Mixed bag which depends mostly on how well you massage their National Treasure: their language. I speak semi-conversational French (I surprise myself once in a while how the language still rolls off my tongue. I recently was asked to interpret for a French art instructor at the local college, as he was extremely insecure about his English. Actually, he was better than he thought, but a Frenchman's sensitivity to language borders religiosity. The benefits of doing this were the nude models. Let's seeee...RIA, or nude models? RIA or nude models...)

I did well in the South of France...in Nice  and Cannes, where people are pretty much laid-back, multi-lingual and couldn't give a shit. In the French Alps, my experience was  that the only thing that the locals cared about was how long les touristes were gonna hang and how quickly they could 'buy-and-leave'. In the cities it seemed that a good effort was always appreciated. Nice people are everywhere and how friendly they are mostly depends on how you approach them.