AMAA - The DO's & DON'Ts of Visiting France - Reaction by Average Middle Aged American
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- Опубликовано: 10 май 2024
- In this video, I react and comment on the video: The DOs and DONTs of Visiting France by @woltersworld
Original Video: • France - The Don'ts of...
"The Do's and Don'ts of Visiting France, so you know how to get the most out of your French vacation. It doesn't matter if you are visiting Paris, Avignon, the French Riviera, the Normandy Beaches, or trying the food in Strasbourg or Bordeaux, there are a lot of things travelers and tourists to France should know before they go. These are some of our definite no - no's when it comes to visiting France.
Tourist information on visiting France
Filmed in Bordeaux, France"
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As a French guy married to an American woman, I can vouch for him on that matter. We live in the Bordeaux Area. The sheer number of time we had people trying to help us in English was phenomenal (even if I'm French and a local, they hear us speaking and immediately jump to help). As he said, learn a couple of basic words.
Bonjour and Merci should definitely be on your list tho...
9:06 And that how I met my wife. Well... Technically. We met online. But when she saw I was in Bordeaux instead of The Paris, it picked her interest.
I spent 17 year living in Paris. Never again.
And if you come to visit Bordeaux, drop me a DM man. I can take a couple of days off from work to show you around 🖖🏼
Edit: It's funny but I just realized that he did the shoot right next to the "Place des Quinconces" in Bordeaux, right on the river bank.
I can give you the GMap location if you want to "explore" the surroundings. Also, Wine Museum just 3 blocks away... Just saying.
Thank you for the information and invitation. So generous of you! Can't wait to see your beautiful country.
16:40 You can have whatever you want in a restaurant, provided that they serve that dish.
But don't ask for too much specific instruction to change the dish like: I want my salad, with pickles in the side, sauce on the side, this and that removed etc.
You can change a couple of things, but try to find a dish that is appealing to you straight away.
Also, the Menu is displayed (with prices and tax included) in front of every restaurants. It's mandatory here.
And if you're looking for something specific, you can always try to ask a local.
Whew!
LOL.
Yes you can absolutely find fried chicken or chicken nuggest anywhere, that's common globally I believe (You might have to look at the "kids menu" though 😂). Mashed potatoes you will also find. What you won't find often is BAKED POTATOES, that's just not as common in France (Although you might find some variations of it with creme cheese). You will however, not find Mac & Cheese on any local menu - that's very much an American "delicacy" that isn't popular outside of the US.
Kid's menu? OUCH! lol. Sounds good to me. Had a baked potato yesterday and some rotisserie ones tonight. Thanks!
The best thing about travelling to places we've "heard about" from others is finding out for yourself that it is not half as strange or scary as people make it out.
Don't be afraid to use any rudimentary skill you have in French language. Just the basics in a language is respectful at any country you are visiting.
We plan on spending a little time try to learn some of the basics in each language before we leave the USA. Thank you for commenting and checking out my videos!
If you have packed worth a week's stay, you can survive with the same things for a month , or even two. Washing of the clothes is possible 😊
LOL
Je pense (et c'est normal ici) qu'il faut 2 à 4 heures souvent pour préparer tous les plats (sauf des restaurants qui "trichent" et sans le dire, achètent des plats déjà cuisinés ; Plus un restaurant aura beaucoup de choix, plus il y aura des chance qu'il ne fait pas la cuisine lui même) ; Donc non (sauf pour les "tricheurs"), s'ils n'ouvrent que de telle heures à telle heures ce n'est parce qu'ils ne font rien, ou ne veulent rien faire entre les deux ! ... mais très souvent c'est qu'ils cuisinent et/ou s'organisent ! ...
Wow. That shows a quality difference!
