Salut! In my recent reader survey, a reader referred to WTF moments in the comments. I’ve always thought of WTF as “what the f*ck” but she lovingly called them Welcome To France moments. I love it and never heard that before! I googled “Welcome to France moments” to see if it’s a “thing” I was just not cool enough to know about and lo and behold the fab blogger David Lebovitz had a whole post on Welcome To France moments. What are they?
Read on!
Those lovely WTF (Welcome to France) moments
So what are these “Welcome to France” moments? In David’s words, it’s “whenever something odd or stupefying happens, it’s now called a Welcome to France moment. Or a WTF moment.” Anyone who has lived in France for any length of time — and has left their house at least once — has experienced these. I’m sure of it!
(Quick note: Yes, of course these moments can happen anywhere on the planet. This is lighthearted and poking fun at the French. I’m sure I’ve personally been the subject of many WTF — the other WTF — moments on both sides of the Atlantic, so just have fun with this, OK? It’s not meant to offend!)
To be more specific, David explains what we’re talking about here:
Or when you’ve got a busted drainpipe and water’s gushing out, and the plumber finally shows up, but without any tools—”I am just here to look right now.”
WTF.
Or when you’re at a café and they tell you they don’t have any mineral water…when there’s an army of bottles lined up behind the bar in plain view. You just tend to nod in agreement and accept these odd incongruities around here. It becomes très normale. (Diane’s note: This happened to us in Corsica but with wine. They were supposedly out of wine yet we saw a stocked fridge!)
WTF.
Ha ha ha.
Here’s one WTF moment of my own I’ll share with you:
When I first arrived in France in 2009 for a short work contract teaching English, I had to open a bank account immediately. The process often takes time and to get paid, opening an account ASAP was of utmost importance. I went to a local bank, had a 45-minute meeting with one of the reps that included all kinds of photocopies and signatures and when she went to get final approval to open the account from her boss, I was denied.
Her reasoning? My French wasn’t perfect. Not that I didn’t have the right documents, or a job, nope. But my French.
I pleaded with her and explained all I was going to do was use the ATM and that I was jet lagged and my intermediate level of French back then would only get better as time went on. She wasn’t having any of it. I asked her if she denied all immigrants in the neighborhood whose first language wasn’t French? She walked away. Through tears, I left utterly defeated, sat down on the sidewalk and just cried feeling completely overwhelmed and helpless. Luckily Tom was with me because at that moment, I just wanted to disappear. Denying someone a bank account because they don’t speak the native language perfectly? WTF????
NOTE: If you need a bank account in France (or another country they operate in) for simple banking needs, I highly recommend N26. My card and account are FREE. Check them out here.
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What about you? If you’re reading this and a WTF moment popped into your head, would you share it with us all in the comments? Maybe we’ll feel your pain, laugh with you or just scratch our heads. It’s all in good fun, so join in!
I’d love to hear yours below!
What a cow that bank employee sounds. If speaking fluent French is the criteria to open a bank a/c…one thing is sure, I’ll never qualify!
Been struggling with Qui and Que at my lesson today.
Hi Fiona, yes she was a miserable person but glad I can laugh about it now. Speaking perfect French is most definitely NOT required for bank accounts and that’s why this experience was so strange. French people (and people everywhere) are generally NOT jackasses so I think I just got a bad bank in a rougher suburb of Paris and/or caught someone having a bad day. Keep on practicing 😉
This is priceless!! I love it – & yes – I didn’t know “wtf” was in France. I have these moments all the time! Sometimes the logic here is just….well – *wtf. My favorite is also with banks and renting. When we first arrived in France – we were in the process of trying to rent a place. We needed a French bank account…But one can’t open a bank account until one has secured a place to live – proof of residency. We couldn’t secure the place to live without the bank account! In other words, we were stuck between the 2 systems and neither one would budge without the other. Luckily – an international bank helped us out – but Wow – so difficult. Don’t get me started on real estate agents either….. Thanks for sharing.
After looking back at my time in France, I’m SHOCKED my bank account was as easy to create as it was! But our major WTF moments were always with L’Assurance Maladie. 2 1/2 years and something awful like 6 office visits and countless mailings, and we still never did get our carte vitale!!! More WTF moments were with the internet/phone providers like SFR. I still don’t understand why they have stores when the stores can’t actually get anything done on their own! I was like: doesn’t anyone want me money?! I hadn’t heard of this WTF moments thing yet, before, either, so maybe we were just too into France already. Really fun post, Diane!
Oh man, I’ve heard that story before (never getting carte vitale). I don’t even think I got mine when I was here as a teaching assistant for 7 mos in 09-10. I didn’t actually get it until I was married and here on a permanent carte de sejour. Just nuts!
