Monday 29 December 2014

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Entente not so cordiale

Anthony Peregrine stimulated debate last week in his column on what the French make of British tourists. Here are the best of our readers' responses

Entente not so cordiale
'Knowing how to pour wine is a silly Gallic affectation' 

We have fixed ideas about the French, said ex-pat Anthony Peregrine last week. But what are theirs about us? Read his column here

Readers' responses

Food and wine

The joy of France - for me over more than sixty years - is a crumbly fresh baguette, lubricated deliciously with chilled butter. Bakers elsewhere across the World try to copy it but never achieve the perfection.

I am consistently amazed at the belief that their food is supreme. In over 35 years of occasional visits on business and being taken out to dinner, and being told how wonderful the food was, I have been consistently disappointed. No axe to grind, but I think that French food is generally mediocre, and is bettered in quality and variety by most other European countries, including England.

Knowing how to pour wine is a silly Gallic affectation. The British drink far better wine anyway and can drink it how they want. Most stuff served in France is fit only for cleaning lavatories: their share of the wine market globally has been falling for years. As for drinking red wine with mussels, having watched an exchange student from France add water to Cornflakes and then try and eat it off a saucer, I know which is the bigger etiquette disaster.

When it comes to food, the UK is far and away the better with the choice, quality and variety of restaurants. Alain Ducasse said that London is the gourmet capital of the world. The French have a misconception about British cuisine and think we just eat fish and chips and roast beef.
Keith Edwards

The diversity of restaurants in London is amazing, and France does not seek to match it. But those who rave about French cuisine nevertheless have a blind spot. Neither France, nor any other continental country, nor the world, has anything to match our hot desserts, be they sticky toffee puddings, summer puddings, queen of puddings, spotted dick, bread-and-butter puddings, jam roly-polies or even simply delicious raspberry, blackberry or plum crumbles.

I lived in Paris for five years and one thing I love about restaurants in France is the discretion of other diners. You cannot eavesdrop their conversation, even if you wanted to. This creates a quiet, calm atmosphere where everyone can enjoy the food and the company of ones one table.


I like those French TV programmes where six or so people sit around talking about the main political event of the day. Usually there's a couple of old guys with beards, often an attractive young woman with nice legs, frequently a middle-aged feminist wearing bright red. It may be based on the archetypes from Cluedo.

After about an hour of this, they'll all stand up, walk to another part of the studio, and start baking a cake as if it were the most normal thing in the world to do. There's a place in the world for TV like that, and that place is France.

My observation about the French is their love of all things French. They buy French cars, eat French food, go on holiday in France and generally only consider buying French. I remember backpacking around the world when I was young, meeting people from every country imaginable, not a single French person though.

Just back from Provence and the French are affable albeit dependably haughty. There is dog mess everywhere - it comes from those perfumed and coiffured dames who carry those slobbering Pekingese dogs in their handbags.

Cross-Channel relations

There's a book I always recommend when English people are planning to come and spend time here, it's called The Xenophobe's Guide To The French. Very short (I think it's about 60 pages long), entertaining, and relevant. In my humble opinion, it is a good help to understanding the way we frogs think and react to events and people, and therefore can help avoid lots of silly misunderstandings.

We have lived in France now for 6 years. We live in the countryside in the Lot-et-Garonne. We have got to know many French people very well. Without exception they have been most welcoming.

For the queen's jubilee, the local shopkeepers organised and funded a party in our local town, where both national anthems were sung etc. There were several other events in local villages, one where each lady was presented with a mug with the queen on.
keith dutton

We were never made to feel welcome when we visited the Carcassonne area of France. What an absolutely beautiful country, "la belle France" shame about the people. Won't be going back.

I studied French at university and lived in France for a year. As a young Brit who likes sport, the French would always be fascinated by English football and the idea that the fans were all 'ooligans'. I always felt, in a strange sort of way, that they were a bit in awe of the English and thought we were a bit cooler with our great music, famous actors, sports stars and 'ooligan' fans.

If the exodus from France to England of upper middle class French people is any indication, they absolutely love us. They are everywhere in London.

Speaking to a French friend about this she described the UK and France in the best possible way, as the oldest and best of enemies: we love to hate each other. Whether it be the casual French bashing of Hollande's affair or French snarkiness over the royal birth. I'd even go as far as to say we have one of the closest relationships of two countries in the world, though I suspect neither would ever admit it to the other.

It's a simple case of one-upmanship.


French women have their peculiarities - the pressure to be thin is quite alarming - many look like young boys. I'm not sure which is more unattractive English obesity or French malnourishment. "Le chic" is classy up to a point but it can become repetitive. As Diana Vreeland once said "too much good taste can be terribly dull".

I think we're evenly matched in lots of respects, though the French do need to reassess their opinion on their own dress sense - that comes from the 1960s and is not generally held to be true at all. The double denim you see all over France (apart from Paris) testifies to their cluelessness...

Don't just take it from me!
Georgia Arlott

I can't speak for the ladies but let's consider the British gentleman’s style. We gave the world, the gentlemen’s suit, the Macintosh, brogue shoes, the duffle coat, corduroy, the Barbour wax jacket, the Harrington golf jacket, the pea coat, breathable pique cotton fabric, the Oxford shirt, the tattersall shirt, the trench coat, Harris tweed, argyle pattern socks, ventile, gore tex and Macintosh fabric, desert boots and the rugby jersey among others.

Not bad going for a nation that isn't stylish.

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