Tipping in Restaurants

French people do not go to a restaurant for the service. Service is a given, and handled by professionals who are trained for those positions. French people go to restaurants for the quality of the ingredients and the skill of the kitchen.

If you want to tip anyone, it should be the chef.

It is no more appropriate to tip in a restaurant in France than it would be for a French visitor not to tip when dining in a restaurant in the US.

Your Spanish friend is right. That advice to you is correct. I look for these words on the bill (l'addition)...."service compris." or "service non compris"

I would add, if you're going to a haute cuisine restaurant and your bill is in the 100€+ area, a tip of no more than 10 percent is appreciated. Especially if you were really well taken care of.

When in France we have rounded up to the next euro. Here is Fodor’s spin on this:
https://www.fodors.com/news/how-to-tip-in-france-11320

Americans say they tip waiters for good service. That is not true. Tips for waiters are their wages; that is how they make money. You might tip a little more or a little less if someone gives you really good or really bad service, but anything less than 20% for standard service is cheating them of income. In France (and most of Western Europe), waiters and restaurant staff earn reasonable wages. You are essentially paying that 20% in the cost of the meal. So unless someone really goes above and beyond, tip nothing or just round up to the nearest Euro.

Yeah - I do understand tipping in the US.

So what I am hearing is not expected anywhere although consider tipping on 100+ tab (10% range)

So what I am hearing is not expected anywhere although consider tipping on 100+ tab (10% range)

Tipping is not done regardless of the tab amount. Expect to be very well taken care of. That is the waiter's job.

I might add that excellent service is efficient, unobtrusive, and executed in anticipated of your needs. Excellent service is not chatty and personal.

I always leave a tip. But just a couple of euros or maybe three. If I were going somewhere nice, I would leave more.

(Full disclosure : my husband works in the restaurant business, in a Michelin-starred restaurant.)

Leaving a tip is just putting pressure on a society that provides health care, a living wage etc to be more like a society that makes people beg to live. And it trains waiters to harass tourists because it is only tourists who tip. 'They appreciate it' is not an argument for violating local social norms. It isn't 'nice' or 'thoughtful' -- it is imposing a deeply corrupt way to pay people on a society that doesn't do it that way.

If you decide to tip, how will you deliver it? Many credit card forms do not offer a place to enter a tip (which says something about what is expected.) Leaving change on a cash plate will work; hiding it under a dish is bad form.

We pay restaurants by credit card and there's no tip line available.

On the other hand, if I'm getting a coffee in a cafe and it's 1.90, and I give a 2€ coin, I say "c'est bon" which signals not to bother making change. Other times, I'll leave small change in the little tray. But it varies. It's not expected.

It is all very interesting. I wish restaurants in the US would move towards this approach. Interestingly enough I hear a lot of negative feedback from servers about doing this because they make so much in tips. Also the tipping culture here often times results in a higher paid front of house than back of house (restaurant depending of course).

Thanks for all the feedback. I do appreciate it. This will help to curb our compulsory tipping behavior.

If anyone is still reading - are there any areas outside of restaurant service where tipping should occur in France? Hotel cleaning staff? Spa services? Taxi? We tip for damn near everything here in the US.

Sorry, it's not just tourists who tip. That is a nice assumption you have made but it doesn't happen to be true.

The tips aren't usually very BIG - as noted, a few coins usually.

As in every country, I leave a tip for the hotel cleaning staff when staying in hotels in France. They are almost always underpaid immigrants, even in the swankiest hotels (not that I stay in swanky hotels but I work with them sometimes, and my husband has worked for a couple ).

Here is my tipping policy in France and in Europe in general

When I tip at the restaurant it's not to reward the chef, or the accountant or the cleaning lady.
It's because waiter is friendly, efficient, attentive and that I can see that he loves his job.
In this case I can leave about 10% of the bill.

If the waiter is rude, slow and doesn't take care of me, I don't tip.

I admit that it is more complicated when there is a good waiter but an incompetent and unpleasant sommelier, or vice versa :)

If the dishes were exceptional, aesthetic, original, the cooking perfect, (I'm not talking about steak and french fries) you can ask to see the chef to congratulate him
But I never saw anyone go into the kitchen to tip the whole team.

In case this helps: https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/money/tipping-in-europe

French legislation specifies that tips are only intended for people who are in contact with customers during working hours. Which is not the case for cooks and dishwashing staff

Welcome to the third rail of travel!

Right up there with, should I carry my passport on me?

French legislation specifies that tips are only intended for people who are in contact with customers during working hours

Please site for us the reference to this law.

