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LIVING IN FRANCE

‘The human connection’ – Why foreigners love France’s bonjour habit

The importance of greetings - especially bonjour - in France is something that often surprises newcomers. But once they're got into the habit, do foreigners in France like it? Or find it annoying? We asked our readers.

Published: 21 July 2023 16:51 CEST
'The human connection' - Why foreigners love France's bonjour habit
Photo by Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP

It’s pretty common for foreigners in France to have a story about the time they forgot a bonjour after arriving in France – and were generally either ignored or reprimanded until they offered the correct greeting.

Greetings are hugely important in France, and forgetting your bonjour can mean the difference between good service and bad, or making friends or being ignored.

READ ALSO 11 everyday situations when you will need to use bonjour

If you live here, you generally end up accepting this because it will make your life easier – but once they have acclimatised, do foreigners enjoy their new habit? Or is it a chore or even mildly annoying to be constantly greeting people?

We asked our readers and our Twitter poll was extremely conclusive – 93.9 percent of respondents said they like the bonjour tradition. 

Many readers also shared their comments on their new habits.

Ronald G Kirchem said: “I adore the formal politeness of the French. It makes life much more enjoyable.”

Chris Hobday concurred, saying: “Je l’adore ! At a local café I am greeted by the very proper proprietress with a nod of the head and “Bonjour monsieur”, at a nearby resto with a handshake and “Bonjour ! ça va?” from a wisecracking waiter, and from the young serveuse at the wine bar, “Bonjour, Chris”, and “bisous”.

American Diana Chambers told us: “I LOVE French politesse – the human connection.”

The human connection was mentioned a lot when we previously spoke to French people about why bonjour is so important. Especially for people working in retail or service – a greeting acknowledges them as a person, rather than just a machine there to serve your needs.

READ ALSO Why Bonjour is the most important word in the French language

The friends and family of John MacNeil Allison benefit from excellent advice, as he told us: “I’m a fan. It’s the first tip I give fellow Americans visiting France who, like me, have limited French language skills – it gets every interaction off to right start, shows common courtesy.”

And several respondents said that they wished that their home countries had similar courtesies in place.

Linda H Matthews said: “I love that everyone acknowledges each other, even in the doctor’s waiting room, and the ados who hang around the bus stop. Too much sociability has been lost in my birth country.”

We struggled to find anyone who didn’t like it, but a few people added some caveats to the habit.

Scheenagh Harrington pointed out: “The only time I ever found it mildly irksome was when I briefly tried jogging and people expected me to be able to talk AND breathe at the same time. 

“Otherwise it’s excellent. I find it amazing that people fronting shops say it even when they’re hip-deep in customers.”

Gregory Viscusi said: “It’s moderately annoying when you enter a room of 20 people and you’re expected to greet every one individually. But as for when you walk into a shop or to a teller, absolutely the right thing to do. Drives me nuts to see my fellow Americans barge into a place and start bossing.”

Several people also recommended the book The Bonjour Effect: Secret codes of French conversation by Jean-Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow for further reading.

So there you have it – France, foreigners love your formal greetings. 

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TRAVEL NEWS

What’s the deal with passport stamping in France?

There are clear guidelines in place about who should have their passport stamped when they enter or leave France - but the letter of the law doesn't always seem to be applied on the ground. Here's what you need to know.

Published: 17 May 2024 14:24 CEST
What's the deal with passport stamping in France?

When you pass through a French border control post, officers will check your passport and – in some cases – stamp the date of your entry or exit of the country onto one of the blank pages in the booklet.

Although the system should be clear and simple, it becomes complicated when conflicting information is given on the ground.

Here’s what the rules say, and whether it’s really a problem if your passport is incorrectly stamped.

Who should be stamped?

The purpose of the date stamps for entry and exit is to calculate how long you have been in France, and therefore whether you have overstayed your allowed time – whether that is the time allowed by a short-stay Schengen visa or the visa-free 90-day allowance that certain non-EU nationals benefit from. 