Thank you for sharing a few of your WTF moments 😉
I love this WTF moments, I must have had far too many to recount, mostly like Christy to do with sécu and internet providers but probably the best one was when I was summoned to court over a speeding fine I HAD PAID and which I wasn’t contesting! It’s such a long and convoluted and totally ridiculous story (that comes down to a filing error but nobody could take responsibility for it and cancel the whole palava) that I won’t relate it all here, I’d be writing for hours, but suffice it to say that the bailiff who was instructed to ensure I would be at court didn’t understand why I had to go as I’d paid the fine, the gendarmes who had to take my statement at the gendarmerie didn’t understand why either and the outcome was that the judge nearly doubled my fine for wasting his time! WTF?!!! One of my favourite pieces linked up to last month’s #AllAboutFrance illustrates a brilliant WTF moment, if you haven’t already read it go back and check out Vive la différence or the weight of words (it’s easy to find in today’s #AAF as I linked it as a favourite). Thanks for joining in again Diane.
HE DOUBLED THE FINE??? THAT YOU ALREADY PAID ON TIME??? My god. What about YOUR time that was wasted by your having to show up in court? That is seriously WTF. I don’t want to rip on France too much because I’m sure these things happen everywhere, just that I live in France so it’s easier to point fingers at France, but honestly after hearing everyone’s WTF stories, I am really starting to wonder. I think it IS a France thing. Seriously.
And yup, saw that post last month about mailing books at the post office (i could probably write a book on all my post office WTF moments). I’m not one of your participants who links up and never comments anywhere. Not a rule breaker here! 😉
I know you’re not Diane. Don’t worry I know who the gooduns are and who the baddies are, but nobody (except me obviously) is expected to read all the posts so you could have missed it easily. The judge didn’t actually double the fine but he mentioned he was thinking about it at which stage I lost my cool which is never a good thing to do in front of a judge.
I moved to Paris at 25 in 1978 for 3 years. One of my earliest memories was about an elderly woman with a cane crossing a small side street. In those days, in the US, we said that the one thing you could give away that cost nothing and makes everybody happy was a smile! I smiled st that lady, she raised up her cane threatening to hit me (in the middle of the road)! WTF!
No 2- Although having been admitted to The Université de La Sorbonne Nouvelle, I found I had to take an exam at the Maison des exams in Arcueil to get in to the Regular university for French speakers with 800 others. Only 50 of us passed! I went in to pick my classes and was told I’d have to pick a foreign language. I’d had a year of Arabic and Russian, so I said I’d take one of them. The Advisor said “no, you got 3rd Year accreditation, you’ll have to take a 3rd Year language. Why don’t you you take English? …That’s what all the foreign students do for an easy grade! ” Luckily my minor for my BA was Spanish…, so I said , “put me in Spanish!” WTF!!! Being in a Spanish class with a French woman prof with a Castilian accent and almost all native speakers from south and Central America is a whole other WTF moment!
No.3 when I was 17, I went with a US organization to live with a family near Besançon for the summer. We arrived in Brussels, taking buses to Paris for orientation. I was the first one in the highway restroom…to see my first Turkish Toilet!!! I called all the girls and we all crammed in the stall wondering, WTF ( and I don’t mean “Welcome to France”!
no. 4 At Jouy En Josas for orientation, some older gentlemen were playing pétanque, so a couple friends and I asked if we could play. They asked our names to tell us when it was our turn. No matter how perfect my future French friends accents were in English, they could never get the cadence of “Sherry”, so I was “Cherie”. I realized after awhile that all of their wives were watching from a nearby bench glaring at me unmercifully! Then, it dawned on me, they kept calling me, “Cherie”! WTF!
Like Jimmy Durante said, “I got a million of them!”
So many WTF moments, especially involving la poste, our phones/internet and banking! I think I must have caused my share of wtf (what the foreigner!) moments, for example when I invited a client that was headed to see his lawyer next door in to ‘look at my pipes’ – thinking he was the plumber come to fix our water heater!
HAHAH so funny, I don’t know how I missed your comment, Liene. I love what the foreigner moments. Maybe I should do a post on just that… will have to ask people to share their stories!
When it is time for me to open a bank account Francois will be with me and I can pretend I am a Mute – lol lol. Maybe that will help me to get a bank account right away – lol lol.
theres always 1!!!! No matter where you travel, you’ll find 1. “The jobs worth”
Ah yes … French banks … Some years ago I needed to cash some Travelers’ checks. I went into a large bank and when I got to the teller, I got a stream of French, the gist of which was they did not cash Travelers’ checks. I pointed to the large poster on the counter advertising ‘Chèques de Voyage ‘ … he gave the Gallic shrug and pointed me down the street to another bank…. 😉
My friend and I traveled to France last fall and while going through CDG we had to go through three separate lines to catch another flight in a different terminal to Nice. With each of the lines they had all the crowd management ropes up even though there were hardly any people in line in front of us forcing us to walk back and forth back and forth this way and that, out one door back in another etc. All while dragging our luggage with us. It was if to say “we just like to make you walk three times as far just because “ WTF