I spent some time in the rural portion of the Loire Valley in the late 80's. My friends and I walked in to the only bar in Cheffes (I think--wiki has its population at 879, and that's probably 200 more than when I was there), and when the locals found out we were American, they wouldn't let us buy any drinks.
So we took the money that we would have spent on alcohol, and spent it on flowers for the bar.
While the unfriendliness of Germans and Italians was expected, it was surprising to me that he found people in the Low Countries to be quite cold, and the English to be positively hostile.