France - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture

Culture Smart / Cultuur Bewust

by Barry Tomalin

Culture Smart! provides essential information on attitudes, beliefs and behavior in different countries, ensuring that you arrive at your destination aware of basic manners, common courtesies, and sensitive issues. These concise guides tell you what to expect, how to behave, and how to establish a rapport with your hosts. This inside knowledge will enable you to steer clear of embarrassing gaffes and mistakes, feel confident in unfamiliar situations, and develop trust, friendships, and successful business relationships.

Culture Smart! offers illuminating insights into the culture and society of a particular country. It will help you to turn your visit-whether on business or for pleasure-into a memorable and enriching experience. Contents include


* customs, values, and traditions
* historical, religious, and political background
* life at home
* leisure, social, and cultural life
* eating and drinking
* do's, don'ts, and taboos
* business practices
* communication, spoken and unspoken


"Culture Smart has come to the rescue of hapless travellers." Sunday Times Travel

"... the perfect introduction to the weird, wonderful and downright odd quirks and customs of various countries." Global Travel

"...full of fascinating-as well as common-sense-tips to help you avoid embarrassing faux pas." Observer

"...as useful as they are entertaining." Easyjet Magazine

"...offer glimpses into the psyche of a faraway world." New York Times

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, France, History, Cultural

168 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Albert · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was another one of the books I read in preparation for travel. This was part of a Culture Smart! series, the first I have read of this series. I found it to be easy to consume and helpful. It began with sections on geography and history, neither of which I was expecting in this type of book, but which I found beneficial, especially the history section. My knowledge of French history is a bit weak and could use a more significant refresh, but every little bit helps. The rest of the book, which focused on customs and culture, as the title indicated, was very informative although a bit repetitive at times. I found this book aimed at both the vacation tourist and the business traveler, so some sections could be skipped depending on your purpose. I still found the sections that were not directly relevant to me to be interesting.

Overall, short and beneficial, but could have been even more concise.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

35: Charles de Gaulle once said "The French will only be united under the threat of danger. Nobody can simply bring together a country that has 265 kinds of cheese."

[Gadi Nissim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Smart and useful

A useful short book that combines witty observations about France and french people with helpful tips and advices about getting along there, particularly when doing business.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

There must have been more than 1 author writing this book. There’s a lot of repetition on certain subjects, such as food and clothing.

[Oana · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent little book on customs and ways of communicating. This book would be useful to short-term visitors to France and can be read in 2-3 hours by even the slowest readers. (The history section was confusing as it jumped around a bit.)

[Rossie]

Quite a good book to have if you plan to go to France :)

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice, quick read on France & culturally favored etiquette expectations by the natives. "We are all different." My grandson said about age 5. He's right!