Going to France? This will help you so much
‘For me too’ and ‘another one please’, we can manage that. But how often do you hit a blind wall when you're on vacation in France and ask for the nearest ATM? Or the gas station? Or the parking meter? Or you want to know where the hairdryer is in your hotel. Because you can say a lot about our French friends, English is not really their forte. And that's a good thing, because speaking a little French shows respect for the culture and the country and you'll see that you'll be received much more warmly. Now I must say that my French is quite okay olé olé, but when I was snooping around on the site of Frankrijk.nl, I found out that I speak embarrassingly bad vacation French. I selected the essentials, and for all 55 words, I kindly refer to this nice site.
So screenshot everything and save it, you will be grateful to me.
Baguette: a tradition (so not baguette, otherwise you’ll immediately blow your cover as a tourist)
The corkscrew: so you've walked 17,000 steps through Paris, on the way back you bought a delicious bottle of chilled Chablis and you were looking forward to drinking it on your little balcony during the last 700 steps. Until you forgot the corkscrew. Then it’s incredibly handy if you know what that’s called. Because you probably don’t know the word in English either (corkscrew, I just looked it up), and I have news for you: the French owner of your hotel doesn’t know it at all. Tire bouchon then. Remember this.
Snack time: l’heure de l’apéro. Nothing more to add, I would say.
And then just go ahead with ‘I’ve drunk too much’: j’ai trop bu.
Paid parking: parking payant
A gas station: une station d’essence (you would never have thought of that?)
The traffic jam: le bouchon (you might almost start to like it, at least that’s how it sounds)
The parking meter: le stationnement payant
I hope you don’t have to deal with it, but: the fine: l’amende
On the beach
The swimsuit: le maillot de bain
The beach towel: la serviette de plage
The heat: le cagnard
The jellyfish (they unfortunately have those in France too): la méduse
The sand: le sable
Parasol: parasol (haha), or marquise
In the hotel
Hairdryer: sèche cheveux
Wifi password: le mode de passe wifi
The socket (always looking for those things): la prise
Paying with a card: payer par carte (contactless payment is then ‘le sans contact’ for when you really want to impress)
Then a bit of slang
Something is really cool: c’est dément, c’est genial
Something is quite okay: c’est pas mal (you can also casually say this when you think something is great, but want to act a bit nonchalant about it)
Have a nice holiday!