Thanks!
www.youtube.com/@BaguetteBound/videos
J'ai jamais compris pourquoi ce "reproche" que nous ne parlions pas anglais. Lorsque je voyage, je fais toujours en sorte d'apprendre les basiques de la langue du pays que je visite (bonjour, s'il vous plaît, merci et au-revoir) car je ne pars pas du principe que les gens en face de moi parlent français ou anglais. En temps que commerçante, j'ai déjà eu beaucoup de touristes qui ne parlent ni français ni anglais, et je vous assure qu'on arrive à se comprendre avec des gestes et un sourire. Je n'ai jamais jamais jamais vu un français mal réagir si un touriste parle pas notre langue. En revanche j'ai vu des touristes mal réagir si on ne parle pas anglais... Il faut aussi que les touristes fassent un effort lors de leurs voyage et ne prennent pas mal le fait que quelqu'un ne s'exprime pas en anglais qui n'est pas la seule langue au monde... Donc oui, un minimum de respect pour la langue et la culture du pays que tu visite, c'est la base.
I completely agree. Will will do our best to learn basic French and German before we enter the country. Thank you for commenting and checking out my videos!
Bien sur ils ont des macaronis , raviolis, lasagnes ect ... Et ils sont autant bon, si ce n'est plus parfois que en Italie ! ... (c'est des plats basiques en France , comme les pizzas, frites, poulets , steak ect .... on en trouve partout et tout le temps !)
We can't wait!
You can have very simple dishes in restaurants in France. For example you can have steak and potatoes or fries. You can have a burger of course, a salad, pasta ... Fried chicken is very common, but mac&cheese is not a restaurant dish in France, except if you are in a place that specializes in american food. You won't find a real restaurant where you can have lunch after 2 pm or dinner before 7pm, the kitchen is closed in the afternoon. of course you can eat in a fastfood place or find streetfood that are open almost 24/7, but not real restaurants. A restaurant where you can eat all day long would most probably be what we French call "un piège à touristes", a tourist trap (selling low quality food only meant for tourists who don't know better) you can find those places in Montmartre for example and I wouldn't recommand them. Grabbing a sanwich or a quiche in a bakery would be far better.
Awesome! I am all about trying new foods, just have to be cautious and have a back up plan. Thank you for commenting and checking out my videos!
Like anywhere else in the world touristic spots are scammers' paradise, and in France these scams also unfortunately include some restaurants that don't hesitate to sell low-quality pre-prepared industrial dishes as home-made quality food. I would recommend avoiding all "eateries" around touristic sports in Paris or elsewhere. Do some on-line research to know where the locals go.
22:56 The French law state: 1 to 5 years in prison, and up to a 45k€ fine.
But we can't put a LEO behind every single person, especially in Paris.
So it's also your responsibility to be informed and to not trust random strangers.
Look at me saying that right after offering you to tour you around the Bordeaux area 😂
A lot of french do know English, but that's mostly the younger generation. Some countries like Germany and France always dubbed the imported movies (US movies mostly) into their original languages. France also has this rule that any radio station's music has to be at least 10% French. The French are EXTREMELY nationalistic, yes. However, since around 5 to 10 years ago, these rules were removed and now American movies mostly stay in English and are subtitled in French - this has helped the younger generation understand and speak english a lot better. So you might have a lot more trouble with the older generation, but the working class and younger generation usually are able to come up with a few sentences in English.
At school we were learnt that if our English sentences, accent isn't perfect it's false ! Same for all foreign languages. I spent some weeks each year near Augsburg in Swabian Bavaria, spoke fluent German for the native people there but at school teachers didn't like my Swabian accent and local sentences, but no problem at all with the german teacher helper ! 😂
Dubbling is a big thing here with known actors to perform.
Now with DVD you can choose the language french or original version with or without subtitles and same with TV, very easy nowadays but not 20 years ago !
And yes that help a lot, RUclips too !
