A phrase you hear a lot in France is en principe, or “in principle.”

you do need to be careful how you fill out checks, because banks carefully ration them. When you’ve run out, you need to go to the bank and request another checkbook, then come back and pick it up in person. And people ask me what I do all day…

In France, if you’ve listed your property with an agency, you’re not permitted to sell it for more than the listed asking price. Coming from a country where real estate values are determined by what people will pay for a place, this was a strange concept. It’s like putting something up for auction and setting a maximum amount you’ll take for it. If

You are clearly right, but in the end, you would probably lose because you are the propriétaire, and owners always lose.”

In France, being exigeant, or discriminating, is considered a positive quality, as is complaining: both put vendors on alert that you expect the best.

Being confrontational is part of the French character.

It’s the gardiennes’ business (or they think it is) to know everything about everyone in their building. Since they keep such good tabs on the goings-on of their building’s inhabitants, they can likely guess—based on, say, a spouse who has a frequent midday visitor who slips away, down the stairs and out of the building, with wet hair from a hasty

Going into situations with a soupçon of cynicism is the key to living in France. It manifests itself by being exigeant (demanding). If you take what’s first offered, there’s a good possibility that you’re getting duped.

1910, when the Seine flooded Paris and the water rose 28 feet above the normal level, submerging the city for a week. Parisians paddled boats through the métro stations and makeshift footbridges were set up over water-filled streets so pedestrians could cross.