Yeah you're right Tanser, a lot of them do speak English and want to practice at times... but I was shoved in a workplace where none of the people working there could speak any English at all really - apart from one!
And OMG yeah that reminds me!!! Me and my friends asked for directions so many times... and kept being caught up by weird men and weird people and given wrong directions. Took us about an hour walking round in circles until we got to the place we wanted to go to!
Never been to the south of France though.
So I'm guessing it probably is just the people in the North!