Book description
THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT FRANCE:
You burnt Joan of Arc! ? Smuggling live chickens into rugby matches
is patriotic ? How many times to kiss on the cheek ? Where not to
cross the road ? French guns don't go 'bang' ? What do you call a
party? ? bon appetit is vulgar ? A six-pack is a bar of
chocolate ? The dangers of being called Peter or Penny ? Your
smallest finger is your 'ear' finger ? The importance of Wednesdays
? How to tip ? and when to celebrate Christmas?
Forget the French you learnt at school. Based on twenty years of
hard-won knowledge, Pardon My French takes you through all the
words you need to survive, shows how and why they work, and steers you
past all the pitfalls and potential embarrassments of speaking French
in France.
From sugar-cube etiquette to why the Marseillaise is all about
slaughtering Austrians and Prussians as bloodily as possible, Charles
Timoney lays bare the Gallic mindset alongside their bizarre language.
Covering all areas of everyday life from eating and drinking to
travel, work and, crucially, swearing and sounding like a teenager,
this is not just the most entertaining, but also the most useful book
on France and the French you'll ever read.
When Charles Timoney and his French wife were both made redundant in
the same week they decided to try living in France for a year or so. It
proved much harder than expected. Charles' O level in French was little
help when everyone around him consistently used a wide variety of
impenetrable slang and persisted in the annoying habit of talking about
things he had never heard of. But they stayed. Two decades and two
thoroughly French children later, he decided to write the guide to
French that would have saved him from so many blunders and
misunderstandings along the way. This is it.
