Talk To the Snail: The Ten Commandments For Living With The French

Don't go to France without reading this book!

Have you ever walked into a half-empty Parisian restaurant, only to be told that it's complet? Attempted to say merci beaucoup and accidentally complimented someone's physique? Been overlooked at the boulangerie due to your adherence to the bizarre foreign custom of waiting in line?

Well, you're not alone. Internationally bestselling author Stephen Clarke has been there, too, and he is here to help. In Talk to the Snail, Clarke distills the fruits of years spent in the French trenches into a handy (and hilarious) book of commentary and advice. Read this book, and find out how to get good service from the grumpiest waiter; be exquisitely polite and brutally rude at the same time; and employ the language of l'amour and le sexe. Clarke also illuminates some of the reasons the French get under our skins: How can they work only 35 hours a week and yet still go on strike? Why are they so convinced of their own superiority? And what's this myth about French women not getting fat?

Packed with useful phrases, candid tips, and deft intercultural analysis, Talk to the Snail is a must-have guide to getting what you want from the French.