Travelday

I have lived in France on and off for almost seven years. On the one hand, it’s very culturally similar to the States: both are Western countries, which means that a lot of customs are the same, or at least similar, and a lot of US cities were modeled after European ones, so really, it’s not like that much has changed. When things are different, I love them and embrace them. I love everything about my new home.

However, the one complaint I hear time and time again from American tourists is about the lines and heavy bureaucracy that rule France. In America, if you want something, like to be at the head of the line or to get special treatment in a restaurant, chances are, you can slip someone a tip and get what you want. This is not the case in France. No matter if you are a four-year-old girl or an old man, the poorest clochard at the grocery store buying a can of fifty cent beer or a high-class BCBG who has filled their cart with caviar and foie gras: you’re all citizens in the eyes of the French government, and you will all wait your turn.

This infuriates Americans, who are accustomed to being treated like kings in stores, as opposed to equals of those who work there. Americans think customer service people and waitstaff in France are a nightmare, but in America, we treat these people like dirt.

All of this boils down to the fact that France and America were founded upon different principles. Every American child knows that our forefathers battled for freedom: freedom from the oppressive British monarchy, freedom to make our own laws, freedom of religion. France, however, did not start out a colony, like America did. France’s revolution, which came only a few years after America’s, was rather about égalité: equality.

My favorite musical, Les Misérables,  says it quite well: “Do we fight for the right to a night at the opéra now?” France was so class-defined in the 1800s that the bourgeoisie demanded change. They demanded the same rights as everyone else: they wanted everyone to be treated as a citizen.

Eventually, they got their wish. Everyone in France legally has the same rights. This is why gay “marriage” is permitted (it’s actually a PACS: what Ségolène Royal had. Marriage is a Catholic thing.) This is also the undercurrent behind the “scarf” fiasco, when Muslim children were not permitted to wear headscarves in public schools. This is why all French children have a right to a free education. And, I’m sorry to tell you, but this is why, no matter how late you are, when you arrive at the French train station to buy your ticket, or the French post office to buy some stamps, you have to stand at the end of the line and wait: you are exactly the same as everyone else, no more, no less, and no tip will change that.