As a French living in the UK, I was quite surprised to see all the differences that exist between our 2 countries that are so close geographically but so far away in terms of driving, cooking, education etc… My first experience of being invited by British friends for a meal was something quite interesting for me like the time (3:00pm almost the time of the goûter for me:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:), the quantity of beers 
but what I really appreciate here is that meals are soo laid back (everyone brings something, a dish or dessert) compared to when I was inviting my friends in France and you had to show that you could cook and it had to be entree, plat de resistance, fromage and dessert !
What was your first impression when invited for a meal at someone’s home in France?
Just how long it took.
We are usually the slowest eaters - in French or English restaurants - but the fact the meal lasted pretty much the whole evening was a revelation.
I find eating with friends in France so much more relaxed! Far more chat, slow eating, and appreciation of what we were eating. It has changed over the years and now people will regularly ask if they can bring something, which they never did before. Our new year’s dinner was 6 courses, we did 2 and our friends provided the other 4. Normal meals just 3 course (plus cheese of course) and the guest brings the dessert.
I also find the alcohol consumption (amount and speed) among British people quite off-putting.
What I miss about the UK is the range of ethnic cooking. For french friends I have to tone everything down hugely!
Well my first impression was nothing like yours of Britain @Nathalie66 , because your first impression was not my experience there. 
Whoever were these people that wanted you to take part in an evening meal in the middle of the afternoon? Maybe they weren’t British at all but Spanish, inviting you for lunch. 
The only difference I could find coming here was that, as @Porridge has already said, the meals were sensibly lengthend to allow digestive and conversational gaps between courses.
Apart from that, to me it was like coming home, but better. 
Oh, one more difference, and again not from our family table in England, we like the French, always had fromage before dessert, not after, as most of our friends there did. 
You start at midday……finish very late/early evening……and you are then hungry.
This eating business is far too long in France.
*i completely agree: far too long. Our Sundays were dedicated to family gatherings at lunch time when I was at my parents. It would start around 11am with the apéro and would last until 4/5 ish pm and if you were not dead by then, you would be invited to stay for dîner and finish the leftovers😁
No Spanish but true Brits born and bred in the UK. But we started to drink at 3pm until 4:30ish pm and then had the meal so actually not so far from the French apéros that last forever😁
About once a month our franco/anglophone group has a déjeuner which usually consists of about eight to
ten French and Brits, all of whom are retired professionals or university academics, who have lived and worked in several different countries.
One of the many things I love about these get-togethers is that nobody tries too hard to impress, but at the same time everyone puts great care into their contribution. Last Friday my contribution was the hors d’oeuvre and I made a salade de lentilles with vegetable stock and a local smoked sausage ( with separate lentilles for the sole vegetarian). This was accompanied by pulled confit de canard du maison in a weird sounding, but good spontaneously created dressing of olive oil , pomegranate molasses, green tabasco, sherry vinegar, local honey and a few other adjustments. There was also an accompanying salade of mesclun with a walnut oil based vinaigrette. None of this was particularly esoteric (apart from the pomegranate molasses), but it was my understanding of contemporary French cuisine - everything seasonal, local of the best quality, and entirely purchased from Lot Valley producteurs.
Didn’t bother passing on much of the above info, but felt OK because I’d prepared good stuff that was very well received and I felt that I’d assimilated a little bit of Frenchness. But yes, I’ve also had Magnum ice cream as dessert at an annual dinner in our salle de fête
By contrast I have too many memories of English dinners where the host/ess tries and fails to recreate something from Ottolenghi, but overlooked basics like warming the plates, or getting everything to be cooked at the same time. Even worse, is the amateur’s first attempt at the truly exotic, I’m sure you all know the sort of thing that I’m referring to - “Oh yes, it’s a traditional dish of the street vendors of Kinshasa…”
It’s what makes them charming 
bienvenue!
It is just the time that passes from the time of invitation to actually eating.
Waiting until almost everyone has arrived before you get a drink, then more and more standing around chatting.
We both have bad backs and find this hard going, in fact I often give up and sit at the table or chair.
My son’s french inlaws push the boat out and delight in spoiling me with several different wines and aperos from arriving to leaving and if driving, I have to politely refuse as my licence is far more precious than a glass of alcohol. They don’t skimp on the meals either so when its my turn, I have to try and include a little bit of english tradional along with well worn french favourites and it goes down well. Its lovely now we (the grandparents from both sides) are all down here close to our grandchildren and their parents and getting together is something we never previously did even though we were only 40mins apart in Bretagne.
You should tell your host/hostess in advance. For under 8 people we would start sitting down in our séjour, and move to table later. Otherwise yes start by milling about, but surely no one would be offended if you say you have to sit down.
Oh, they all know.
It is just the time before we eat that is so long.
None of our friends are offended, we are all aged!
Couldn’t agree more!
I stayed with friends in the Pyrenees one night - they took me in when I had a puncture - we met at 6pm and they invited a cousin to join us for supper. I’d had no lunch and the cousin didn’t turn up until gone 9pm - missing meals is migraine territory for me! Fortunately my friends realised I was suffering and let me eat a slice of stale baguette!
Was the cousin from the other side of the mountains? 9pm is perfectly acceptable over there.
I would say that the way British people invite guests, the experience could be entirely different between 1 host and another, there are a lot of differences in the UK between the way people do things depending on different social levels, different ages, urban or rural people, drinkers or non-drinkers etc. I would hesitate to say there’s a single or normal British way of doing things.
But there are also wide differences between different French people and the way they do things too I suppose.
Of course, but if you strip away the variations there is a backbone of difference if you like. Like cheese before or after pudding, or the French generally seeing lunch as a main meal not supper, and eating a bit earlier on a daily basis.
Taste buds too. Yes I have French friends who are ok with sweet/ sour stuff. But generally the chutneys and pickles are pushed to the side of the plate. And curries are so mild as to be comatose.
All sweeping generalisations and of course exceptions!
The shiny red objects sold in the s/mkts as chili peppers … I have often wished I could chomp one whole in front of the fruit/veg minders to illustrate the complete lack of heat.
Some relief is to be had. Recently C4 has started stocking
This does have a decent kick to it. On the 3-chili scale it’s a 2. A good squirt of this into a tomato sauce or whatever and you have definitely moved south of the Rio Grande from anodyne Tex-Mex.
Guindilla [dried chili flakes] takes no prisoners.
I have never found any of my french friends, neighbours, family etc are keen to try curry type spicy dishes, all too alien to them against the stock standard french meals. At least down here its spanish influence in many dishes but the hard spicy stuff, a definate no,no.