Quotes from Sarah Turnbull

The French are not impressed by anything as banal as niceness.

Smile sweetly at a waiter as you sit down and chances are you'll be treated with contempt.

The thing is, the French are highly sensitive to aesthetics. Anything unattractive—even something as insignificant as an underdressed tourist—can make them uncomfortable.

I practically fall on the floor laughing.

France is a very hierarchical society," he says. "The whole question of service is linked to old ideas of power and class.