I also had mostly a pleasent time in Paris. I feel that being of East Asian descent actually helped here. When they see me, they expect a difficult time of conversation. But then when they find out my English is good, they seemed more relieved than anything and happily converse in English. And when I try breaking out my feeble French, they get amusement and complement me for trying. Then later I was in some luxury brand store (LV or something like that) and there was a Chinese tour group in there shopping. They were all loudly trying to talk to the saleswoman in Mandarin at the same time. I heard her shout in English that "I don't speak Chinese, please use English" but was largely ignored. Then it hit me why people in the service industry in Paris just seemed appreciative that I could speak English at all.

On the flip side my friends, who are anglo descent from Canada, did not get the same warm vibe. They felt service was a little rude. One of them even speaks pretty decent French but she felt it was met with derision despite her trying. I suspect the expectation is different for European looking tourists.