In America, your driver’s license or passport is the most important document in your life. In France, it’s the electric bill. Your facture d’électricité is the document that proves that you live in France. You will need to produce a copy of your latest electricity bill to do anything, from getting a visa to opening a bank account or getting telepho

In theory, this is how it goes: Once you agree to pay a devis and sign it, you will be issued a bon de commande, a piece of paper that serves as a voucher if you paid in advance for goods or services. Once you get the goods, or the services are provided, you’ll receive a facture, an itemized summary of how much you paid, that usually gets signed. T

In addition to the time involved in the purchase, I learned about a laundry list of costs and expenses that needed to be factored in. As is customary in France, the buyer is responsible for paying the seller’s agent’s entire commission, about 5 percent. I, the buyer, also had to pay all the taxes and the fees for the work of the notaire, the legal

There aren’t just sinks in France: there are éviers, lave-mains, bacs à lave, bassins, vasques, and lavabos. Each type of sink has its own raison d’être. You might use one sink to wash your hands, but if its primary use is laundry, it’s called a bassin. If it’s in the bathroom, it’s a lave-mains, a hand-washing sink. (I’m pretty sure you could use

Like Sicilians, who don’t have a verb tense to describe the future, the French aren’t so adept at imagining other possibilities. With soup plates that are only for soup and salad forks that can only be used for salads, the French get locked into how things should be, rather than seeing how they could be. That strategy is great for preserving the gr

in France, everyone seems to be either: 1) talking about what they had eaten, 2) eating, or 3) talking about what they were going to

Information may be the unofficial currency in Paris, but space is priceless. Every square inch or centimeter is so precious that apartments aren’t sold by number of rooms, but by square meter, or mètre carré. The measurement is called the loi Carrez, the precise dimensions, which are scrutinized down to the centimeter. According to law number 96-11

Nos chers voisins is a hit television series in France. It chronicles fictional battles between neighbors in Paris, bickering over petty issues, spying through keyholes, and doing their share to keep La Poste in business with dreaded lettres recommandées (registered letters) flying back and forth.

Real estate agents in France don’t fill the same role as they do in America. You don’t have the same relationship with an agent, where you might go out for coffee to discuss your dreams and goals for finding the perfect place. You don’t share family stories or swap cooking tips with someone who is helping you, whether you’re dreaming about a nice b