Pour les démarcheurs dans la rue, il suffit de ne pas faire attentions à eux (et dans ce cas, il ne viennent même pas vers vous) , et ou de dire " non merci" avec le sourire, s'ils insistent, de les regarder droit dans les yeux et de redire une deuxième fois " non merci, je n'ai pas le temps ! ....merci " , et ils n'insisteront pas la ,plupart du temps ! ... Je rappelle aussi que les pourboires (restaurants ect ...) ne sont pas obligatoires en France, et la plupart des gens n'en donnent pas ! .... (car la sécurité sociale en France pour les salariés et plus assuré et/ou garanti par des lois de l'état français !) ; Donc plus vous serez cool, mais pas naïf, et plus ils ne voudront pas perdre du temps avec vous car ils comprendront que cela ne sert à rien ! ... ; Plus vous êtes interrogatifs à leurs sujet, plus ils le sentiront, et plus vous risquez d'avoir affaire avec eux ! ... (A savoir, c'est pas politiquement correct de le dire, mais la plupart des démarcheurs dans la rue sont étrangers ! ... parfois en situation irrégulière )
Si tu as peur, ils le sentent et tu es plus facile à avoir ! ... (parce que tu es plus fragile) ; Si tu les ignore, et que quand ils viennent vers toi tu leurs fait comprendre que tu as compris qui ils étaient, et que tu dit direct " Non merciiii " tout en continuant ton chemin, c'est terminé ! .... (ils ne vont pas te toucher et/ou t'attraper pour t'arrêter et te vendre leur truc bizarre) ; Reste cool, mais de manière ferme et avec le sourire dit : NON ! (style : " je n'ai pas que cela à faire " ou " je ne vais pas perdre mon temps avec toi , désolé ") ; Fait comme si tu étais chez toi, et que tu n'étais pas un touriste ! ...
France is a must - highly recommend places that are not Paris, like Lyon, Dijon, and chateau regions like the Loire valley. Regarding pickpocketers - my French friends say it's just not a law enforcement priority. They focus most of their resources on anti-terrorism.
Thanks for reply and checking out my videos! Feeling better about France.
@@Average_Middle_Aged_American I felt way safer against terrorists there than in the US. In major train stations they have patrols of several LEs in formation with assault rifles, and they are dead stare profiling EVERYONE.
@@Average_Middle_Aged_American Felt safer there than in most US cities. In major train stations in Paris, there are patrols of several officers with rifles watching everyone like hawks.
Thanks for commenting and checking out my videos. Plenty of armed police in big cities now especially NYC and similar. USA has around 1 million police officers. Most violent crime in USA is criminal on criminal.
@@Average_Middle_Aged_American No worries, well aware, I grew up in California in the 70s and 80s. Late 70s/early 80s there were hugely high spikes in murders, but limited mostly to inner cities. I have been living overseas (VERY safely and comfortably) for 25 years now thanks to my career, and life in the US is an increasingly distant memory.
restaurants : environ de 12 heures à 15 heures ... et de environ 19 heures à 23 heures (certain restaurants beaucoup plus trad)
Mais les Quick et les Mc Donald's de environ 07 heures à environ 23 heures sans interruptions ! ...
Les supermarchés propose des salades composés (avec fourchettes dedans) à consommer où on veut et comme on veut ! ... dehors par exemple sur un bac public (avec soi du thon, soi des morceaux de poulet ect ... ; Et c'est moins cher !)
Beaucoup de snack aussi (sandwich) sont ouvert environ de 11 heure à 19 heures sans interruption
En ville, vous ne mourrez pas de faim ! ... (ne vous inquiétez pas !)
Thank you for the information!
Thank you for watching my videos!
Can't wait to go to France!
@@Average_Middle_Aged_American erreur d'écriture : " En ville, vous ne mourrez pas de faim ! ... (ne vous inquiétez pas !)
@@Average_Middle_Aged_American no problem ! ... 🙂
@@federalisteconstitutionnel - whew! 🙂
I know you are trying to be funny but some of your reactions are silly.... It's NOT that difficult. I am American and live in Paris. The French do NOT hate Americans. Americans don't understand the cultural nuances and can unwittingly piss people off. You don't need to speak a lot of French-- bonjour, bonsoir, merci... it's not hard. Most people speak English. The video presenter is 100% correct in his observations. Don't look like a slob (take off the baseball cap), keep your voices down in public (this really can upset people), say hello when you walk into a store and goodbye when you leave. Come on about the luggage- people from all over travel around Europe and have no problems. You can always leave a bag at a train station. As for food, most people don't eat fancy stuff every day... the quality of the food is FAR better than in the US. Try to keep an open mind and try some things-- that's part of the joy of traveling. And hey, if you want a ham and cheese sandwich or a steak and salad for dinner, you can definitely have it! I guarantee some of the things you have had your whole life taste 100 times better! Why doesn't the country do something about pickpockets? They have bigger fish to fry- as in terrorism. The French would say, why don't Americans do something about gun violence? Far worse.
