How to use English when you go to Paris (France) and meet a lot of French people do not like to speak English?

It's good to learn some basic French words and phrases. They will be more willing to speak some English if you at least try to speak some French first. Read straight from a phrase book if need be.

Yes that really is strange. Paris just happens to be the capital of a country named France and the language of that country is called French. Then I do have to wonder why they do not like to speak English. It might not be too much trouble to learn a least the most basic words in the French language. This will be greatly appreciated and also remember to always start any visit or conversation with a simple Bonjour Madame ; Bonjour Monsieur or buy an excellent guide book. There are many.

To be honest, france is not the place to meet local people speaking english. Why?? Because from longtime, the english courses we did learn at school was not enough to speak fluently and if we didn't travel out of France in a country that doesn't use french language, it was hard to improve our level.. From now, much more French people use to travel and the level is maybe better, but anyway, in france, don't worry, those you like to make business with tourists does speak english. May i mention that most of the people that speak english in tourist areas are from other countries(east europe, srilanka,mahreb..They are much more clever for business. Sometime i do believe tha(we)t french people think that our language is number one and everyone have to learn french language!!! If you look north europe countries, also swiss, germans, from longtime they use to watch movies in v.o so they learn english from long time. In france, the sattelit channels is not so old and before, we had french chanel only, so, difficult to train our brain to learn english.. I love to travel and also to learn to speak the local language i visit, it's the best way to open people's heart..

You will be ok because Paris is very much a tourist place and people there are well used to speaking English. That said, it always helps if you can be seen to be making an effort, so learn some basic tourist phrases and try to use them. Often, they will then revert to English at the first hint of a misunderstanding.

If you go as a tourist you don't have to worry, all the tourist staff do speak English. Some of them don't speak very well but you have to be patient and they will help you. As said by others, if you use a few French polite words like 'bonjour' before you speak it will make things easier. By the way, a lot of the people you will meet in the streets will be tourists, not Parisians. Parisians avoid the tourist areas as a rule. If you go to live there you will realise that many people don't speak English, or speak it too badly to want to use it. Then you will have to learn a few words in French.