As far as the reputation of them being rude I've heard it is more of a Paris thing (which I guess would translate to a New York thing) and not so much outside of Paris. I've not been there in many years but I had a very nice time, even in Paris, and I would love to go back.

I'm not from the US so depending on the relations at the time it might be a different experience. I assume when they were trashed in US media for not joining the Iraq war I there were at least some resentment against US tourists.