France Makes Everything Complicated

Guy went "disclaimer: I'm French" then proceeded to do the most French thing possible: complaining about France

I don't think any french likes the french administration.

I worked at a restaurant in Paris long ago, and the owner was always telling me to be rude to customers cause, according to him, tourists wanted the "French experience" 😂

En France on un dicton qui dit '' pourquoi faire simple quand on peu faire compliqué''.

I needed an international version of our marriage certificate for the german administration (I am german, my husband in french, so our children are both french and german. But as they are born in France, we have to "make Germany aware" of their existence...). I called the mairie (townhall) of the town where we got married. They told me that they didn't know what to do. So I asked at the townhall of the town we were living in (being quite close to the german border, they are more used to stuff like that) who told me they just needed to fill out document XYZ. No way, the mairie near Orléans had never heard of it, dispite it being a normal document every townhall is supposed to have available. I had to get one from our townhall and mail it to them. They still managed to make a mistake while filling it out...

Ce qu'il faut surtout comme papier, le plus important de tous, c'est le laisser-passer A38.

I'm parisian, born and raised, and I'm constantly adjusting my path to accomodate people. I'm not saying you're wrong in your statement, I'm saying polite parisians exist but being polite in Paris mostly mean being unoticed! X)

as a wise man once said: "Paris, c'est Paris. La France est ailleurs." ("Paris is Paris. France is elsewhere.")

As a French-speaking Belgian, going to study in France (in the nineties) was an unexpected culture shock. I ended up queuing with the African families at 5am in front of the Préfecture, going with all my documents mentioned on the website and still getting yelled so badly that even I, a native French speaker, couldn't follow. The banks were another surprise. One bank refused to open an account for me (I was bringing money, not trying to borrow or anything), explained that grandparents are actually ATMs and telling me to go to La Poste because they could deny me. And worst of them all: CROUS. If you know, you know. That is when I started actually applying the strategy from Les 12 travaux d'Astérix. I started making up random documents and stamps until the teller was confused enough to give me what I wanted in the first place.

A Swede here. Ive been roadtripping in the French countryside twice and I just love France and the French people. Everyone I've met has always been really kind and helpful. Even if I dont know the language they have always tried to help me.

Having worked in a shop, I was also annoyed when customers came in

The attitude problem is mostly in Paris. It's a lot less in the rest of France.

The trick with French administration is to realize that internally they're a feudal system, with knights, barons, and the rest. The higher ranks only talk to OTHER "nobility". The trick to dealing with French bureaucracy is to find a "champion", usually low ranking but still considered one of their own, and have THEM correspond with the necessary people on your behalf. (re) discovered this when I needed some updated documents from the French government. Was unable to travel to France until I got those documents. 8 months of fighting the bureaucracy and they just politely fended off all my requests. Then I mostly accidentally did the right thing - I contacted the local French consulate and found myself a "champion". Just 3 weeks later I had my documents. Since then, whenever I need something, I just find a local "champion" and boom, stuff gets done REALLY quickly. If you're overseas the local consulate is your best bet, if you can convince one of them to be your champion. Internally it's more difficult, although I've had some success with the local mairie. The French bureaucracy might not consider themselves a modern aristocracy, but they sure hell act like it. So I just play along whenever I need something from them.

1/ I am French, I work/live abroad. I cannot get an International Driving License anymore. The rules have changed and are super complicated...... 2/ A few years ago, I went to Paris in the summer to meet my sister, with my 1 year old son in a pushchair, my wife (who his English) and my mother in law. Arrived safely at Charles de Gaules airport and everybody was polite, nice and helpful.... Very strange..... I asked my sister who burst out laughing explaining they had organised a "be nice to tourist day...." 3/ Quite ashamed to be French when I take foreign friends to Paris...... 4/ BUT: having lived abroad for many years, the consular service is WAY better than most countries in terms of flexibility and paperwork. (experiences in 6 different countries) 5/ Please keep doing your videos. I show them in my French classes, especially your shorts on French language. My students LOVE them/you.