Those people who are exempt from 90-day restrictions should therefore not have their passports stamped.

EU passport – people who have an EU passport should not have it stamped, because they have the right to unlimited stays due to EU freedom of movement.

Dual nationals – people who have passports of both EU and non-EU countries should not be stamped when they are travelling on their EU passport. However, because the passports of dual nationals are not ‘linked’, those travelling on their non-EU passports will be stamped, unless they have other proof of residency.

READ ALSO What are the rules for dual-nationals travelling in France?

French residents – the passports of non-EU citizens who have a residency permit in France (carte de séjour) should not be stamped, because they have the right to stay in France for as long as their permit is valid.

Visa holders – people who have a long-stay visa or a short-stay visitor visa should not be stamped, because they have the right to stay in France for as long as their visa is valid. 

Tourists/visitors – people making short visits to France who do not have a visa should be stamped, with the stamps keeping track of their 90-day allowance. Visitors from nationalities who do not benefit from the 90-day rule (eg Indians) are also stamped.

Travel practicalities

When crossing a French border, you should present your passport along with other documents – visa or carte de séjour – if relevant. Don’t wait for border guards to ask whether you are a resident.

It should be noted that the carte de séjour is not a travel document and cannot be used to cross borders, not even internal Schengen zone borders. The only valid travel documents for entering France are a passport or national ID card. Any other forms of ID – driving licence, residency card etc – cannot be used for travel purposes.

Border problems

While the rules on stamping are simple in theory, many readers of The Local have reported having their passports incorrectly stamped at the border, and this seems to be a particular problem for non-EU nationals who are resident in France.

Travellers are also often given incorrect information by border guards – for example being told that only holders of the post-Brexit Article 50 TUE carte de séjour are exempt from stamping, that all non-EU nationals must have their passports stamped or that only being married to a French national exempts you from stamping.

None of these are correct.

It’s also sometimes the case that people whose passports should be stamped – tourists, visitors and second-home owners who don’t have a visa – do not receive the stamp. For frequent visitors this can be a problem because it looks as though they have had a long stay in France, due to their exit not being recorded.

The system of stamping itself is also a bit haphazard with stamps scattered throughout the passport book in random order, so border guards sometimes make mistakes and miss an entry or exit stamp and therefore think that people have overstayed when they haven’t.

So how much of a problem actually is it if your passport is wrongly stamped?

It’s one thing to know the rules yourself, it’s quite another to have an argument with a border guard, in French, when a long queue is building behind you. Numerous Local readers have reported feeling that they had no choice but to accept a stamp when an implacable guard insisted upon it.

But is this really a problem?

One thing is clear – if you are a resident of France then you have the right to re-enter, and your proof of residency (visa or carte de séjour) takes precedence over any passport stamps. So it’s not a question of being barred from the country – it can, however, be inconvenient as it might lead to delays at the border while your passport record is queried.

Meanwhile people who did not receive correct exit stamps can be incorrectly told that they have over-stayed and even be liable for a fine. 

Will the new EES passport control system improve this?

Theoretically, the EU’s new Entry & Exit System – which does away with the manual stamping of passports – should get rid of these problems.

However, as we have seen, theory and what actually happens on the ground are two different things.

The EES system, due to come into effect later this year, brings in two main changes – it makes passport checks more secure by adding diometric data such as fingerprints and facial scans and it does away with manual stamping of passports and replaces it with scans which automatically calculate how long people have been in France.

You can read full details of how it works HERE. 

So that should eliminate the problems of unclear stamps, stamps being read wrongly or passports not getting the stamps they need.

Residents in France – carte de séjour and visa holders – are not required to complete EES checks and should have a separate system at ports, airports and railway terminals.

However, at present it’s pretty common for border guards to give incorrect information to non-EU residents who are resident in the EU – let’s hope that they are properly briefed before EES is deployed.

Have you had problems with passports being incorrectly stamped? Please share your experiences in the comments section below

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