Allergic to Walnuts in France?

 8 Responses »
Feb 242010
 

(asked by Diane from the US) I have been reading your blog Ask a Frenchman for a couple of months now and you are wonderful and funny to read. This has definitely been educational. My question is about the post on customer service. I am considering visiting France at some point eventually and I am from the USA. I have a daughter who is deathly allergic to walnuts, and their use seems more common in France. Would there be any [Read the rest]

Can you tell us about French customer service?

 14 Responses »
Aug 202009
 

(asked by Kelly from somewhere) Could you tell us more about the unwritten rules of customer service (or would writing it break the ‘unwritten’ part of the rule?)That would be very helpful for someone planning on visiting/living in France… Don’t worry Kelly, writing down the rules won’t break anything apart from some misconceptions maybe. So what’s going on with customer service in France? Why is it so bad? Or is it that bad?Most Americans (and mostly Americans) will say that [Read the rest]

Who Pays?

 2 Responses »
Jul 292009
 

(asked by Claire from the US) If you’re going out in France with friends or on a date, how do you customarily pay? Does each person pay separately? Does someone pay now and someone the next time? Or is the person who invites that pays? First, let’s distinguish date from out with friends. On a date, back in the days, things were simple: the man paid. There were two main reasons for that: rules of gallantry/sexism (depending your take on [Read the rest]