I feel like in Canada, Quebec decided to take your description of "french administration" as a personal challenge of something they had to top. We moved from another part of Canada to Quebec for a year and ran straight into a wall of red tape. First, you have to switch your driving license and plates to Quebec plates within six months of moving. Second, it takes 5 1/2 months to get an appointment at the office that administers licenses and plates. Third, when you get there, you find out that in order to get Quebec plates, you need Quebec insurance, so you have to come back on another day, but they can't guarantee that you can get another appointment in time. Then you call the insurance place to get Quebec insurance, but they explain that you can't get Quebec driving insurance without Quebec plates. Not kidding. After multiple frustrating phone calls, we finally asked what we are supposed to do if we can't get plates without insurance, but can't get insurance without plates, and the person on the phone actually said "If you buy a car in Quebec, it will come with plates on it." !!!!

LOL I would just add that most French people _not_ living in Paris do not consider Parisians to be typically French (for many of the reasons that you have stated). Administration is equally awful everywhere though...

I'm french, and here is a true story about how french administration can be very VERY fkd up. When i was in the science faculty, i took an apartment with a friend. The monthly payment was around 800€, split in two, so i sent to the administration a letter to get help for paying the rent, as i was an unemployed student. In the letter i explained that the rent was 800€, but as i was sharing with someone i was only paying 400€. Let's put aside the fact that it took almost 6month for the help to trigger, when i had filed all needed documents, and for a time it was nice. 2 years later, i received a very angry letter from the CAF (part of the government that handle this kind of monetary help). In the letter they explained to me that since the rent was 400€ and i was spliting it, i was only paying 200€/month and therefore i lied to them and needed to pay them back around 2000€. Again, my first letter explained it all, so i guess some guy just went trough the record and missread it, never checked how true his asumption was, and fkd me for 5month. 5month during wich i weekly mailed them the actual documents, without being answered anything else than "you have to pay the 2000€ and then we can watch if you're right". Obviously as a student i had no way of paying this much, and it was a pain to solve. In the end i surpassed my administration phobia and went there, stayed until someone finaly agreed to take a look at the original letter, and do something. And then the guy who agreed to look at it revealed the big reality => they don't communicate between different service, so if the guy charged from checking things fk up, the guy that was originaly charged with the case can't do nothing to explain, they just don't communicate. In conclusion, french administration is deeply designed to be inefficient, even when people working in it just want to help you. One incompetent guy in the process can ruin the work of several people, and therefore fk the life of regular guys that just wanted to be over with their damn paperwork. Horrific u__u

I mean, Astérix comics tackled the bureaucracy hell... We still reference it in my family from time to time. 😂

I live in france and the post office in my town (10k inhabitants) is open, and this is no joke, from 2pm to 3pm on thuesdays and vednesdays. Even better, we have this social administration called caf, which has an *aweful* website that make you pull your hair out, but they also have offices in bigger cities. And you would be wrong for thinking that things will be quicker by making an appointment and talking to a real person. For starters, it opens on vednesdays from 3 to 5 pm AND THAT'S IT! If your working around that time, too bad. Then, even if you had an appointment, you'll be waiting for half an hour, if you're especially lucky on that faithful day. We love to let our frustration out on administrations but we also know why it is so bad, our government has been cutting budget for social services for years now, and still does, so there is no wonder these guys are overwhelmed.

Dear M. Loïc , this is your rent agency property writting We are still waiting for the free gig advertisement. Also your rent fees are going up. Thank you for your understanding 😄

A good while ago I went back to France on a business trip. I brought with me some old Francs that are no longer in use since France has adhered to the Euro monetary system. It was still possible to redeem those Francs but only at the Banque de France main branch in Paris. I took the day off and went there to finalise my transaction. I was told by the clerk that on that particular day they could change the paper currency but I would have to return the following Tuesday for the metal rounds. I had to have this thing repeated to me twice because I could not fathom the stupidity of it. I was leaving the following day, I still have the pieces. I cleaned them and mounted them in a frame that I put on a wall in my TV room. A memento of the French weird rule system and conversation piece.

The French invented bureaucracy, and by the time they realised the mistake they couldn't find the right forms to undo it

"French Administration is the Worst" *Germany has entered the chat*

My favourite thing about the French is the 'face farting'. Especially when I'm in class and to a question I may have asked a student says, "PPPrrrrr", obviously with the shoulder-shrug, I do make it a point to tell them that that wasn't the answer I was looking for. 🤣 If ever you need info on the French education system, I'd be glad to give you some input. In waaaaay to deep!! 😂😂😂

Agree 💯%!! I actually can confirm that buying an apartment is easier than finding the one for rent!

