How true are these French stereotypes ?

A light-hearted look at some of the common stereotypes about the French – from fashion to rudeness and smoking like chimneys. From the famed French culinary prowess to reputation for romance. A land where people apparently say ‘Oh là là’ every five minutes and eat frogs’ legs at a drop of a hat (or beret). Let’s separate the fact from the fiction, confirm or debunk those French stereotypes, and have some fun along the way…

Berets, baguettes and beyond!

If pop culture – and Emily in Paris – are anything to go by, every French person owns a striped shirt, a beret, and walks around with a baguette under their arm. Last time I was in Paris, I must’ve missed the mandatory beret shop! But seriously, while berets are a traditional French accessory, they’re not a daily fashion staple for most French folks. Some people do wear them, you do see old timers wearing them at the bar sipping a pastis (another stereotype but it is true!), especially in the south. And in the Basque country, berets are quite traditional still. But no, it’s not something you see every day in most of France so that’s false.

And the baguette? Well, that part’s true I think – the French do love their bread! And quite right – French bread is the best in the world. And a baguette does fit nicely under the arm. I’m going to say this is true.

The French learn to love baguettes from a young age. Parents give the crunchy end to teething babies, baguettes are eaten at breakfast, lunch and dinner. And a good baker to be an artist.

The striped T-shirt that’s so French

The stripy t-shirt that is considered an icon of the French wardrobe is called a marinière in France, and was traditionally worn by sailors. Coco Chanel made it a French couture item when she introduced it into her collection in 1917 – and it’s a been a firm favourite ever since! Pretty much everyone seems to have one here in France. You can the wear the striped top with jeans, tailored trousers, accessorise with a scarf – simple but sophisticated.

The French are rude

I don’t even know why people think this, perhaps partly from the idea that waiters in Paris can be a bit surly at times. But, that’s Paris – that’s not France. Paris is like a different country even to the French! I think that partly this myth comes from a slew of new stories and popular culture – like the 1985 film European Vacation, about an American family who visit Europe for their holiday and in France they come across a Parisian waiter who insults them and offers them dishwater to drink!

Meanwhile a French waiter in Canada was from a restaurant because his bosses said he was aggressive and argumentative and a bit of a bully to his colleagues. But he said that he was not at all rude, he was only guilty of being French! He appealed against being fired because he said that being French, he was more direct and honest than his colleagues and they mistook this for rudeness! Apparently, his bosses said he was a very good employee, professional, great with customers but brusque with colleagues. The appeal committee granted him the chance to present his case against being fired and provide evidence about what exactly the stereotype is with respect to people from France. I don’t know what the outcome was. But clearly a lot of people believe that French people are rude!

Of course, I can’t speak for every French person, there are after all some 67 million people in France and logically there must be some really really rude ones in amongst that lot. But after 20 years of having a home here, I haven’t seen a shred of evidence to support the common belief of many that the French are generally rude and arrogant.

In fact, if anything, they are the politest race I know, and I’ve been to more than 15 countries! Everyone says bonjour when they enter a shop, and I think that’s so polite and respectful, when I go back to the London to visit my family, I always say hello when I walk into shops – some people do say hello back, but mostly they just look at me because it’s not that normal in London.

But there are some cultural differences that may seem a little off to other nationalities. For instance, while Brits are taught from a young age that it’s important to be polite and smile at strangers, this is not so important in France. The French smile pretty much only when they really mean it. So, if you come across a French person, you don’t know and wonder why they don’t smile back at you, don’t think they are being rude – it’s just their way! There’s a scene in Emily in Paris where her boss, the fabulous Sylvie, says to Emily “Stop smiling. People will think you’re stupid.”

In fact, if you smile too much at strangers, they may think you’re odd though not necessarily stupid. And you shouldn’t smile too much in meetings, or job interviews either – they might think you are trying too hard or trying to hide something, and they get a bit suspicious! It’s not that the French don’t smile though, they just think there needs to be a reason to smile!

The French may not seem as outgoing as some other nationalities, but this is more about cultural differences. The French value privacy and politeness in public interactions, so they might come off as cold compared to more overtly friendly cultures. But if you try to speak a bit of French and get to know the customs you know like saying bonjour madame or bonjour monsieur when you enter a shop, you’ll find warmth and friendliness are reciprocated. I also think that so many people go to Paris – but not to the rest of France, so they base their findings on Paris, which is not France.

Dubbing the French rude as a race is totally false. Vive la difference.

Do the French really say Oh La La every 5 minutes?

Oh la la. Do the French say this every 5 minutes? Well maybe not that much but in my experience they do say it quite a bit, but not quite in the way that some imagine them too. The syllables are not long and drawn out, and the tone is not over the top as we might think. While the stereotype has it that the French say ooh-la-la when faced with some kind of naughtiness or nudity for instance, in fact it’s more likely to be used to express surprise – anything from admiration to dismay.And it’s not just oh la la either. The more dismay the more ‘la la’s’! I’ve heard many a time ‘Oh la la la la la la.’

But do French people say it every other sentence? Non! It’s more of a versatile exclamation rather than a conversational crutch – but yes, it’s popular.

French people are all great cooks!

According to statistics by a French cookery site – 78% of the French cook every day! French people love to cook, to talk about what they’re going to eat, to plan what they are going to cook, to share with everyone where they buy great ingredients, the best markets, share recipes and a meal together. The French generally have a deep appreciation for good food and the tradition of sharing meals, which, let’s be honest, is pretty fantastic.

France is the nation that invented the restaurant, haute cuisine and Cordon Bleu, the picque-nique (read about it in issue 38 of our free magazine), baguettes and crème brulée. The French certainly live to eat, not eat to live.

