British people have a tendency to apologise for everything they do. If we bump into someone we say, ‘sorry’ even if it is not our fault. We say ‘sorry’ when we sneeze and ‘sorry’ when we are late and start conversations with, ‘sorry to bother you!’  We can even be heard to say, ‘sorry for the rain’! One English friend noted that French people are less likely to take responsibility when things go wrong or to accept that people fail sometimes – so are far less likely to say, ‘sorry’.

Has the UK got a national type of soap? In France ‘Savon de Marseille’ is everywhere. It comes in shampoos, washing powders and cosmetics. First made 600 years ago, it should be made with olive oil. I watched a TV programme about it that went to one of the few remaining soap factories in Marseilles. The owner of the company said he used nothing else on his body as it was good for washing hair as well. He said his skin was as smooth as a baby’s and he hadn’t got a grey hair. The presenter stroked his outstretched arm and agreed that his skin was beautifully soft and free from wrinkles. I was convinced. But, the programme warned, there were plenty of imitations and only 5% of products labelled as ‘Savon de Marseille’ are the genuine article. I shopped carefully in my local organic shop and chose a 500g cube as it might take some time to return my skin to the softness that I was born with. As it was so big, I needed to cut it into pieces. Unfortunately, it had a texture like shale and each slice fell into small shards. Bathing with it was therefore problematic and also the smell was not at all pleasant. As for using it on my hair, the feel and smell was more industrial and coarser than I had been led to believe. Sorry, ‘Savon de Marseille’, I was a convert, but I would rather use the national soap of England – when someone has produced and marketed it! (While researching SPAS I found that Epsom Salt soap and Epsom Salt shampoo can be bought from Epsom Salts.co.uk!)

The first snowfall of winter is always exciting. I love walking in newly fallen snow that crackles and glistens. In France it brings with it responsibilities. Each householder must clear the path in front of their house and salt it. My neighbour, even though he was in his 90’s, was always out with his snow shovel early in the morning. It was a race to complete the job, because if I did not get out there early enough, he would do, not only his part of the path, but mine and the next neighbour’s as well. In the UK we have been foolishly prevented from doing what is normal and natural by the threat of litigation. In our French town magazine, it states clearly that ‘en cas d’accident, votre responsabilité sera engagée’ = ‘you will be responsible if there is an accident’. In other words, you will be responsible if someone slips on the un-cleared pavement. Not only that, it is also your responsibility to sweep up fallen leaves on the path if they come from your trees and to pull out weeds that pop up on the path or in the gutter!

French people expect to take off their shoes when they come into your house. Given the state of the pavements and the amount of dog poo, it is probably wise to let them.

One of my adult students told me that she enjoyed going into the countryside to collect snails to eat. When I tell my nephews and nieces that French people eat snails their reaction is ‘Yuck’. No other activity is more likely to widen the gap between two nations than this. I ate one as a type of initiation ceremony. The garlic and butter sauce around it was pleasant, but who wants to chew a piece of rubber? I picked up a leaflet in the doctor’s surgery which told me that Magnesium is a mineral that helps in more than 300 chemical reactions in our bodies. There followed a list of magnesium rich foods. Number 3 on the list was ‘les escargots’, 50g of which give 128mg of magnesium. I think I will stick to numbers 4 and 5 on the list, cashew nuts and dark chocolate!

French people have a will of iron with regard to refusing a little taste of something between meals. Only Brits buy an ice-cream and eat it while walking down the road. A native would sit on one of the seats provided and eat the dessert with a spoon.

More people smoke in France than in the UK, a staggering 20% more. Throat, mouth and lung cancer kill 78,000 people a year. A possible factor is that French people don’t like to be told what to do. When the government decided to put warnings on cigarette packets, a fashion house brought out jolly covers to slip over the cartons. Smoking ruins the status of France as a healthy country. Cigarettes are only available in a Bar Tabac and not in a supermarket or corner shop. One of my students gave up smoking because she hated having to go into one to buy her weekly supplies.

It is almost obligatory to go skiing in February in France. The school holidays are staggered so that your two weeks on the slopes are not over-crowded. The country is divided into three regions.  Zone A takes their half-term holiday a week earlier than the second region. Zone C only starts its half-term when the first region is on their way home from the slopes. It is all carefully designed to keep ski chalet owners and mountainside restaurants in business. 

Large supermarkets sometimes employ girls on skates to whizz round the stores fetching and exchanging items for the cashiers. What a fun job to have! I wonder if there are any age restrictions on employees?  If you love roller skating, then it must be a super way to keep fit. But, would UK Health and Safety allow it?

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.