About Berthillon: they have the RUDEST staff in all of Paris. Their employees are notorious for shortchanging foreign tourists.

Don't dissect the menu - unless you have some sort of allergy. What I mean by this is, sometimes people want to know exactly whats in a sauce or a salad dressing - it is low fat/non carb etc. Can you have it on the side etc...Or how is the chicken cooked? Fried/grilled/broiled etc. This seems to drive the French crazy. They expect you to take the food as it is as it is their creation.....

To Heavens, a few words from a Paris resident concerning the "Ugly American" thing :

- Don't be overconcerned, dress as you would in any large North American city. When in doubt about clothing, ask yourself : would I wear that in Times Square?
- Like in other major tourist destinations, the Paris "sights" and their immediate vicinity are tiny cosmopolitan enclaves, where attendance is massively non local,
- concerning language : most people in the hotel and restaurant industry speak English. However, if you ask random people in the streets, for directions for instance, ask "do you speak English?" first, a sentence many people understand. Do not walk up to a person and ask your question in English direcly.

Heavens ~ My daughter and I just arrived back from a 15 night stay in Paris. I was concerned prior to the trip, as well. Here are my observations:

1) Most Parisians do indeed wear black. I didn't, my calf-length coat is off-white.

2) I am clueless as to what "American Hair" is. I'm American, I tried in vain to identify differences in hair. I think perhaps if you have a lacquered look, that might be what they mean.

3) I never saw a pair of white tennis shoes, but otherwise, shoes were all over the map.

4) I agree with others - learn your basics of French greetings (from the Fodor's site) and how to say please, and always show respect. Also it is nice if you ask if the person speaks English in French.

5) No one was *ever* rude to us.

6) We *never* felt out of place.

7) A bistro we frequented assumed we were from England. Why? Beats me. I found that out the night before we left, when they asked if we were taking the train home.

8) Most days I wore nice jeans and a sweater; sometimes I wore a skirt or gauchos. I never felt out of place dress-wise.

9) We went to alot of restaurants where there was little or no English speaking staff. The simple phrases of Bon Jour, si vous ples, merci, and l'addition si vous ples (I may have mis-spelled these) and being able to point at a menu item were all that was needed to make it through the meal.

10) Yes, others were correct - speak softly. This is not a noisy culture.

Quite frankly, I don't think you can mess up. They are a lovely people and quite gracious. OH - one more thing - I didn't want to draw attention to myself, either, but I had a camera clicking pictures constantly. There was *no* doubt I was a tourist. It didn't seem to have any impact whatsoever.

Have a blast!

Bonjour TBell, glad you enjoyed your stay! and I can see you got the most of the French way of life.(although French in groups can be terribly noisy!)
Was it too difficult to adapt? Tell me s'il vous plaît ;-)

Bonjour, Coco,

Adaptation was totally unnecessary, in my opinion - I felt totally at home while there. I did find the French language to be terribly challenging, since nothing is really pronouced the way it is spelled from the American point of view. Also, I have a heavily laced deep south accent, making it even more difficult.

Also, extremely difficult, was getting about on trains other than Metro or RER (the stations are HUGE) - if I could have read or spoken French, I believe that part would not have been such a difficult thing.

It was a wonderful trip - I'm posting a day by day trip report here under the topic "Paris Trip Report from TBelle". :-)

<Adaptation was totally unnecessary>
I'm so glad you said that because I would feel we are like aliens from another timezone! >-)
And I agree with trains, even for me it is hard to understand sometimes!