The administration part seems to be pretty much exactly the same as here in Germany. My condolences.

Really enjoyed this! As a tourist to your beautiful country I thought French people hated tourists. Glad to see they behave the same way with each other. And to those who say this was only a Paris problem…..NON, simplement non! I speak fluent French, granted I have an accent but many of the Parisiens and non-Parisien went out of there way to correct every little thing I said, even when I was repeating what they said. 😄. Love your channel, always looking to the next one.

You’re the funniest French comedian I’ve ever seen. Your language series is just mingling clever made. 😂😂😂

in france it s not allowed to die a sunday in my village (yes it s a law)

I don’t know, I find a lot of people in large cities have an attitude problem. It’s not exclusive to France. Come to Canada and spend some time in Toronto, you’ll see. Or even go to New York, you’ll see.

Attitude and arrogance is part of our A-level in France 🤣

A lot of this happens in big cities in the US too. Saying that, I'm all for the shrug being used everywhere, and I'd love to have some bread and café experiences that don't suck.

Lol... I was in Marseille yesterday at a trade show, listening to one conference about the "coup de coeur" where a guy related that a study had been done about a specific industry. The result was that only 40% of the time, someone entering a store would be greeted by the staff.. In 2022. In 2023 this number had gone down to 30%. When he started saying that he wasn't quite sure why this was so, it took all of my inner strength not to stand up and say "where's the surprise? You're french!"

A lot of this sound like parisian issues 🤡

asterix: la maison qui rend fou (I can relate, we have the same problem in Italy)

I am French, living in the US for decades. Whenever I return to France, I am always shocked at the insanity and complication of the French way of doing things. Everything you say is absolutely true but very, very mild compared to reality. In my humble opinion, things are wayyyy worse! I don't know how people who don't speak French fluently can even survive! Love your videos! Excellent travail! 🙂

je sais maintenant pourquoi j'ai autant de problèmes avec l'administration! Je n'aurais pas dû laisser mon OVNI à Chateauneuf du Pape !!

Having traveled a bit, I'm pretty confident in saying every country thinks their administration is the worst, even Switzerland (and we all know everyone wish they lived in Switzerland)

He's not lying. I've been here 4 yrs and maaaaan🎯

I lived in France (campagne), for 10 years and c'est trop vrai.

For renting a flat, if you go through an agency yes they tend to be very demanding as they don't want to lose precious time with not-very-serious applicants. If you contact owners directly though, sometimes (!!) they are less demanding. But please keep in mind that there is a huge (!!) ratio of unpaid rent bills, and owners (landlords) have approx. zero (!!) way of getting their money. They can file a complaint, but it takes years, and when the non-paying tenants are condemned (they usually are), it is very difficult to get the money back (the owner has to pay (from his own pocket) for a bailiff to do some actions, praying that it will deliver, and even then it can again take a few years). The only tiny security that an owner can get, is to ask applicants for a guarantor. And even then it is time-limited and amount-limited. Laws in France are particularly harsh against owners. Unpaid rents, required diagnostics, unrealistic isolation requirements, illegal to eject tenants, squatters cannot be ejected, etc. France doesn't like people being owners. It was even proposed, not so long ago, that France would be co-owner of the land of every owner, and that every owner would have to pay a percentage of their revenues based on that share, and when they can't, the said share increases, progressively expropriating them. France is absolutely awful in regard to ownership. Really.

What I like in France is tax declaration. When you have a job, it's automatic. I moved to Canada and I have 15 pages of maths to do, on paper, because apparently, computers don't exist in Canada. There are tools you can pay to do so, though

