France Culture & Language

France takes culture seriously as a matter of policy, not only of habit. The Académie française has ruled on the language since 1635, the state part-funds cinema through a levy on ticket sales, and the gastronomic meal of the French — the structure of the meal itself, not any particular dish — was added to UNESCO’s intangible heritage list in 2010.

Food is organised by place. The AOC system ties cheeses, wines and even poultry to defined areas and methods, so a regional speciality is a legal category rather than a local boast.

Underneath the centralised surface, regional identity is strong and in places linguistic: Breton in the west, Basque and Catalan in the south-west, Alsatian in the east, Corsican on the island. Several were actively suppressed in schools within living memory and are now taught again.

Laïcité, the separation of religion from public institutions, is a founding principle and the subject of continuous argument rather than a settled question.

French is the sole official language. English is widely spoken in Paris and in tourist areas and much less so in rural France, where a few words of French make a material difference.

One rule matters more than vocabulary: bonjour comes first. Entering a shop, approaching a counter or starting any exchange without greeting the person is read as rude, and a great deal of what visitors experience as French coldness traces back to skipping it. Bonjour, then your question — even in English — changes the response noticeably. Merci, s’il vous plaît and au revoir on leaving complete the set.