French culture today is marked both by great regional and socio economic differences and by strong unifying tendencies.

 

In France, French is the official language.  It is the first language of 88% of the population.  Most of those who speak minority languages also speak French, as the minority languages are given no legal recognition.  A 3% of the population speak German dialects, predominantly in the eastern provinces of Alsace-Lorraine and Moselle.  Flemish is spoken by around 90,000 people in the northeast, which is 0.2% of the French population.  Around 1 million people near Italian border speak Italian.  Basque is mainly spoken along the French-Spanish border (0.1%).

 

Catalan dialects are spoken in the French Pyrenees by around 260,000 people.  The Celtic language, Breton, is spoken mainly in the north west of France.  These three languages have no official status within France.  In South France, over 7 million people speak Occitan dialects, representing 12% of the population of France. 

 

Arabic is also regarded as the third largest minority language, which is spoken by around 1.7% of the population throughout the country.

 

Food is one of the greatest passions of the French people.  Their cooking is highly refined and involves careful preparation, attention to details and the use of fresh ingredients.  It varies by region and is heavily influenced by what is grown locally.

 

The family is the social adhesive of the country and each member has certain duties and responsibilities.  The extended family provides both emotional and financial support.  Despite their reputation as being romantic, the French have a practical approach towards marriage.  Families have few children but parents take their role as guardians and providers very seriously.

 

French are private people and they have different rules of behaviour for people within their social circle and those who are not.  Although the French are generally polite in all dealings, it is only with their close friends and family that they freely express themselves, French highly value the friendship which also involve being available whenever needed. 

 

Handshake is a common form of greeting.  Friends may greet each other by lightly kissing on the cheeks, once on the left cheek and once on the right cheek.  First names are reserved for family and close friends.  In France, when you are entering a shop, you need to say 'Bonjour' (good morning) or 'Bonsoir' (good evening) with the honourific title such as Monsieur and Madame.

 

If you wish to give flowers as a gift to somebody, it has to be in odd numbers but not 13 as it is considered as an unlucky number.  It is also important to know which flowers may or may not be given for a particular situation.  White lilies or chrysanthemums are for funerals only; red carnations are a symbol of bad will and any white flowers are used for weddings.  However, prohibitions of flowers are not generally followed by younger generation.

 

Make sure when you intend to give wine as a gift, it falls into the highest quality you can afford as French are quite particular in their taste.

 

When you are invited to a French house for dinner, make sure you arrive on time.  If you are invited to a large dinner party, especially in Paris, make sure you send flowers in the morning of the day of the occassion so that they can be displayed on that evening.  It is also important that you are dressed nicely when invited to a party as French are very fashion conscious and their version of casual is not as relax as in many western countries.

 

French's table manners are very continental.  Do not begin eating until the hostess say 'Bon Appetite'.  If you have finished eating, cross your knife and fork on your plate with the fork over the knife.  Do not rest your elbows on the table, however your hands should be visible and NOT in your lap.  Make sure that you do not cut salad with knife and fork.  You need to fold the lettuce on to your fork.  It is also important that you finish everything on your plate.