I used to complain a lot about French administration until.. I moved to the US. After spending hours on my taxes and being turned down by an horribly incompetent guy, I started being nostalgic about how doing my taxes in France was literally taking me 15 seconds. And after spending 7 hours at the DMV to renew my license, I now love how France has managed to modernize its administration and make most things straightforward and easy. Sure there is still room for improvement, but overall, the US was for me a much worse experience. Now there is bias at play here. First cultural differences. You never really understand your own culture until you go to a different country. Some things that can be obvious for any French person is not for foreigners, and folks wouldn't understand why a foreigner wouldn't understand it, as they're not aware of what is typical French and not obvious outside of France. But it's true for any country. I've had folks fail to understand why I didn't understand "Tylenol" (or even acetaminophen) -- they had no idea it was called differently in other parts of the world. Then, going through immigration paperwork is a nightmare in any country. Try to get a Visa, Green card then US Citizenship and maybe you'll find France wasn't that bad after all. As for the shrug -- well, try to understand the indian nod 🙂 Attitude and Cafés are mostly Parisian. Not French. Regarding apartments, I had one landlord in the US ask me for a credit score. I told him I had none (just arrived in the US) and he told me to get it regardless. Paid $25 for the credit score company to tell me that they can't even give me a "no credit score certificate", all I can ask is for a refund. So no credit score = no house? Well, then another landlord didn't care as they understood our situation. In other words, it depends on who you talk to. Rental agencies optimize their costs; if you're a "special" case, they just don't want to bother with you.

For renting an apartment in USA they asked exactly the same, (my apartment asked 2 years of rental history, credit score, proof of income, driver license number etc) but ask also to pay non refundable fees. So if you're denied too bad for you, you just paid for nothing.

Now I understand why there are many misunderstandings between French and Italians because of French attitude 😂

Thank you thank you thank you...i can feel the thick energy of a collective venting from all of us living here.

The thing about store owner is so true. They can get pissed of and don't want to sell you anything because you didn't say bonjour

1:00 First off… I experienced this with store owners sighing when I first walked in the door, within 5 minutes of my arrival in Paris!

Francais habitant loin de Paris, on ne peut qu'être parfaitement d'accord avec toi, ça se trouve c'est même nous qui avons les pires clichés sur les Parisiens^^ Loin de Paris, en general, les gens sont bien plus souriant ou accueillant, et l'administration est plus efficace (car on est pas 10 millions sur 200 kilomètres carré 😅) Une phrase dit qu'il faut être parisien pour apprécier Paris, tous les autres pensons que cette ville est juste un enfer^^ (En général car c'est bien sûr loin d'être vrai pour tout le monde).

The day i took an appartment in bangkok i knew something was off with france. Passport + money? welcome to your new home! That's absolutely crazy easy anywhere else

Our town's bakery has gone bankrupt and we now have a machine giving us bread near the townhall that is supplied by another bakery... from another town. I swear this has been felt as an humiliation and people from the other villages around us often make fun of us. 🗿 A typical conversation may be: "My town is better." "Stfu you do not even have a bakery"

I just say that much: Come to Germany and it's administration. It's the same here. You'll cry. It's like "The house that makes Maniacs" in the "Asterix and the Romans" comic (if anybody knows, how I mean).. 😭 Edit: It seems, the main or only difference between Germany and France is, that Germans are quiet and drink beer.. 😅

French here, and I wholly agree to all of this. I would add that the co-signer thing for appartment dossier is even more insidious than what's been said - I heard about a guy living in Marseille, in the south of France, who had a well paying job, and couldn't get an appartment... not just because the cost of living increased like crazy, but because the guy is... an orphan. He has no relatives at all. And the co-signer, you guessed it, must be a relative. ... So he was living in his car. Basically homeless, despite working a 2k/month job. ... So if you don't have a relative. You can't complete your dossier. At all. No matter if you actually have the means to pay for the exorbitant rent of a singular appartment in a big city. WTF. Now, I would say that it depends on who you're dealing with - many people in the administration, from my experience, genuinely want to help you out. They will make exceptions, or try and guide you around the protocol depending on the situation. But, I guess i've been lucky - and I haven't had to deal with finding an appartment, specifically. So it really is a game of chance, and from hearing the stories of litterally everyone in my entourage, it really is generally a bother and administration is a pain. I hate it.

Talking about bakeries, I gotta say... Man... I went to France for the end of high school trip, and one of my best memories was eating a chocolate chip baguette. Simply DELICIOUS!

OR try the Spanish red tape. So complicated that most people will employ a "gestoria" who deals with the administration, fills out forms and makes sure everything is done the way it is supposed to. For a price, though. Same in Italy.

My husbands all relatives live in France. So agree. Some situations are just hilarious 😁 Love your videos ❤

American married to a French man and living in France and.... I have never felt so seen. My husband would also agree with you! Love living here though!

