Uber being available in Paris was one of the greatest thing to happen for tourists and residents alike. I agree with the general sentiment, Taxis in France are some of the worst taxis I've used. I've had a lot of bad experiences. And lest you think it's due to racism or because they thought I was a tourist (not that this would excuse their behaviour one iota), I'm French and I was born in Paris. I can understand the…
It's weird that racism seems to be a common theme\complaint about taxi drivers in many countries. The stereotype of the racist cab driver - usually a loud guy oversharing some opinions about black\indian\romanian immigrants - is pretty ingrained in the UK psyche, and many people I know have had to endure awkward and cringeworthy conversations in black cabs.
So even if there's 20-25% of people voting FN (the racist party) in France, the percentage of people with a relatively lower level of education is much higher.
And the other aspect of this is that people tend to not often talk with people of lower socio-economic level so talking to Taxi driver is one of the few occasions where people end up talking with people with drastically different level. (The same effect also happens in Hair Salons).