Left France Two Days Ago.

Re your language experience, I have had the same experience in Portugal and Italy, as well as France. It's not somebody wanting to practice their English on me in good faith. Their responses often seem mean, if not pitiable. (And yes, my language skills are good enough to know the difference.) I'm not bilingual, but I am by no means a schlump. I've learned the languages in an attempt to show my appreciation for the country I'm visiting. Makes me mad. I try; why can't they?

Frank, thank you for the report and the tip about the car museum. Husband loves them.

Frank, thanks for your report. We leave Wednesday and will be in Lyon, Beaune, Colmar, then Paris. We do have the pass already (thanks primarily to this forum's advice). I've learned some survival French phrases but my pronunciation is horrible (those dang R sounds I cannot seem to convince my mouth to make). We've been to France before, but primarily were in Paris where it was common to find people who spoke English. I don't expect people in France to speak English, and am happy to get by with pointing and hand signals, but I do greatly appreciate it.

Did you happen to see any massive lines at any of the pharmacies anywhere?

General rule of thumb everywhere in the world, people in the tourist business speak the language of money. Whether it's English, or Chinese, or German or Italian, or back in the day Japanese. They learn what they need to make a living, so everyone gets by. Once you're off the beaten path, say a smaller French train station, don't have a high expectation they will parlez anglais.

Can I ask a credit card question? Years ago we were all in a tizzy over needing chip and PIN cards to go anywhere in Europe, is that not a thing anymore? Contactless pay seems to make that unnecessary.

American chip/sig cards are pretty much universally accepted including on machines where you just ignore the pin request. We never had problems using our cards although it is annoying to have this clunky system when Europeans have the more secure and elegant chip/pin system. The only instance where I could not use the card was the laundromat which had machines set to take the contactless card and no slot for the chip/sig. I had to have change for the laundry.

The Pass Sanitaire was asked for even in cafes outside -- rarely not checked and ALWAYS checked for museums, concerts, operas etc.

I found English speakers everywhere. The people working at the train stations I was in spoke some English. Even a middle aged maintenance guy at a Lyon subway station was able to give me directions in broken English. All the museums had English speakers including the small ones.

As someone said to me.. as long as you can make yourself understand that's all that matters.

I have never had a problem with credit cards. When I couldn't use contactless l, I was asked to sign a receipt. It seemed everyone was used to it and always had a pen.

There were no lines at any pharmacy I passed.

I have had the same experience in Portugal and Italy, as well as France. It's not somebody wanting to practice their English on me in good faith. Their responses often seem mean, if not pitiable. (And yes, my language skills are good enough to know the difference.)

I guess experiences can differ, sorry to hear about yours. On a trip a few years ago to Brittany and Normandy we went so some smaller towns such as Vannes and Vitre. In the restaurants and local shops we went into they did not speak any English or if they did they were pretty good at hiding it. I used some tapes (Pimsleur and Michel Thomas) before the trip and knew survival-level French, probably even less than that. However in those locales interactions were either going to be in French or pantomime, so we got by with a mixture of both.

English may be spoken far more than it used to be ----especially in touristy areas, but get off the beaten path and you'll find most people only have the knowledge of what they learned in CM2----like americans who took languages in high school.

kerouac2, Whenever I drive through your arrondissement going back to the airport I always tell myself I need to go back sometime for indian food!

I just spoke to someone in the French Embassy today and she said one can obtain the pass sanitaire at selected pharmacies so visitors don't have to go through the headache of trying to apply on the website which, from what I last heard, was shut down anyway.

Blockquote
Hawaii
11/16/21 05:04 PM
9 posts
Report
I just spoke to someone in the French Embassy today and she said one can obtain the pass sanitaire at selected pharmacies so visitors don't have to go through the headache of trying to apply on the website which, from what I last heard, was shut down anyway.

The French are working through the backlog. I submitted mine Oct 11th. Then the big change to local pharmacies around Nov 01. I received my Pass Sanitare this morning Nov 16). Still waiting for my partners application which was sent off a few days later