Name: French tips.
Appearance: All over Paris, allegedly.
Age: New for summer 2024.
French tips aren’t new. I had mine done last week. Sorry, had your what done?
My fingernails. This isn’t that kind of French tip. This is a restaurant French tip.
So nothing. Pardon?
A French tip being no tip at all, because French people don’t tip. They do, apparently.
No, they don’t. French restaurant bills include a 15% service charge by law and waiters get paid a living wage, so you don’t have to tip there – and no one does. Actually, a discretionary pourboire for good service is common in France, if not exactly universal.
How common? About one in five (19%) restaurant tables in France leave a tip, according to a recent survey, the average amount being 5.7% of the bill.
So, a French tip is just a terrible tip, proffered intermittently. It depends. Diners in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côtes-d’Azur are the most generous, with about one in three tables tipping. Those in Centre-Val de Loire are the meanest, tipping just 6% of the time.
And Paris? In Paris, it is alleged, waiters have begun to solicit additional gratuities.
How are they doing that? With card machines. When customers pay the bill by card, the machine gives them tipping options – 10%, 15% or 20%.
Just like in other countries. Yes, countries where a 15% service charge is not already included.
Well, ignore the machine – you’re French, after all! That can be difficult, as the economist Olivier Babeau says, “under the inquisitive eye of the waiting waiter”. In that awkward moment, even French diners can feel the pressure.
Why is this happening now? Some – Babeau included – suspect a connection to the approaching summer Olympics in Paris. He suggests it’s a sly way to encourage the tourist “to give what he would have given abroad”.
Leveraging ignorance to cash in on the Games? It’s more likely they are just trying to survive them. Although 15 million visitors are predicted, local diners are expected to desert the city. When the Olympics were in London in 2012, restaurant takings went down.
So, a rule I thought was simple – when in Paris, don’t tip – turns out to be a social minefield. It’s worse than you think. While some French waiters are allegedly gouging tourists, others are known to decline gratuities, as if tipping were insulting.
The solution is obvious – never eat out in France. Why not just do everything wrong and loudly? You’re British, after all!
Do say: “I’ll pay in cash, thanks.”
Don’t say: “The service was terrible. How much will it cost to insult you?”
