After three extended trips to France, mainly in the rural south and southwest of France, we are by no means experts on things French. Our most recent three weeks in France, however, have brought back into focus how things are different from North America — at least in this corner of France.
First of all, planning your day means remembering almost every shop, every store, every site will close for lunch for an hour and a half to two hours. Not so much for big stores and big cities, maybe. On this trip in our little town of St. Cyprien in the Dordogne, the boulangerie closes for lunch until 2, the boucherie until 2:30 and the frommagerie until 3.
We were dismayed when we drove for 30 minutes to a wine co-op for some tasting only to discover that it was closing in 6 minutes for a 90 minute lunch break. And we arrived at the car rental return at the Bergerac airport at 12:04 only to find the agent was lunching until 2:00. Everything was locked up. Drop the key in the key box, said the sign. Made us nervous, but we did get the correct billing a few days later by e-mail.
Restaurants serving lunch, of course, usually remain open as the shops close. However, in turn, the restaurants generally close to 1:30pm, or at least that’s about when the chef leaves and the food service stops, although the bar often stays open. Again, maybe not in the heaviest touristed towns, but generally so. On the other hand, dinner service does not even begin before 7:00pm, and if you arrive then, you are likely to dine alone. On the other end, we’ve seen potential diners turned away, or closed signs posted at 9:00pm.
In addition to long lunch hours, the shops, particularly in the smaller towns, shut down the day after the town’s weekly open air market. Sunday afternoon in St. Cyprien (our little town in the Dordogne) after the open air market closes, is a ghost town. And most of the shops remained closed on Mondays, including all the coffee joints and bakeries, much to our dismay!
We did use the weekly closing to our advantage in Perigieux where we toured the medieval town and took pictures without anyone photobombing out shots.
As far as cultural courtesies go, only in the big grocery stores can you get by not saying “Bonjour” as you enter and “au revoir” as you leave. Everywhere else it is just plain courtesy to exchange these pleasantries. If you ask a question of the staff, even in the big stores, begin your question with “Bonjour.” In fact, it is rude not to do so.
On the food front, we are worlds apart. The French eat their main meal at lunch, followed by a light dinner in the evening, although we are told this pattern is fading. Most restaurants serve a “plat de jour” or a fixed price meal with an appetizer “entre” and “plat” main dish and dessert. Often it’s a very good deal. French fries come with lots and lots of meals. The fried potato seems more ubiquitous here than almost anywhere else we’ve been. Unlike in North America, however, French fries are not a finger food in France. They are eaten with a fork and often served with a side of mayonnaise.
Be braced in the large French grocery stores for a vast variety of cuts of meats, and a full array of lamb, pork, veal, beef and chicken as well as offal. The selection puts our largest and best grocery stores to shame. Cuts we have to search for at home, or special order, were almost always available in stores we saw. Probably says something about the centralization and conglomeration of the North American food supply chains and the French preoccupation with fresh and local.
The same is true, not surprisingly, for cheeses. Who knew goat cheese comes in so many shapes, sizes, styles and ages? At home we would think four or six different goat cheeses was a unbelievable selection! Most cheese stores also stock the cow and sheep cheeses from around France.
Proceed with some caution when shopping in a supermarket’s produce department. In some stores the check-out process operates like our neighborhood store at home. In our corner of France, often you must weigh the produce on an electronic scale in the produce department, receive a bar coded sticker with weight and price of whatever you’re buying to stick on the produce bag. If in doubt, we pause and watch what the other shoppers are doing. And most of the time at the check-out counter, you will be left to bag your own groceries. So don’t forget to bring your own bag or be prepared to buy a reusable bag with the store’s logo. Only small specialty shops seem to offer bags for free.
In the farmer’s markets the rules change again. Often, but not always, you are given a plastic bowl by the proprietor and expected to put your selection of fruits and vegetable in it. When you are done with your selection, you and the basket to the proprietor who weighs each item tells you what you owe. Sometimes your produce is placed in a bag, more often locals simply put their vegetables in their basket or bag they brought. And, compared to the farmers’ markets we shop at home, the prices in southwestern France are ridiculously low. But note: prices for some fruit and some other produce is higher in supermarkets than at the open air markets.
Driving in France? Be prepared for an endless sequences of roundabouts, very narrow country roads often with large trucks and farm equipment, tolls on all the major freeways, and fast drivers who think nothing of passing on curves or limited sight stretches. Oh, and your speeds are monitored electronically, which can often be a shock when you get home and see the pile of speeding tickets in the mail.
It’s the little things that can trip you up. There’s no way we can ever pass for French. And we are sure we’re unaware of some cultural toes we have stepped on. Our goal is to fit in as best we can, and avoid as many faux pas as possible and, ultimately embrace the differences!
Chasing the Good Life 