French Language
 

For years now my husband and I have had a problem in restaurants in France.

Sometimes between courses we would like a break and have asked for a "petit pause" but many times we have been misunderstood. Can anyone clarify for us what we should say it we want, for instance, a break between the main course and desert?

Why don't you keep the dish you are having so that they cannot serve the next course? You know how to do that don't you?

I agree but sometimes we just want a pause to savour a glass of wine for instance. It's nice somtimes to have the table cleared and just enjoy a glass of wine between courses and then choose desert.

I'm still not sure what the problem is. You can ask for la carte de dessert and take your time deciding what to take. They cannot serve anything as long as you don't tell them what.

Gosh kappa, ferryann just wants to know how to ask the waiter to take a little break between courses; she doesn't want to go between appetizers, entrees, desert and cheese right away.

I am sorry ferryann, I don't speak french, so I can not help you but I do understand your point.

But I agree. If you haven't yet ordered the dessert they can't bring it. Just wait until after the pause to order dessert. Isn't that how it would usually be done?

I can see how you might need the phrase earlier in the meal, but between main course and dessert, seems quite obvious.

Once you are finished with the main and you ordered the dessert you just mention: nous aimerions finir le vin avant le dessert.

I don't think I'd know what someone meant if they asked for a petit pause, either (it's petite, but that's not the issue - I just don't think a waiter would get what you're asking for). You'd probably need to get a bit more complicated and say something like: "Est-ce que nous pourrions attendre quelques minutes avant le dessert?" Ou "SVP, nous désirons avoir dix minutes pour savourer le vin avant le dessert, ça ira?" The more flowery you make it, the better it will be received.

But I kind of agree with kappa, especially since it's been my experience that meals in a French restaurant are very rarely rushed.

Kudos to you, Ferryann, for asking the question.

As Americans, we just don't tend to pause. I'm sure your servers not only don't quite understand your French, but they also are basing their service on your nationality. And I mean that in a GOOD WAY!

St. Cirq has given you beautiful phrases that in their very essence say, "We're in the moment."

Lovely.

They won't rush you, just keep the dessert card for a while longer until you are ready to order. If the waiter comes along to take the dessert order and you're not ready, then say "pas encore", but be carefuly, they may not come back for a long long while! It's normal for a meal to spread out over 1 to 2 or 3 hours, which the French do beautifully!

We can't even get American servers to do that! We were out with some friends last night, and we asked the server if we should wait to order our entrees, because we wanted a break between our drinks/appetizers and our entrees. We specifically said that we didn't want our entrees arriving while we were still eating our appetizers. You can guess what happened.

I don't know how useful this will be, but when I felt flustered and rushed while trying to choose among pastries at my favorite boulangerie, the phrase "un moment, je vous prie" came to mind from my old high school French days, and it seemed to work magic - the very nice lady in the shop immediately told me to take all the time I needed and that she would check with me in a few minutes (at least, this is what I think she said, and it is certainly what she did).

Abram, they probably thought what you meant as entrée was your entrée and not your main meal, so they were probably confused at what you were ordering! A lot of Americans don't know the entrée is the first course and the main meal is the plat principal so I can see where the confusion happened, but then again, I wasn't there!

I have not ever been rushed at dinner in France. Lunch is another matter when you eat where working people eat.

It's not that we are rushed when we are over there but we are quite content to spend the evening taking our time over a meal lasting up to 3 hours plus. My request was really to be able to ask in a way that a French person might ask for a pause in service. Some of the early replies talking of keeping the menu and not being able to be served desert if we didn't order really missed the point. I would still need to be able to verbalise our intentions. I couldn't just clutch wildly at the menu and wave the watier away he'd think I was bonkers.

> Some of the early replies talking of keeping the menu and not being able to be served desert if we didn't order really missed the point.I would still need to be able to verbalise our intentions ...

I don't know how well you can speak French. So I gave more practical solutions. If you can learn and say, e.g. the phrases given by StCirq, bravo, good for you.

Here are a couple of websites with easy to learn, practical phrases in French. The second one has other languages as well.

http://yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au/~mongoo...h/phrases.html

http://www.zompist.com/phrases.html

Zompist, What a riot!

Every phrase the ugly American needs. LOL!

My German is best so I really enjoyed how it was translated. Unfortunately, I missed some of the jokes in other languages.

Lol, Rufus. After looking at the zompist site, I'd have to use this one:
Je suis passionné par l'humour racial crétin.

Just say, "we would like to wait a little bit before eating again"...nous voudrions attendre un petit peu avant nous mangeons encore, s'il vous plait" when they ask you what you want to eat next.