This was around the Bastille, so maybe hipster culture?
Overall, a decent attempt, but the salsa was a miss (no cilantro? and not sure what they did to the tomatoes) and the seasonings were still very French.
The irony is afaict, France has all of the ingredients needed. In typically amazingly-fresh-and-delicious French fashion.
But hey, it was still a better take than the Italian Tex-Mex I had in New England -- cinnamon on tortilla chips?!
But that same light-skinned frenchman would turn up his gallic nose an authentic arabic shwarma, even stumbling from from le bar at 2am. That the only difference between a good shwarma and a good French taco is /maybe/ the choice of cheese makes no difference...
(Source: live in Toulouse, have snarky Lebanese friends)
It's kind of funny though, french tacos really took over France in the last decade, I guess because of fast food chain like o'taco. When I left France in 2015 it was unheard of where I was living, now it's everywhere.
The rest of the world? Yea you're screwed. I found one place in Berlin that did legit Mexican because it was run by Mexicans (Santa Maria in Kruezeberg) but that's literally the only decent Mexican I've found in the 50+ countries I've visited and trust me, I've looked in all of them.
Good news is you can find the ingredients for good Mexican in pretty much all of them and do it yourself. The hardest to source is proper jalapeños or any dried peppers, but there's usually a speciality shop somewhere that will be able to give you most of what you need. Cilantro can also be a bit of a pain, but it's way easier than it used to be even 10 years ago.
We actually cook a few dishes fairly regularly (the pork tinga recipe from America's Test Kitchen is actually amazing, if you're looking for something, and dead simple to boot), but there's something comforting knowing it's easy to get some of your favorite food done well on demand on short notice for those days you really aren't feeling like dealing with making dinner.
(Looking at you, Connecticut)
BTW I've tried French Tacos and I LOVE IT! I think it could be a huge success in the US, if tweaked for our meat and cheese tastes, like with brisket and cheddar.
They have a kind of connection beyond the name, even though neither is a linear descendant of the other. Tex-Mex tacos are a descendant of traditional central Mexican tacos, as also are tacos al pastor; but tacos al pastor are also descendants of schwarma, which French tacos derive from. So they're like cousins by marriage.
An apology for coming off so critical but the pretense that food is just as good in the US rarely pans out without breaking out the $$$. Mind you, there are good places, and good food but its the exception and here we are only talking generalities. Just like having good table service.
Unfortunately it is a cultural thing; the food culture that produced, accepts and consumes "I Can't Believe Its Not Butter" cannot have non-"I Can't Believe Its Not Tacos" tacos.
It's bad Tex-Mex, but at least it's recognizable.
There are cooks/chefs from one culture/place in the world living in other spots.
You talk about the possibility, that it could exist in Texas, and I'm telling you no, in my experience, not in Texas.
The trick to Paris, I’ve found, is to start with broken French and then suddenly everyone speaks fluent English. But if you start with English you’re screwed.
Even saying “Bonjour” with a decent accent (you can learn it like a song almost) will make them significantly nicer to you.
But yeah don’t expect a big city person to actually verbalize anything if they bump into you in a crowded place. That’s just expected and normal. Not worth aknowledging.
The kids and I joked about how pleasantly lyrical all French greetings are. You have to try to make "Bonjour" not sound nice.
I'm not saying that "all of Europe" is like that, but definitely the major cities of many Western European countries.
That said, we have SV / Seattle, so I guess we have our own hipster sociopaths in the USA.
My wife and I had the exact same experience. We had been to Paris in the late 90s and when we were there a couple of years ago, we found people to be much nicer than they had been previously. Our theory is that it is / was a generational thing.
Now, it seems like American, Japanese, et al. cultures have penetrated a bit, and there's more awareness that there are other-than-French ways of doing things.
Which they'll still do it the French way, because god bless them they defend the hell out their culture, but at least they're more aware of alternatives.
Personally I found Paris extremely underwhelming - it felt just like New York but slightly more French. I had a much better experience visiting small towns in the south of France. But to be fair to France, I don't think this is an issue unique to their country - it's an issue with tourism to cities. As a tourist I've come to realize that most cities are largely the same across every meaningful dimension. The best travel experiences come from smaller towns and generally anywhere "off the beaten path." As they would say in Thailand, every city is "same same but different."
They all have their unique story to them. Even cities as close as say Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Antwerp are totally different.
Firstly, much cleaner. Just in terms of trash/litter on your average street.
Secondly, the integration of metro into the regional train network. Amtrak tries, but it's a sad cousin to European rail systems.
Thirdly, weekend markets and general ingredient quality. Paris feels like it cares about ingredients a lot more than the US. Even canned meals from Franprix were pretty good. And don't get me started on the ridiculousness that is Picard.
Small French towns will always have a dear place in my heart though. If I had my choice, I'd still pick them every time over Paris.
But they were also exceedingly polite, especially when in close physical proximity and with verbal volume.
I can absolutely see standard French expectations rubbing them wrong.
Which I guess is the point of the article -- no story you read about the wonders of Paris talks about the little nuances of being there. So people are informed about history/art, but little of the day-to-day.
Most people in Japan get very little Paid time off compared to the rest of the world. And the work culture is so toxic that people get shamed for actually taking their time off. Now, taking that into account, can you imagine that a Japanese person, actually fighting against that, and doing that big trip to a foreign city on the other side of the world, at great expense. They chose Paris for it's reputation. Now imagine their disappointment when Paris is significantly worse than Tokyo.[0] After all the money, time, and precious time off spent to get there, I too would have a mental breakdown under those conditions.
[0] Can confirm. I have been to both. Paris is nice as long as you don't look at the floor. (It is the only major city I've been to that had human shit on the side-walk in the middle of a major tourist area) Tokyo is better in all regards. It's cheaper, cleaner, has more things to do, is better run, etc.
Having visited Tokyo (which I assume is the most Paris-like Japan gets?) and Paris (just got back from most recent trip), this rings true.
Average "mild annoyance" from a Parisian would equal "severe disrespect" from a Tokyo resident.
Plus add in the French propensity not to apologize for normal, everyday oops-type things, and I imagine it'd be very jarring.
That said, on my most recent trip to Paris, I actually found Parisians a lot nicer than the last time I was there (~1995ish?).
There's a lot of Gallic-isms, but even as an American with extremely bad and limited French, most people were very nice.
PS: Not sure why tacos are the new craze in Paris, but y'all should really import some Tejanos to get the full experience. Feta never belongs on a taco that's not shrimp.