About 90 million visitors discover France every year and, very often, they are quite perplexed by the behavior of its inhabitants. Relationship to food, specificities of the language, confusing behaviors... Back on some specificities so French.
About 90 million visitors discover France every year and, very often, they are quite perplexed by the behavior of its inhabitants. Relationship to food, specificities of the language, confusing behaviors... Back on some specificities so French.
If in most countries kissing on the cheek is an intimate matter, in France it is customary to kiss anyone you interact with. Even if we have just met them, we are not satisfied with a simple hello, a discreet wave or a hug, but we prefer an embrace (especially when there are women) or, at the very least, a handshake (more between men).
This is probably a legacy of the Mediterranean culture, which is generally quite tactile, as our Italian neighbors can confirm.
This physical closeness is nevertheless quite confusing, especially since, depending on the region, the number of kisses varies.
From 1 to 4, starting with the left or right cheek, only to say hello or also to greet each other when leaving... it is really confusing for foreigners but, let them reassure themselves, the French are often also lost in front of all these variations.
Strongly associated with the French, grumbling (a lot?) tends to make them unsympathetic, whereas - it's proven - expressing discontent is good for your health. Constantly showing self-control increases the heart rate, while venting frustration by talking increases life expectancy. Besides, the French have, with the Italians and the Spanish - other peoples with strong character and hot blood - the best life expectancy in Europe (plus 2 years compared to the British). Not such a bad thing after all, is it?
Direct consequence of this propensity not to be satisfied with the minimum? After words, it is often by taking to the streets that the French express their discontent. As a direct legacy of decades of struggle, whether for greater social justice or better working conditions, going on strike gives the French a reputation for rebellion throughout the world, but it pays off.
Indee, isn't France considered one of the best countries in the world in which to live, thanks in particular to its generous paid vacations and its protective health care system? And yes, as we say here, you don't get something for nothing.
The French have such a gourmet way of evoking good food that it allows them to make a feast of words between meals.
Breakfast, lunch, snack, aperitif, dinner, digestif... In France, each day is punctuated by the pleasure of eating. Unlike many countries, here it is out of the question to just eat a sandwich while working at lunch or to skip breakfast. A meal worthy of the name is composed of a starter, a main course and a dessert in order to not only enjoy the great richness of French cuisine but, this is also very typical, to have time to discuss... food! Counterproductive you think? No: despite all this time spent at the table, the French have one of the best productivity rates in the world.
An efficiency perhaps due to the virtues of 2 products that are particularly popular here? Cheese, which is appreciated at the end of each meal (how else can we pay tribute to the more than 2,000 recipes available and justify having a dedicated drawer for this dairy product in every French fridge?) and wine, which, thanks to a rich and varied offer, is subtly declined according to the dishes.
And of course, a good French meal cannot be made without good bread, if it has not been devoured beforehand when leaving the bakery, especially the crust of the baguette, which is objectively difficult to resist. Another special feature: it's common to ask your favorite baker for a particular type of baking, with tastes ranging from well-baked to simply golden.
Speaking of bakeries, for breakfast it is customary to treat oneself to sweet and not salty products. At the same time, how can you resist croissants, pains au chocolat or apple turnovers whose perfume goes perfectly with orange juice and coffee to start the day gently?
Moreover, another French particularity, coffee is drunk in a bowl!
And yes, the mug surely does not provide enough quantity of the precious invigorating beverage and the cups are, mostly, used for tea.
Did you know that France has the largest number of traffic circles in the world? There are no less than 30,000 of them, a real specialty that often surprises foreigners traveling on our roads and whose absence elsewhere disturbs the French even more: how to change direction easily or invite, while admiring a median often beautifully decorated, to reduce speed before entering a city*? Are you sure that there are not enough traffic circles elsewhere?
Once you arrive in one of France's 35,000 cities, another thing often surprises visitors: the hyper-segmentation of our businesses and the fact that, in the world's leading tourist destination, they are often closed on Sundays and for a month in midsummer.
* When you consider that, quite often, the French don't wait for the green signal to cross the road, perhaps this explains why?
Butcher's, baker's, fishmonger's, cheese shop, wine merchant, greengrocer's...: where the global trend is to sell a group of products in the same place, in France we appreciate having merchants who specialize in the marketing of a single type of good, especially if it is food related. On the other hand, it is better to anticipate shopping during the summer season because, very often, these ambassadors of French gastronomy are also on vacation...
The language of Molière, as colorful as it is complex, has many expressions or proverbs that are difficult to understand by non-French speakers. Examples: La cerise sur le gâteau (the cherry on the cake), Avoir du pain sur la planche (having work to do), Pleurer comme une madeleine (crying like a madeleine), Tomber dans les pommes (falling in the apples), Raconter des salades (talking about salads)... You will notice that very often these sentences have a link with food, which is not very surprising in the country of gastronomy, but inevitably a bit confusing for foreigners who do not have the keys to understand them.
Another subject that particularly perplexes visitors is the use of "vouvoiement". As if giving a gender to objects or animals wasn't complicated enough, the French language also has this specificity that is difficult to understand by someone who hasn't lived all his life in France.
How can you tell when "tu" or "vous" is the most appropriate when there are no real rules? Professional or friendly context, difference in social status, age of the persons... in fact, the use of "vous" is applied, or not, according to a wide variety of situations and, above all, according to the personality of each person.
Subtle therefore but, in return, it offers privileged moments as for example when two people, after using vouvoiement for a long time, switch to tutoiement. A pledge of closeness and proximity that gives all its charm to this strange custom.
Another sign of good French integration is the adoption of the various onomatopoeia that often punctuate - orally only - exchanges: blablabla, hop, aïe, bof, boum, chut, ... Quite frequent, too, is the use of "words" to support an impression (ouf, oh là là, pff...) or the terms "du coup" (as a result) which, in recent years, have become a widespread language tick.
In conclusion, even if these different traditions can be confusing, they are part of the famous "French way of life" that attracts the whole world to our beautiful country. Not sure that this will encourage the French to change, especially since they are - yes it may seem paradoxical - often resistant to change 😊.
Valerie from Comme des Français
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