True. Often you hear in Southern France: "PARISIEN, TETE DE CHIEN". translated: "PARISIANS ARE (OR HAVE) DOG HEADS"
In the global era English is what Latin was in the Roman Empire . It's totally OK to address someone in English and expect to be understood. I disagree with your assertion that French is a richer language, every year new words are added to the English dictionnary. French by contrast no longer evolves Intellectuals in France (who gather way too much respect IMO) agressively defend a strict adherence to classic French. Many words that everyone now uses cannot be found in the dictionnary. It's completely ridiculous, French is a "langue morte" such as Latin today . English is immensely richer, I am saying this because I know. French is my mother tongue. Just think about the many different ways you can say " to have sex" in English vs French or just the fields of finance and IT for which the use of the French language feels so inadequate As for people being mean it was not to be taken in the context of attitude vis a vis visitors and tourists, I was talking about the everyday life , dealing with people, the horrible customer service, people insulting you , giving you the bird in traffic, agressive people in discos etc..
This thing becomes outright silly. Talking about musicians, Paganini was not a very great composer by Italian standards. Also in France, composers like Francois Couperin, Rameau and even Debussy leave Paganini far behind.
Also verry silly or in French: inculte. Comparing English to Latin? We'll see that in about 1000 years. In the meantime English is the greatest for people who don't know French; Also, French is the greatest for people who don't know English. PS: In fact in the Roman Empire, the language of prestige used to be Greek!
Bach's art was the unification of German, French and Italian musical art form. His son Wilhelm Friedeman said about him: " His work will not be surpassed till eternity". He probably knew something about this. Mozart is rather decadent as compared to Bach. Wagner, let's leave him out. Want some authority on this: read Glenn Gould's writings about the relative merit of musical art forms.
I can't speak for these languages and cultures although it seems some Germanic languages such as Dutch integrate a lot of English . I think the obsession French people have about protecting their culture and language is really a French peculiarity. When people want to fight for their language and culture it's because they have long been losing ground in other areas. That said in the longer term other languages will progressively become to international English what dialects are to a nation's official language. And that's a good thing the day when everybody drinks Coke and eats burgers( I mean adopt the american-western world culture, I actually hate junk food) there will be less wars, picture a uniform world one language , one culture . It's as close as you can get from a peaceful world . This is what the Romans achieved through war with the Pax Romana, in the coming decades this can be done through trade .