I wish mosquitoes really knew how to read ‘No mosquito admittance’ signs in Canada 😊

Loic your videos are superb! I'm a Canadian living in Catalunya just south of the French border and dude! You nailed (at least for me) both cultures! Hilarious!😂😂❤

In my experience Marseille has an attitude problem the same. But also, so many bones to pick across Canada and the USA. lol

I kinda have an idea about where all those french people go during August.. I live in Corfu🙃

5:22 Bah, ça explique pourquoi les Français ont autant de congés et de fériés! Pour avoir plus de temps pour courir d'un bureau fermé à l'autre 😂

Mais pourquoi faire simple quand on peut faire compliqué ?! Telle pourrait être notre devise ! Et c'est vrai qu'il y a plein de choses absurdes ! Merci d'en avoir fait une vidéo 🤣🤣🤣🤣

I am trying my best not to laugh but this video is unexpectedly hilarious.

I had the exact experience you first described! Back in the 90s...I needed to make a phone call. I had just arrived (off the plane), I had a few coins, but could not find a phone that would take coins (the only way to make a call from a public phone in the US at the time). All of the phones only seemed to use a télécarte (which I didn't have). I actually spoke half-decent French, so I confidently went into a tabac shop to ask the clerk if there were any phones that took coins, not télécartes. She told me no. I left feeling a bit lost, but eventually found my friends, somehow by the grace of God as I cried alone on the kerb (boo hoo). My friends, who were actually Dutch, but living in France, informed me that she could have sold me a télécarte from her tabac shop. But I hadn't asked her that. Nor had I asked her how I could get one of those télécartes. Instead, she condescendingly decided not to reveal that information to me, because she deemed me too unworthy to purchase one of her precious télécartes. That was on my first day in Paris.

An American here…living in France for 6 years now. Living more in the campagne. Misery loves company😀 Love it here but seriously though, there is a lot of little cultural differences I never saw coming.

3:10 I prefer French expressing themselves loudly than expressing themselves with guillotine.

I can vouch for Geneva (French speaking part of Switzerland) has a similar dossier requirements and are equally frustrating. But once you find a footing then this place is heaven.

Oh god, I thought only Bengali/Kolkata shopkeepers were like this! The sighing when you enter, the talking you out of spending money at their damn shop, that attitude! Exactly the same experience growing up in suburban Kolkata!

So the worst about administration is when you want something, and A say it's not here, that you have to go see B, and B say nope, it's not here, it's A 🙃 maddening! Also when you want something, they're like "oh, we need that document" then you go through the hassle of getting the said document and they're like "oh no, in your case, it's not applicable, sorry!" Like seriously?! One thing I liked in the US is that at the DMV they take your mugshot themselves! Here, to get a new driver's licence, you have to go take it yourself, make sure it's approved by ANTS (the governmental organism that takes care of ID related stuff) and then, if you've got a QR code, then, bingo, it's digitalised right away! If not, well, hard luck, you have to cut the picture, stick to an official document you've printed yourself, filed yourself, and then, you have to mail it to them, with an envelope and a stamp. Oh, and as they will be digitalising the picture themselves, it'll take extra time LOL! You could scan it yourself, but nope, you can't!

Regarding French administration - I read somewhere that it’s so cumbersome due to the fact that in the past nepotism was quite a common practice therefore people who wanted to bring their family in the comfy public company, had to actually create new positions within the company, adding more processes , procedures to Actually justify their jobs. Times has changed, the procedures remained.

Salut ! Un grand merci pour ta vidéo ! C'est un travail colossal et ton humour sur l'administration française était juste parfait. Un vrai cauchemar bien connu de tous ! En France, un autre sujet incontournable : les grèves. Un véritable art avec ses pancartes, ses défilés et ses slogans. On est connus pour râler et faire grève tout le temps ! C'est assez comique pour un étranger, mais c'est ancré dans notre culture. Et grâce aux grèves, on a obtenu des droits importants : les 35h, les congés payés, la sécurité sociale, le droit de grève lui-même, l'égalité hommes-femmes, la protection de l'environnement, le droit à l'avortement... C'est vrai que ça bloque le pays et ça agace certains, mais c'est un moyen essentiel pour le peuple de se faire entendre. Le soutien aux agriculteurs il n'y a pas si longtemps en est la preuve ! Le sujet est vaste et a peut-être déjà été traité. Si c'est le cas, mea culpa ! En tout cas, bravo pour ton travail ! C'est du grand art !🙂

Love your videos and sense of humor!!

boulangerie/bakerie are only everywhere in medium/large city, small town/village may only have 1 or not have any. For example my city only has 2(3 if you includes the supermarket) despite having around 10k residents.

