Pete I think no matter how long one has been here and no matter how much one may have tried and succeeded in integrating one will always be “les anglais" (or “les whatevers”). I don’t think that’s a French thing, it’s a “not being one of us” thing.
I was born in London and spent the first part of my childhood there before moving to Dublin. In Dublin I was “the Englishman” at school and on returning to London I was “the Paddy” Being a bit thick skinned both epithets were like water off my ducks back Indeed, it’s nice to be a bit different sometimes.
It’s the "tais-toi et rentre chez toi” bit I wouldn’t like
Just us. Two professional people. Common in Cafe Rouge. Even in Raymond Blanc Covent Garden. Get it in pubs all the time. When did you last go out in the UK (apart from Chapel that is).
Well I have never frequented either of those establishments. Clearly the rustic bumpkins we occasionally reunite with in the humble hostelries of Worcestershire do not have London’s levels of sophistication. For which I am grateful. They tend to say Hello, good to see you.
Though I don’t object to Salut les gars over here, but it is usually said drolly.
Language is a funny thing. I’m fully bi-lingual in a couple and have a good smattering of a few others.
The last time I went back to the UK to see my parents I bumped into an old mate, agreed to go out later in the evening to a pub & catch up.
Nice evening I met his new Wife, nice Irish/ Aussie full of fun and great outlook of life, she’s an archaeologist so we had plenty of things to talk about as one of my favorite oncles was an archaeologist. She was interested in our childhood & adolescence. By this time we’d had a few pints & whiskey chasers…
So we went back in time… After a couple of minutes she asked what language we were using & if we could talk in English so she could understand.
We’d gone back 30 old years, talking in a Kentish dialect, local slang & a bit of cockney of the 80’s.
The same scenarios can be found all over.
I’ve had similar issues when I lived and worked in the UK, to the point of having to hand the phone to colleagues when some of our Oxfordshire drivers called in
This happens annually in Carmaux too - but we have never been ‘in town’ on the appropriate date. As for popping in to introduce ourselves to Monsieur le maire, I am not sure that he would understand as to why! I think Carmaux is slightly too large a place for such intimacies.
Certainly Flo was baffled by the suggestion when I put it to her…
We met our Maire a few days after arrival as we’d asked his assistant in the Mairie where we could buy wood… and it was he who turned up in his wellies and lumberjack shirt to ask us how much we wanted to buy off him!
What made it difficult for us to “integrate” was being a vegetarian and a vegan and my partner doesn’t drink alcohol. Most social events seemed to revolve around meat and alcohol!
(We did go to the New Year “dos” at the Mairie though.)
Being a bit thick skinned both epithets were like water off my ducks back 
Indeed, it’s nice to be a bit different sometimes.
. Don’t take it so seriously. .
