France as a destination was confirmed during my return to home base; from the Ukraine last summer. It was long overdue, regardless.
During the prep. phase no shortage of colleagues and lady friends gave me their views and advise.
These included:
a) It will be VERY expensive.
b) The French are notorious snobs, with attitude.
c) The nightlife sucks.
d) It will be hard to get laid without paying for it (of course).
The more I researched, the more I was convinced that point (d) was not gonna be an issue - regardless of cost.
I set myself a line-in-the-sand; pricewise; and found no shortage of ladies advertising on the web. There were in fact 1,000's.
Two weeks prior to departure I sent out 30 e-mails. 5 bounced. Of the remainder, 14 replied (2 from Lyon, the balance from Paris). That became my short list.
Apartments were booked in both Paris & Nice; hotels in the other two (2) cities. Monaco became a 5th destination by default (my luck!).

Dr. J.