Oh my goodness Babeth! French is both a beautiful and a bizarre language!
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Not to mention multiple ones which have different meanings and each is a different gender - le tour vs la tour, le moule vs la moule etc.
Presumably homophones/homonyms with different origins and etymologies which now only have the gender to differentiate them but frustrating for a non native speaker because it raises yet more possibilities for minor errors in grammar & agreement completely changing the meaning of a sentence.
Other languages have their little treats as well; in German the word nach can be used to mean coming from or going to.
Apparently M et Mme Jacques Chirac, (former president of France) called each other vous. I have a now elderly neighbour that I have known for some 45 years with whom I am on the best of terms that I still call vous. On the other hand, my younger gardener has invited me to use tu, but continues to call me vous. It’s a matter of culture and upbringing. In my experience, if the other (French) person wants to be called tu, they will invite you to do so or suggest we do so mutually. I like Jane Jones’ approach. Be guided by what feels right under the circumstances, but if you want to play it safe don’t force it. The use of tu in certain circumstances can also be considered derogatory as it conveys a deliberate lack of respect. Taking a larger view of the situation, the Spanish have not two, but five versions of you and I understand that in Japanese it is vastly more complicated. We should consider ourselves lucky in this sense.
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To make the situation even more complicated, cross the border into Italy and buona sera is used anytime after lunch, but I agree with the others that saying bonsoir in France this early in the day would be strange.
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Well, right now Jef, it’s nearly, beer o’clock, that means, nowt else, ‘cept Din is goin’ to 'appen tudday, so it’s Soir now 
Chez Bill 
The more I hear about the linguistic varieties of “you”, the more I regret the passing of thou, thee and thine. I know these are still in daily use in parts of the British Isles, as well as simpler renderings of the verb ‘to be’, as I be, thou be(st) he be and she be, we be, you be and they be. Gorgeous. And I would love to see the warm ‘aye’ and ‘nay’ return to everyday speech. Better than yup and nope.
An old man’s dream, I fear. But it might start a trend to try it out. What do they call it, a meme? 
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I’m with you or as some are reputed to say, the sun is going over the yardarms somewhere on this planet.
Lots of those, still in common useage in Cumria (Cumberland) Pete, ‘tha noes Lad’.
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