Review : Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong

Sometimes things come to you at exactly the right time in your life. And sometimes they don’t.

I would loved to have read this book before I lived in France, not after I got back. I winced my way through each chapter, as it dawned on me the myriad cultural faux pas I’d made in my two years there. Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong is written by a Francophone husband-and-wife team, Jean-Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow. In 1999, Jean-Benoît received a grant from the Institute of Current World Affairs to study the French, in particular why they were resistant to globalisation.

It only took Jean-Benoît two weeks to work out that the French were not in fact resisting globalisation at all, though they were being portrayed by the press as doing just that. Intrigued, the couple set about uncovering the reasons for the antipathy toward the French, and whether it was a reasonable response to an arrogant and intransigent people or whether they were simply highly misunderstood.

What adds a certain authenticity to the book is that as fluent French-speakers Jean-Benoît and Julie had expected to settle into their French life with barely a ruffled plume*. To their great surprise, they were confronted with cultural clashes on an almost daily basis, providing further impetus to déchiffrer le code*.

We travel in search of difference. Voyaging to the other side of the world only to find they do things exactly the same as us would be a huge disappointment. And yet, when we feel this cultural dissonance, it often feels confronting, confusing or just plain irritating. This is where this book really excels. It covers a wide range of topics, from religion, money, privacy, education and history, and brings to light the reasons why the French do what they do. Unsurprisingly, once you’re aware of the background and context, it all starts to make a lot of sense, and this is where, for me at least, the cringe set in.

I had no idea how ingrained my Anglo-Saxon ways were until confronted with an alternative approach. Isn’t it normal to be friendly (answer: non*), to ask for someone’s name after a conversation (non!), to grab something to eat on the run (non, non, non!)?

If, as I do, you love France and the French and have been mystified by their ways at times, I highly recommend you read this book. We have a copy you can borrow in the bibliothèque* if you’re keen to start the debunking process, or it is available at good book stores or online.

*feather | *crack the code | *no | *library