I've had in the past clients who spoke perfect French, some of them even became good friends (Hi Michael, hi Nick!) but I couldn't help noticing over the years that, as a general rule, the average tourist knows just a few words of French, barely enough to read a restaurant menu if it's not too sophisticated. You don't need to speak French to visit us, not in the big cities and/or touristic places anyway. It can sometimes be a problem if you go inland but, in most cases, there's nothing that a couple glasses of wine can't translate! But, let it (sadly) be known that most of the French people you will have the opportunity to speak to most of the time speak a basic English which will not enable you to have a long conversation, but it will sometimes generate funny dialogues with the waiters!

And, of course, that's where I (or one of my colleagues) come in!

"Stranger wine" anyone?