Six American habits that baffle the French

Kimberly Wheeler moved her family from California to Aix-en-Provence three years ago, and she keeps getting the same small reaction from French neighbors: a furrowed brow, a soft "bfff," a shrug. In a Substack essay, she catalogs the ordinary American habits that set it off.

It started with lunch. Days after arriving, she fed her kids takeaway pasta on a bench by a fountain, and a passing older man muttered "Bon appétit" with a sarcastic laugh. The offense was eating on the go at all; in France a meal is something you sit down for, even lunch on a Tuesday. She lists plenty more: the giant water bottles Americans lug everywhere (she calls them "emotional support hydration jugs"), and the wide American smile at a stranger, which can read as flirtation. One friend beamed at a man at a Paris work event and was later asked if she was a prostitute.

Americans treat a packed weekend as an accomplishment, where the French meet "such a busy weekend" with concern; they talk far louder in cafés; and they hand salaries and therapy breakthroughs to near-strangers. After three years, Wheeler admits, a lot of it has started to look bizarre to her too.

Previously:
• France to ban outdoor smoking, except for café terraces
• France to abolish marital duty to have sex