Recently when setting up a furniture delivery in France, I asked the manager if it was customary to tip the delivery men, and if so, what was usual. She and a salesman said it would be problematic due to a tip not being taxed. Hmmm.
But I still tip hotel maids and taxi drivers in France.

Though we rarely tip, you are right that it is a kindness, and I have been with several French persons who have the means and do leave a few euro coins even when paying by card. It's not noblesse oblige because they are very discreet about doing it.

Different people have different habits. I am reading a lot of comments saying how tipping is somehow inappropriate: this is really not my experience. Rounding up drink bills to the nearest €, adding 1-2€ to "standard" meals and 3-5€ to nicer ones (never exceeding a few % of the tab) is standard practice for me and my (French) family.
What is true is that it is entirely optional and not expected. Also, if you pay by card and do not have cash, there is no way to tip.

French legislation specifies that tips are only intended for people
who are in contact with customers during working hours

Please site for us the reference to this law.

-Convention collective nationale des hôtels, cafés restaurants (HCR)

-Article L3244-1 du Code du travail

-Arrêt de la Cour de cassation du 18 juin 1997 (n° 94-43634)

As a couple people have alluded to, even among the French, tipping is becoming less common, due to contactless and card pay. Most tipping habits that there were, dealt with cash payment...rounding up...making it easier for the waiter to make change, whether to the nearest euro or adding a euro or so to make 15, 20, etc.

With electronic payment, that has really declined since there really is no "tipping" mechanism in the payment system...so people just tap and go. Tipping at that point becomes one where you separately seek out a waiter with cash...one would never just leave cash on the table like the person is some petty servant.

I know this ruffles the feathers of many Americans, who have tipping ingrained into their psyche, and many rationalize "I am on vacation so I can afford to do so..."; "the poor soul looks like an immigrant"; "you would not want to do that job...; but that does not really change the dynamic.

Don't know about no cash on the table idea. Of course, people do. My (French) brother-in-law left 2-two euro coins yesterday in the plastic tray on the table yesterday at a restaurant our family has been going been to for over forty years. OTOH, I don't think my (French) husband left a tip when he snuck off and paid the bill for the whole table two days earlier.

I think people make too many assumptions. There's no hard and fast rule except that you don't tip as if you are sponsoring a needy family the way people do in the States. And the staff won't bog you down with their name or chime in with "good choice." It's a profession, not a shakedown. If you choose to tip, it's a small gesture, not a show. And you can leave it on the table or hand it to the server as you are paying. Or, say "c'est bien" when you hand over the cash and the server will understand that you don't want change. No rules.

If you choose to tip, it's a small gesture, not a show.

I agree with Bets. However, if I give a taxi driver 60 euros for a 58 euro fare, I don't consider it a tip as much as it is a transaction convenience for both parties. If I leave 3 euros for a 2.50 café, it is again a simple transaction convenience. There are no percentages involved, no minimum amounts, and no obligation or expectation.

When in Rome, as they say. So no tip would be disrespectful of local custom. If you do not throw trash on the ground in parks and you went to Europe and they did, would you also start throwing trash? You think this a ridiculous analogy? In Central America there are tons of trash thrown willy nilly. Would you follow that lead when you do not do so in the US?
This analogy applies for many things when you are in another country.
Leaving a tip could be considered an insult. A professional waiter in France is just that, a professional. When you leave a tip, you degrade the service from professional to a subservient role in the entire scheme of dining. A professional to a servant.
Rick Steve’s philosophy is to get with the locals and be a part of them for your trip. To tip as an American is not in keeping with that.

Oh, poohleeze. People make a lot of assumptions and declare them as hard and fast rules for a country of 69 million. Balso has hit it right. He’s a local.
Edit: to include Kerouac2 another local. And he is right, too. Different approaches.

Just to clarify, I do not claim my experience/habits to be the universal truth! I am just saying that tips here are neither inappropriate, nor expected, and indeed less and less common due to electronic payments. I tend to tip a little, but I know many people who are firmly on Kerouac's side, and that's totally fine too because tips are not expected.

In France (as well as in Germany), I follow the tipping method as Tocard pointed out in his calculations above, ie, if the sum is 58
Euro, then 60 is in order. If it's 29.50 Euro, then I give 31 Euro at most., if not , then 30 Euro...depends.

However, I leave nothing if "service compris" is on the check.

Exactly K2. Previous post edited. There's no hard and fast rule. Our friends don't tip, we don't tip if using a card, but we'll leave some change on the table, maybe, if using cash.
But some people do tip. My in-laws tipped yesterday. It's the spouting of hard and fast rules for a whole population that is off target.