Illusion of Terra

Cannot really help you out there, but many countries should have a place that can give you recommendations.

Only thing that I can say for sure is that you should be able to least say the following in French:

1. Hello and/or goodbye.

2. Ask the people if they can speak your language (in the case you do not know the country’s language).

3. You are having troubles understanding.

As long as you know those, at the minimum, you should be fine and can even ask the populist, and they are more likely to help you.

Also, according some family that went to France, though mostly Paris area, people there do not particularly enjoy it if you do not try speaking French, hence the reason why the three phrases or so about become very important.

I can somewhat understand French if it is written, because the words a similar to other European languages. But, they just say it a lot differently from the way it's written which makes it sound like a totally different word. I'll try and memorize a few basic sentences. The hotel is not the problem because they almost certainly will speak English.
But when I go somewhere I really like to go outside just the typical tourists spot and see what the average life is, so a few sentences in order to communicate with the locals seem like a great idea.
For everything else I have my hands and feet to use for getting my point across 

Good luck. It really is great when you can see more than just average tourist spots, only drawback is there may be less English speakers in those types of places, depends largely on education level I guess though. I’ve heard English language is a pretty popular one to learn in school

I would say one thing I regret not doing while I was there was having a guide. Even if it’s just a simple tour guide, you’ll get much more than you could by yourself without knowledge of the area. You may end up missing out. Also, go out and enjoy the nightlife. I’m not a partner, but I regret not doing that too. If there’s a popular event going on, try and go, -and experience new things.