10 Things in France that are Weird for a British Expat

talking with my sparkie the other day its just laziness of the people fitting the sockets. flipping down should be on and up should be off. same as the uk.

so going down the list:

1: most people still have plug sockets in their bathroom at home in some description even if its just a razor socket.

2: most cinemas now let you pick seats in bigger cities with modern style. (older ones still work well as unlike in england people respect the cinema and therefor its not had to be redone up.

3: yes calling firemen is a bit wierd.

4: medicine is not sold in supermarkets as its a pharmacy product. I think uk supermarkets did it to make fast money.

5: Cash back. I think this is something i have never ever made use of even in the UK.

6: Speculoos is also for sale in most UK supermarkets, i know i love them and used tio have several packets at home and this isnt recent ive been in france for quite a few years now…

7: haha oxofrd i used to get the bus to work and to take kids to nursery / school and while getting off with a pushchair folks already getting on the bus as you get off.

8: While bacon is not for sale in every supermarket, round here Bulldog bacon and sausages are sold in my local super market and others too. Bacon is not a french thing so why would they sell it?

9: ive always used a spoon to spread chocolate spread (mainly becasue i just used to eat it as it came)

10: ive never seen anyone do 2 fingers for any other rason that to tell some one to F off in England or France.

yes they can but they are supposed to go same as the uk and its just lazy sparkies who dont bother testing when they fit the switches. its a 30 second job to do it right.

Not with a va-et-vient! Flip it down to ‘on’ it stays down, then go through the room and switch off with the other swItch - you will have to flip the first one up, for ‘on’. I have a rambling house so you don’t always retrace your steps.

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  1. it is pâte à tartiner speculoos the article is talking about, not the biscuits themselves.
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yes there is that but that is the same anywhere, when both switches are up though it should be off or in one of our rooms all 3 switches.

Just have a think about that :blush:

so all 3 switches in my room are up. yes when i turn a light on 1 is down and 2 are up and if i go out of the other door and turn it off then 2 are down but all 3 can be up at the same time…

Way i look at it most rooms just have 1 switch and those should always be down for on up for off. if you have 2 switches then one is fitted up and one down its never going to be possible to get them both in the up and off position unless they were fitted in the off position to begin with.

My kitchen has three switches operating the lights via a solenoid. You press the switches down to switch the lights on and they return to the starting position. To switch the lights off you repeat the same action. In my living room there are two toggle switches. If the lights are off and the switches are in their default position pushing the switch down switches the lights on. The lights are switched off by either moving the same switch up or the other switch down. The bathroom has one switch. Press it down and the light goes on, up and the light goes off. It has more to do with the way lighting systems are wired than the nationality of the house.

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exactly as I said its if you had a lazy electrician who didn’t care which way he fitted the switches.

Exactly David :wink:

No lazy electrician in my house. The switches all operate logically, they are just different in each room.

see in our 2 houses. one done by a french electrician, switches all over the place , now our main house english sparkie all switches set the right way. funny thing is the french sparkie wanted more money that our english sparkie and the job in new house is far superior to other house.

I’m beginning to wish I didn’t raise this up or down switch issue, it has to be the most tedious discussion ever spawned, and I am mainly to blame for inflicting it on the SFN readership, so please accept my “sincere and unconditional apology” (as befits such a “mistake” in these confessionally breast-beating times).

Will the last person to comment please flip the light switch up or down for merciful release… :confounded:

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I’m thinking of mounting mine sideways… :slight_smile:

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i have actually got one sideways lol. (its defunct and not in use but was quite funny to see it)

the best one we have though is in our old master bedroom the bedroom actually had a light switch but that light switch controlled the plug sockets on the one side of the bed. im thinking that used to have a lamp plugged into it as the bedroom did not have a light at all. plus side i used to turn off the switch and cut off all my chargers and such next to the bed

I think we should move the discussion on to why windows open inwards in France but outwards in the UK. Fascinating stuff :wink:

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I would continue to discuss this exciting subject but there’s some paint I need to watch drying… :wink:

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because with shutters many windows would have problems opening.

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