggressive "bof!", an unprovoked "non!" in a restaurant or even a filthy look and a "merde!" during the push and shove to get on the train before the doors shut at a busy metro station platform. Some travellers are left shellshocked and unable to cope, and require counselling on the flight back to Japan.

It seems that the Parisians are aware, maybe even a teensy bit proud, of their characteristic lack of civility towards others, and perhaps their rudeness contributes a little to the town's haughty charms. Television adverts for the city's local paper, Le Parisien, include a scene of a tourist asking for directions to the Eiffel Tower, the Frenchman pointing him down one street, then the camera zooming out to reveal that the monument is in fact just around the corner, in the opposite direction to where the tourist has just been pointed. The scene is accompanied by the words: Le Parisien, il vaut mieux l'avoir en journal!, meaning The Parisian: better as a newspaper!