Speaking French... by joits
Reading guidebooks to France, most of them said that you should at least try to speak French to the locals. I took French several years ago, but forgot most of it. I found that as long as you stayed in the popular tourist spots, most of the French people spoke English. So what I did was just say "Bonjour" and then I spoke the rest in English. The guidebooks always said that the French would act rude to you if you only spoke English. Well I didn't reallly experience that. I did try Frernch as much as I could, but when I spoke English... I was still treated pretty well.
But... you should still try to speak French when you can. Its part of the experience.