Never wear sandals.
Dont wear shorts before the 3rd week of February 
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Lidl have cheap Caterpillar socks most models hard wearing
What aboit wearng long gaiters over your boots and/,or old fashioned sock suspenders on the outside of your trousers?
Lidl & Aldi never stock clothes in my size unfortunately.
I have thought about gaiters before, but oddly not about suspenders. I suspect that wearing the latter would create much amusement
I wear the clothes I am comfortable in (shorts in summer) and give no consideration whatsoever to whether the French recognise me as a “furriner” or not. It just does not worry me. I know many of the locals in the small village where I have lived for over 20 years and they all know I am not French. If they ask, I tell them I am Scottish (born and brought up in the north of that country) and that Scotland was France’s oldest ally. I always wear socks under my loafers, as thirty plus years of taking anti-inflammatory medications to limit my psoriatic arthritis has left me with very thin and fragile skin. Just a few minutes walking without socks and I would have blisters - best avoided.
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I took a visual survey of footwear at tonight’s club meeting.
35 out of 47 were wearing trainers. 
OH and I were the only foreigners… and, as it happens, not wearing trainers on this occasion.
No-one was wearing shorts
Maybe a bit too early in the year or too late in the day up your way…
Life can be short who cares if you are viewed as a tourist. Wear what you are comfortable with
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Spot on! Mind you, I stick out like a sore thumb everywhere with my ‘fashion’ choices.[quote=“TFJWM, post:47, topic:52239, full:true”]
Life can be short who cares if you are viewed as a tourist. Wear what you are comfortable with
[/quote]
That’s a hopeless task. There are so many tells that will give you away.
Instead, use your foreignness, combined with your surprisingly accurate cultural awareness (open every interaction with Bonjour; greet the shop/restaurant/hotel staff when you enter the establishment; expect to be greeted in turn, and be ready with a Bonjour; have intelligent questions ready, and the appropriate facial expression indicating/faking comprehension) to your advantage.
If you really want to look like a local, you should probably dress as if the temperature were 10degC lower than it is, and probably in dark clothing! Avoid shorts and sportswear, hats and bright colours.
If you’re really serious, “visit” the town you’re going to on Street View and see what people are wearing.
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It’ll be full of tourists
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Yes , dress for the cold. It was 22degrees in Perigueux yesterday. We were in Tshirts, I even abandoned jeans for cooler fabric but there were lots of locals in thick jumpers or puffa jackets. I guess they were just anticipating todays rain and chill wind!
Wandering through this thread, it’s struck me that when any of us visit a new/different place… we are most likely a “tourist”… (unless the visit is for work )
Tourist is not a dirty word
Wearing whatever is comfortable, suitable for the weather and doesn’t frighten the horses … is surely the way to go
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Red and white striped t-shirt and a black beret (string of onions optional)?
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This thread has confused me as when I’m being a tourist I dress exactly like I do when I am out and about close to home.
We bought our house from a very French lorry driver and unless it was really cold and he wore his russian army style hat he always had a greasy baseball cap for the 20 years we knew him (he was probably buried in it) our local small farmers mostly wear baseball caps too just no logos, apart from one retired dairy farmer who habitually wears a grubby brown trilby. Seems only the under 40s around here who don’t.
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Another thought: if you can cultivate a moustache - doesn’t have to be the full David Crosby like @martinb79 's, but something luxuriant - then you’re more likely to be taken for a local
Who is David Crosby?
That’s an unexpected lacuna 
He’s the C in CSNY.
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Oooh Crosby Stills Nash and Young? I’m afraid that they weren’t really of my era, I know the name but that’s it, I couldn’t knowingly give a song title of theirs.
Mea culpa 
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Youngster!
Actually he died just a few months back (in his eighties) and I came across a very recent live concert video where he was still singing remarkably well. Meanwhile, the other three are still doing their respective things.
And Neil Young seems angrier than ever - very grumpy old man!
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