60 Million Frenchmen... Mark 2

[Minouette]

Hi

The other thread on this book was getting a bit long so I thought I'd start again....

I've got 60 Million and very useful/informative it is too.  However, does anyone know of a sort of 'vie quotidienne' version? 

After 2 and a half years, and a whole heap of unintentional gaffes (and verbal howlers eg trying to feminise the word 'chiot' for a female puppy, realising that the verb for 'to kiss' has changed meaning since my school days, heating my house with a frypan, mispronouncing the word for cider etc) I have realised that the cultural differences between our two countries run much deeper than just a language. 

Part of the fun of living here is discovering these differences but, sometimes, being forewarned would be more useful.  For example, today, quite by accident, I learned that taking mistletoe into the house at Christmas was considered most unlucky.   Phew... another 'put your foot in it' situation averted!  A couple of years back, around this time, I almost bought my landlady a bunch of those lovely chrystanthemums that the shops were full of.  You get my drift.....

And, although I found my local French to be very forgiving, I do sometimes catch them looking at me as if I must be very thick indeed not to be aware of the things that they obviously imbibed with their mother's milk.

So, is there some handy little book written by some other gaffe-committer that would smoothe my path a little?? 

Here's hoping

Minou

 

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