Girls, be careful if a Frenchman tells you that he is single. I had a group of businessmen, only one of whom introduced himself as ‘married’. All the others said that they were ‘célebataire’. As I got to know them better, I found that they lived with a partner and had children. They were actually telling the truth because they were not married to the woman they shared a house with, but they are certainly not unattached, and were far from ‘celibate’! One guy asked me what he should put on his C.V. As he was not married, he wanted to put ‘Single’. I replied, ‘You have a wife, children and grandchildren – you cannot put ‘Single’. I persuaded him that ‘Married’ was 99% closer to the truth.