How To Smile

via NYT

When I was taking a French conversation class at the Alliance Francaise a couple of years ago one of the most interesting things I learned from my wonderful French French teacher (aside from the language) was that the French don't smile. 

At least not the way Americans do.

And in fact if you smile at them as you pass them on the street, you creep them out.

This seems like an essential thing to know before visiting France. How had I never heard this before? (Had I known this, clearly my French speaking career might well have taken off.)

This NYT article is all about smiling and lips and teeth and faces. But here's the quote that leaped out at me about the not smiling/smiling thing:

"So you know," the Russian reporter informed Paula Niedenthal, "that American smiles are all false, and French smiles are all true."