I notice among people I talk to more enthusiasm toward learning French than Spanish. This confuses me; my feeling is that Spanish unlocks far more countries and speakers than French does and so is a more natural first choice.

What do people think motivates this choice?

My guess would be French has that more exotic/sexy/sophisticated kind of feel to it so people perhaps would like to learn it more (assuming they just want to learn a new language for fun, not with a work opportunities kind of goal in mind)