What are the behavioural considerations for the tourits going to france?

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Rillifane

Generally speaking the French are more formal than most North Americans.

In everyday speech this means appending "s'il vous plГўit" to any request. It means saying "je voudrais" and not "donnez moi" when ordering from a menu. It means calling the waiter "Monsieur" and not "GarГ§on." It means greeting the staff at a shop with "Bonjour" (madam or monsieur as appropriate).

The French tend to follow the older practice of not calling each other by first names or using the familiar without at least some acquaintance (although this is not so much true of young people).

The easy presumption of friendship or the discussing of personal matters with relative strangers that is common in North America is sometimes seen as boorish or crude by the French.

Americans in particular who will talk about the intimate details of their love lives, the state of their personal finances, and the cost of everything they own with someone they met ten minutes ago are, for that reason, regarded as utterly outrГ©.

C'est Pas Vrai!

I lived there on an assistantship (in Paris) for almost a year, and I've never met nicer people. Anyone who tells you to expect to be treated rudely has never been there (try visiting New York!), and is just playing off of that recently-created negative french image thing that's been propogated by our media. They are very warm, friendly people (true, some of their customs differ from ours....but that doesn't make them rude, you're going into their country, remember...)

In terms of rules...just be polite (which should really go for your everyday, no matter where). Like the guy above said, use "Bonjour", "merci", "s'il vous plait", "pardon", etc...say them with a bit of real mannerly meaning and empathy, and they'll love you. Another thing that's true is that Parisienne folk find the american-speaking-some-french accent very attractive ;)...believe me on that one!

qriste

we don't have special rules ...people can do what they want here, relax foreign tourists, relax, you're welcome here everything is going to be ok.

alexia_elite

Try to speak French if at all possible.
Don't smile at or make sustained eye contact with people you don't know.
Say 'bonjour' and 'merci' when you enter and leave a small store.
And if you take the Paris metro, don't throw your ticket away until you have exited the metro through the gates!

Christy

Yes, learn a few polite words in French and always acknowledge shop and restaurant people in French when you're entering their business. Try to stay out of every-ones way when your traveling on the metro or moving around the metro stations, stay to the right on escalators. When you're walking around on the street, you're going to have to be the one that moves out of the French persons way, otherwise they'll put a shoulder into you like a linebacker. Just be extremely polite and how should I say... submissive! You'll still get some of the famous Parisian attitude, but brush it off and enjoy the city.

Carl W

Be ready to be looked down upon by the city folks, but don't hold it against the country folks who are nice as can be.

Time travler

If you can speak French, that will be a big help. You will be treated rather nice. But if you do not speak it, expect them to be rude to you.

Nia

I'm currently in Cannes, France right now and they are very rude to foreigners americans, english, or etc. I really don't know what you can do to avoid the rudeness, because it seems like they go out of there way to be rude and nasty, I've been to a few places were the customer service was quite good but 95% of the other places were rude and testy.

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