I frequently hear this stereotype from people who haven’t been to France. I specifically hear that the French are rude to anyone who doesn’t speak French. My experience was that they can be rude to Americans who assume everyone will speak English. I would do my best to have a conversation in French, and the locals would usually take pity on me and switch to English.

I’m not denying there are unfriendly French people, but I would expect anyone to get tired of tourists who don’t make any effort to speak the local language.