In France, great chefs achieve legendary status like Hollywood film superstars. And it doesn’t matter if you’re not a great chef with a Michelin star, all chefs of whatever level take the profession seriously and though the divide between haute cuisine and home cooking is wide, but there is a shared quest for perfectionism.

The great American cook Julia Child once said ‘In France, cooking is a serious art form and a national sport.’ She wasn’t wrong.

Frenchmen ride bikes with strings of onions round their necks

Right I think I’m just going to get this one over with. When I was a kid, my nan, my grandma, told me that all Frenchmen ride bikes with strings of onions round their necks! My nan was pretty old and I was just a little kid when she told me this, but it came from the fact that in the UK, it actually was a thing! Onion Johnny was what British people called French onion sellers who used to come over from Brittany and cycle round the streets of Britain, strings of onions tied to their bikes, knocking at doors and selling their onions!

They wore their berets at a jaunty angle, Gaulloise cigarettes hanging from their lips, bicycles smothered in plaited strings of onions – each of which weighed between one and two kilogrammes. French onion sellers were once a familiar sight on the streets of Britain, plying their trade from door to door, from the Channel ports to as far north as the Orkneys and Shetlands.

Born during the first half of the 19th Century, at its peak, the trade involved some 2000 so-called Onion Johnnies – all of whom came from one tiny area around the Breton port of Roscoff. There’s even a museum dedicated to them in Roscoff.

So – not a true stereotype, but it does have some foundation in truth. A bit.

French people smoke all the time

It’s not true. Statistics are that around 25% of French adults smoke regularly. 15% more than Americans, 12 % more than Britain. So, it’s high that number, but smoking in France is on the decline. So, it’s false, French people don’t smoke all the time!

All French men are romantic

Is it true that all French men are romantic? I had to research this topic for my book How to be French. Being a married woman, I wasn’t able to personally experience the reputation French men have for being romantic and masters of seduction. This is what I found. Ask any French man and they will say yes. I asked some of my French girlfriends what they think of this belief. And they laughed!

It’s the accent! And also the language. I say – I love you – the French say: je t’aime. The stereotype that French is the language of love might be subjective, but it’s hard to deny the romantic allure of a sunset by the Seine or a stroll through the lavender fields of Provence.

My conclusion was that it’s no different in France than anywhere else in terms of romance. But I do think that French men are generally flirtatious, and the language is really romantic. I remember meeting a French journalist and he emailed me later and signed off “je t’embrasse” and I though ooh blimey, but then I found out that actually this is quite normal to sign off emails between friends, he wasn’t being romantic – but it felt like he was to this non-Frenchie!

All French people are wine experts

The French treat wine with respect. They don’t just fill a glass to the top and glug. The wine is poured so that there’s enough room for it to breathe. Then it is swirled in the glass to release the vapour, all the better to sniff it. They may observe it in the glass, comment on the colour, the aroma, and the ‘legs’ – the traces of wine that stick to the side of the glass when you swirl, an indication of its ‘body’

I think the biggest indication that the French are all wine experts is the tradition of pairing wine with food. When I grew up wine wasn’t a big thing in the UK really – at least not for ordinary people like us. I remember wines being called Blue Nun and Black Tower – and we knew nothing about them except they were white. And there was Mateus rosé. Red wine was claret – or port which we sometimes put lemonade in. We didn’t really think about the grape, whether the wine was pinot noir or pinot gris, whether it was dry or very dry or whether it went with roast dinner on a Sunday or Christmas pudding. It was white, pink or red. But in France it’s long been a tradition to teach a healthy respect and understanding of wine, even in kids – though you might be surprised to learn it was only in 1956 that the French Government banned the serving of wine in school canteens!

Yes. All French people are wine experts

All French women are chic.

Coco Chanel once said La mode se démode, le style jamais, fashion fades, style remains.

Well not everyone in France is Coco Chanel, and I have to say that it just isn’t true that all French women are chic – it’s not that simple. In Paris yes perhaps, being stylish is almost a cult. But where I live in a rural farming community in northern France – I’ve never seen anyone wear a pair of high heels, let alone a little black dress, in all the years I’ve been here.

That said – there is a difference in some ways that all French women treat fashion. Lingerie for instance. French women love good lingerie. Nearly every town has a good lingerie shop and a knowledgeable assistant who can size you up with one glance! And French women say if you wear good lingerie it makes you feel good, and if you feel good it can help you look good. And it’s true that most of my French friends do believe that you should have a couple of very well-made staples in your wardrobe – jeans, jacket, shirt. And everyone seems to have a selection of scarves to accessorise their outfits with.

French women are not all chic, but they do have chic rules for dressing – well made staples, scarves, good lingerie. I’d say it’s an in between stereotype.

All French people eat frogs’ legs!

Not true! I’ve only seen them on sale twice in France – once in the supermarket they had a bag of frogs legs in the frozen section. And once in a Chinese food restaurant I saw on the menu that they had crispy fried frogs legs!

French people are always on strike!

Many people seem to think that the French are always on strike. Or they are always on holiday!

Well this stereotype is an exaggeration, but there’s a kernel of truth here. The French do value their leisure time, and they’re not afraid to protest for workers’ rights. It’s not about working less, but about living more.

Work-life balance is something the French fiercely protect. So half true maybe.

Vive la France!

Janine Marsh is the author of several internationally best-selling books about France. Her latest book How to be French – a celebration of the French lifestyle and art de vivre, is out now – a look at the French way of life. Find all books on her website janinemarsh.com