In contrast, British English shouldn't be a foreign language but it's sometimes difficult for me to understand and the habits can be very different. The best example I can think of is the British full breakfast of fried eggs, baked beans (yes, like Van Camp's baked beans that went on the camping trips so often), cold toast and cold butter, bacon (that looks like prosciutto but tastes like a mild ham) and sausages. Tea is the morning beverage: it might be difficult to get coffee at a small business. Let's not skip the hazard of stepping out on the street while looking the wrong direction (definitely a tourist hazard) or the idea of having "tea" at 4 or 5 PM and a snack or full meal later. These aren't differences that will travel home with me because they simply won't happen at home.
For instance: the driving laws and who has the right of way. It looks the same, but some of the rules are different. The good thing is that all of France has consistently the same laws for pedestrians or cars, so it's not a matter of crossing a state line, as in the U.S., and finding out that the legal street speed or parking on the street overnight faces a prompt and expensive ticket or fine. I've read that it is a good idea to get an International driver's license so that if you have to give up your license you will still have your legal U.S. license upon returning home. Food for thought on the next trip.
France also has a different idea of serving food in a restaurant: often tableware and dishes are switched out according to what you have ordered. Eating fish requires a fish knife. Dessert deserves a desert spoon. Beef steak requires a (really sharp and dangerous by U.S. thinking) steak knife. Of course, the glasses are taken away if you aren't going to drink wine or added if you are going to order a different wine with each course. In France, the idea of eating in an uncivilized manner is really repulsive. And, this is in virtually every restaurant not just the high-end ones.
The idea is to eat slowly, with due concentration on the quality of the food, and with company at the table. On this trip I observed that there are more people eating alone in restaurants so custom and perhaps practical needs are relaxing a bit. I still haven't observed anyone in France walking along eating a croissant or drinking a up of coffee. It's not done. They don't need signs at entrances to stores that prohibit bringing in a beverage or food with you. Who would think of it? If you really have to have fast service go to the walk up counter at a Brioche D'Or (they are everywhere and unavoidable), the order counter at McDonalds, or a Starbucks.
Maybe we think of Germans as being the Europeans who are punctual. But, indeed, when it comes to business matters the French rarely "screw up". Taxis are ordered and they arrive on time (what a concept!), when planes arrive late the captain apologizes even it it is only a ten minute delay. I can't remember ever paying for something at a check-out line while the employee carries on a conversation with the one next over. So, sadly for us, the French just overall present themselves in a much more business-like manner.
Time flows differently in restaurants because the expectations are different: they want you to have time to decide what to eat and to ask questions about it, they don't immediately place ice water on the table unless you actually want it... instead they ask what kind of water you might like, the server watches (even if you aren't aware of it) to make sure you have finished one course before they serve the next. The restaurant bill is not presented until the customer is satisfied, lingers as long as "he" wants to possibly over coffee, and most important not until the bill is requested. (On this trip we kept forgetting to bring the subject up with the server because of our unconscious assumption that they would ask us.)
No comments:
Post a Comment