Fair Enough. Most of these annoyingness are standard for any country, I would suspect. Saying hello and goodbye, please and thank you, voice volume, etc are all simple enough. I plan to do as the Romans do when visiting Rome. That is half the reason I am here. Thanks!
Europe is thousands of years old with TONS to see. Hard to say which 5 countries are the "best"... But the UK (be careful with calling all of the UK England lest you piss off a Scotsman lol), France, Italy, Spain, Greece... wonderful places. You can't go to Europe just once and expect to see everything.
I do need to pay attention to my UK/England terms. My ancestors were Scottish, so it should not be too hard to get into the right habit. I have been told it takes months just to get a good sampling of Europe. We are looking forward to it! Thanks for commenting and checking out my videos!
The time of year to go to the beach depends on whether the beach is in the north or south,because france has two basic climate zones temperate oceanic in the north and mediteranean in the south which is like southern calfornia.you can go to the beach well into october in the south as i have but probably not in the north as its likely to be more like irelands and you would not have many going to the beach here in october.
Thank you for letting us know! We go to the Caribbean for most vacations, so we may just skip the beach all together, but it always good to know as much as possible.
Hi. If I may, European France has three climate zones: oceanic, mediterranean and continental. The latter is likely the largest zone (tbc).
@@Average_Middle_Aged_AmericanWell, you could holiday in the Caribbean and visit France at the same time: Guadeloupe and Martinique are territories of the French Republic. If you think it’s still not warm enough, just go a little further south to the Brazilian border and don’t forget to say « Bonjour » as you’d then be in France again (French Guiana). Too hot for you? No prob, just head back north to Saint-Pierre et Miquelon archipelago, another piece of the French Republic off the Eastern coast of Canada… and that’s just for that part of the world.
What was he saying again? « Don’t think France is just Paris »…😂
@@tixien - Cool. Thanks for commenting and checking out my channel!
oui, il y a des plats simple partout .... Plus que des plats plus élaborés ! ...
Can't wait to see your beautiful country!
@@Average_Middle_Aged_American oui, mais je suis pas sur que même un français pourrait tout voir dans sa vie de ce pays ; Donc peut être quand même voir d'abord Paris , Mont saint michel .... Puis il peut y avoir ensuite des lieux plus intimes, où le courant passera plus (ou vous vous sentirez spécialement bien ) , là restez s'y 2 ou 3 jours pour vous détendre ! ...et vivre un petit moment spirituel (ou quasi spirituel) en ayant pris vos marques ; Sinon, on a chacun notre propre background familial et culturel ! .... cela ne veut pas dire que certains, s'ils nous connaissaient vraiment avec du temps pour cela, ils ne finiraient pas par nous aimer ou nous apprécier ! ... ; Mais la vie d'un humain est courte, pourrait on aimer vraiment chacun sans superficialité ? ... Difficile non ? , et parfois ou souvent, ce n'est la faute de personne ou c'est à cause de malentendus ... et/ou de nos capacité limité à tout comprendre que le courant passe mal ! ... Donc je vous souhaite de vivre des moments vrais, même, si on vous vole votre appareil photo (pas moi 😁 bien sur), mais c'est peu probable que cela arrive ! ...
Soyez fort, et c'est pas vers vous que les voyous iront !
En ce qui concerne la mentalité française (en tout cas, il y a encore peu) , les (vrai) français ne vont pratiquement plus à l'église (église humainement visible ou d'ici bas ou dans les bâtiments nommés comme tels) mais André Suares disait : « qu’il aille ou non à l’église, un Français a les évangiles dans le sang. » ; Je sais pas si c'est encore vrai, mais je l'espère ! ... Mais il est vrai que ces évangiles imprègnes plus que lors de quantiques ou sermons ce pays ! ... (en espérant que cela continu encore !)
@@federalisteconstitutionnel - Thank you for the kind words and suggestions!