France basically always had very good PR portraying the country as "romantic" and a champion of freedom but reality has almost always been very different.

It was very unfree in the 16th century, what led to the French revolution, which was a nightmare, then military dictatorship. The 20th century was not much better and never forget France collaborated very quickly with the third Reich. Then De Gaulle has some sort of soft military dictatorship with a secret police and a total control of the media.

Today their police is very aggressive, their justice system highly politicized. And as always a dominating bureaucracy.

The state is getting more and more aggressive as drugs and violence are rampant.

It is by far the country in Europe I had the worst interactions with the police.

There are a lot of beautiful things to see there but today I try to avoid it for business and leisure.