That woman yelling "Macron ! Putain ! Explosion !" is the best thing I've seen on the internet today. Merci, Loïc ! :D

Paris attitude problem, one time we were passing on a transfer in Charles de Gaulle airport, and we dared asking the bus driver if the bus goes to the right terminal cause the transfer was on the other side of the airport and my dad was so motion sick when we landed he was taken to the clinic, so mum very politely ask if the bus stop at terminal 1, the bus driver then started to swear at us in France, we came from Sao Paulo Brazil, and know enough Portuguese to fully understand all the swears...

Haha, everything you just mentioned about French administration was perfectly depicted in Twelve Tasks of Asterix. Even the annoyment of asking workers for help, it's such a brilliant film. A true classic. 😂

100% agree. I love France, live and work here for 12 years and generally happy - but French administration is just *so* bad. Compared to Finland (where I'm from) it's both overdimensioned and inefficient. French tax payers literally pay more to get less.

I have 2 guesses on why the administration is so complicated: - they almost never update their old policies to integrate with the new ones. Each time a law is passed and they have to apply it, they don't take a look at the old practices and adapt them... - the administration is run by civil servants. They do want to justify their existence and salaries and at the same time, make it look like they always need more. And they will strike if you rock the boat a little too much in a way that would maybe make them more efficient and so, some of them redundant... and the 2 reasons are not exclusive of each other

I am from Algeria which was colonized by France during more than a century and what you are describing about administration, yelling and pastries remembers me of my country. It's french legacy 😂 I moved to Canada and a I miss Les boulangeries et les viennoiseries 😢 it was literally part of my daily routine to enjoy un croissant chaud en allant au travail.

I've lived in Paris for over 20 years and I've seen a little bit of the first one, but none of the second one. I guess we just don't see the same part of the city. As for how loud Parisians are ... I've found it much more pronounced in Marseille (and the South in general) as well as Tunis, Jerusalem, Dakar, or generally anywhere in Italy. As for the administration... I'm my own experience it's much worse than what he said. Without irony or exaggeration, I wish that his examples were the worst I had to fight through. As for how hard it is to rent apartments ... I don't think Loïc has seen the worst of it. The file he described is the bare minimum, they often ask significantly more. In Paris, at least. Here it's much worse than anywhere else in the country.

I only had the best experiences in Paris. I got treated wonderfully, sweetly and kindly. Super nice.

I love this. I like your 'disclaimer' at the beginning. I live in Vietnam and have purposely chosen to do so but if I say anything 'negative' about living here, there is always some 'holier than thou' expat know-it-all that will respond with "if you don't like it, than go back to America!". How can you make videos about how different things are if you aren't allowed to comment about how different things are? Maybe we all should prerecord a "NO, REALLY...I LOVE IT HERE!" disclaimer to plug in every time we talk about negative differences. 🤣

It would be so funny if the mosquitos at the end of the conversation just started laughing in the buzzing manner, like bzz-bzz-bzz-bzz (imitating giggling)

The marie of my little village, pop. 700, is fantastic and the people for the department ,64, are very pleasant everytime that I've had to deal with them. Maybe it's the clean mountain air/less stress of the south. The paperwork is there, but they always seem willing to help.

