Daily Life

It's true but less extreme than the cliché. In August, many local bakeries, restaurants, and small businesses take 2–4 weeks of vacation. In Paris specifically, some neighborhoods feel noticeably quieter in August. Government offices and many law firms operate with skeleton staff. However, major tourist attractions, supermarkets, large stores, and hospitals remain fully open. Plan non-urgent admin for September.

Prepare for it mentally, document everything obsessively, and build time buffers into every process. Key survival tips: get every interaction confirmed in writing, keep copies of every document you submit, arrive at offices with more documentation than you think you need, and use the official government websites (service-public.fr) for authoritative information. Many expats hire a 'facilitateur' or relocation specialist for their first year - it pays for itself in saved time.

In Paris, Lyon, Nice, Bordeaux, and Toulouse - absolutely not. Public transit is excellent and parking is expensive and scarce. In smaller cities, towns, and rural areas, a car is very useful and sometimes essential. If you move to a village or the countryside, budget for a car. Driving in France is generally a pleasure - excellent roads, clear signage, and beautiful scenery everywhere outside cities.

Doctolib (doctor appointments), SNCF Connect (train tickets), Citymapper (urban transit), Lydia (French payments app), Leboncoin (classifieds and housing), Canal+ and Netflix (streaming), and Yuka (food and cosmetics ingredient scanner - wildly popular in France). For paying friends: Lydia and Swile are French alternatives to Venmo/PayPal.

Default to 'vous' (formal 'you') with everyone you don't know personally: all strangers, service staff, colleagues, landlords, officials, and doctors. Switch to 'tu' only when the other person invites it ('On peut se tutoyer?') or when they use 'tu' to you first. In urban, startup, or international environments, 'tu' may come faster. Among friends and close colleagues, 'tu' is the norm. Getting this wrong is noticed - and using 'tu' too early can seem presumptuous.