Did you know that French people are extremely elitist? This in spite of their Revolution where they chopped off all those heads and made a bloody mess of Marie Antoinette's party circuit.
There may not be anymore French royalty, at least not out in the open, but this country still has plenty of the upper class bourgeois left with their complicated social codes. These codes tell those in the know who is "in" and who is not.
The "in" being those who are part of a socially elite class who smack very much of Junior League without the do-gooder charity part and who clearly maintain a no new members allowed policy.
I'll give you an idea of a few of the codes:
One NEVER uses the word "ate" (manger) when referring to well, eating. Yes I know, it sounded sort of ludicrous to me too but, it is extremely tacky to say for example, "we ate together at noon".
OOO la la la la.
Eating is for animals.
Instead one must say, "we lunched together...." nous avons dejeune'" Eating together, if you are a human at least, marks you down a bunch of rungs on the class ladder.
And then there is the Bonjour code. One must greet someone with a Bonjour Madame
- never simply Bonjour - that's rude - BUT if one says Bonjour Madame Smith - NOW everyone knows you are a commoner.
One good thing - as a foreigner you are excused for not knowing any better and are pretty much given a free pass.
You'll never really fit in anyway.
Comments