This is too accurate 🤣

I applied for a 10 year residence in France back in September (my visa was also expiring that month too), I tried to apply 4 months before that but my prefecture didn't say they changed to online applications until 3 months after I applied just for an appointment to apply, lol. I had taken a language test and everything to be sure I'd qualify for the 10 year residency too. But because I was extremely late submitting mine, and then a bunch of holidays happened, and then immigration reforms happened, it's almost like they have forgotten about me, though I contacted ANTS and they said it's still being "procesed". I'm on my second "récépissé" already, lol, those things only last 3 months. I swear if I don't hear anything in a year I'm gonna scream, lol, I already know I might owe more immigration taxes because I submitted late, but my gawd!!!! the store owner thing is not just in Paris, lol, I was on vacation in Die (small town in the southern Alps, tons of tourists from Germany and Netherlands there, this little town has just too many tourists for it's size), and I saw an antique store with clothing from the early 1900s, and I was like, ooh, I'll get something for my mom because she loves this stuff. I was basically chased out of the store by the owner, even though I was speaking to her in French, trying to explain I was looking for something for my mom, that I understood how the clothing items were made, but this older store keeper was a complete B!t&H hahhahahaha, so true, I'm not joking. She kept asking me what I was looking for and why was I there in her store, and not in a nice way, but in a way where she didn't want me there.

Getting my OFFI was a nightmare 🤪 love how they seem to just misplace your paperwork ! I loved living in Paris ❤

I love how many people here reference "The twelve tasks of Asterix". Since I moved to the US, I have not found anyone else who knows the wonderful books. I used to read the books in Spanish in the 1980s and I still use "majareta" when someone starts acting crazy fool.

When I was an assistante de langue, my friends and I all applied for the CAF. We were all making the same amount of money, and my rent was the highest but I was given the lowest amount per month. My French friend told me to dig up every relevant and irrelevant document I could get my hands on (including a copy of my American gym membership card), then go back up there and demand that my dossier be reviewed again with the additional paperwork. I was scolded for submitting an incomplete file and the fonctionnaire swore she would chastise whoever had pushed my application through... but I left with a letter promising double my initial payment.

Almost like in germany, here you need a home to apply for a job but you need a job to get a home, wich is doable but wierd.. Also: love your vids :)

This is quite possibly the absolute worst year to tell people about french city life in August because of the 2024 Olympics

Signing up for a broadband package for our French house in the Orange shop in Toulon was so funny, I knew exactly the plan I wanted but the lady there was intent on selling me a cheaper one, couldn't understand I wanted the more expensive one (because it actually suited my needs much better?) 🤣

We are very regular visitors of the Provence area. But at some time we had some English friends living near the Auxerre area. The most weird thing I have seen is with some friends of our friends who owned a camping. On the camping a little restaurant with an esperesso machine. The espresso machine went broke. Ordering some new parts ... ... The dealer close by: "no you can't by with us because you are not in our region". The dealer much farther away: "we can't help you because those parts are very difficult to obtain". A dealer even further away: "we will try and order but it might take a while". 6 SIX months later. Some parts delivered by that much further away dealer. Wrong parts. Oh sorry we mixed up. Try again. Another three months later. Some parts arrive 2 OK 1 wrong again. oh sorry we mixed up again. 1 month later, all parts are there. Then. No we can't send an engineer to repair it for you, too far away. Result. 10 months wait for parts and you have to do the repair yourself. CRAZY-ness to the next level.

Absolutely LOVE fresh bakery items for breakfast in France!!

The thing about shop owners not wanting people to enter their shop, you are expected to say "Bonjour monsieur/madame" first thing, as you pass the door, so if you skip that part and only say "Bonjour" when you get to the counter to pay, everything is possible, from the shrug, to the passive aggressive, to the outright shaming, but it cannot go the right way at that point, no matter how expensive the things you are buying. Even if you get this right, being quiet and completely left to your own device is not something you should expect, especially if it is a small shop, so not making a little effort to be chatty while looking at items can be seen as aloof. By the time you go to pay, it doesn't matter if you're trying to be friendly, it's too late!

Okay, now I forgive all those people I met the first time I came to France. I thought my being black was the peoples' problem.

One thing that i hate about French, their honesty, “hurts my feelings”. One thing that i love about French, their honesty, “keeps me grounded”.

There's a reason that one of the most popular French animation classics: Asterix le Gaulois, (or as I grew up with it in German, "Asterix der Gallier") has a special homage to French Administration in "Asterix erobert Rom", or "The Twelve Tasks of Asterix". One of the tasks is conquering a bureaucratic building, which is one of the hardest tasks he goes through. Though for the longest time, I thought the comic was German, since we are very proud and annoyed with our own bureaucracy.

regarding the shop, it could just a regular employee that works without commission, if the manager is not there, they might not want to do their job😅