Normandy and Paris

Ummm...Carry an umbrella and learn to say hello, please, thank you and "where is..." in French?

Thank you Doug ----we had full intentions of working on the language but time disappeared and we didn't do what we had intended----Wish I had followed through----But here we are-----I have a phrase book though and am excited, just don't want to offend anyone with our cultural ignorance. Thanks for the tip on umbrellas. Any thing else you can think of would be appreciated. Corinne

Normany should be lovely in April (and yes you'll need an umbrella). All this fuss about fitting in with the culture. Here's what every citizen of the world needs to do. Be kind and have your (best) heart in your smile, watch how the locals behave and follow suit as well as is possible, show appreciation, do unto others (that old Golden Rule thing), recognize that wherever you are it's not's your home country and revel in the differences. Look for the good in others. This may sound goody two-shoes but in over 20 years of travel it's sure worked for me.

No, seriously Corinne; you sound panicked and your original question was a bit vague.

Here's my best advice.

All of France has a basic formality that will help you get along in stores and restaurants.

Greet the storekeeper or waiter in French: Bonjour Madame/Monsieur will suffice. If you do only that and then point at an empty table - a piece of fruit - whatever it is you want, you will be golden. You can fumble around in whatever combination of French/English/sign language you can muster.

Just the basic courtesy of greeting will set you apart from 95 percent of the tourists they encounter.

And two other all purpose words: "day-zo-lay" (I'm sorry I don't speak French, thank you so much for helping me in your best English." And always, always, always: Merci

And... what is an acceptable voice volume in America is not in Europe, especially in restaurants. Learn to speak more softly in public.

I loved Bayeaux (did I throw an extra vowel in there?). We were there in February last year and it was a ghost town but still lovely. The in-the-round theater at Arromaches (sp) was a hit too. I found the French people to be so nice and friendly. Loved Paris.

You'll find that using just these four French words/phrases will instantly improve your credibility as a sincere traveler: s'il vous plait, bon jour, merci, and au revoir. The French attitude thing is way overblown. My take is that some people expect an anti-American or rude attitude, so that's what they see through their lenses. I've never seen it.

"je voudre vielle de vin rouge sil vous plait"

Our first night in Paris we went to a little bar and chatted with the woman working the bar - my husband, son and I had a little scap of paper with all our phonetically spelled out phrases and she helped us - and I think got a kick out of us. I had all the merci, bonjour and sil vous plaits down. Say bonjour to everyone you meet and you'll be good to go.