French for Travel tutors, lessons & classes

Travel French opens with a piece of context most American travelers underestimate: in Paris and the major tourist regions of France, plenty of service workers speak functional English and will switch to it the moment they hear your accent. You can probably get through a week in Paris without a word of French and not get stuck. The catch is that doing so guarantees the kind of trip where every interaction feels transactional and your French hosts read you as a tourist rather than a guest. The whole reason to learn travel French is precisely because you can technically get by without it; the small effort registers as respect in a country where respect is everything.

France is also the most-visited country in the world by international tourist arrivals, and Parisians in particular have decades of practice handling foreigners. They will be polite either way. The difference is in the warmth, the willingness to stay in French with you so you can actually practice, the willingness to recommend the less touristy place around the corner, the willingness to slow down so you can follow. That difference does not come from your grammar being perfect. It comes from you starting in French rather than in English, from you saying bonjour before do you speak English, and from a small handful of cultural codes you can pick up in eight to twelve lessons before the trip.

Lessons in this specialty are practical and tightly focused. Most travel French students come to us four to eight weeks before a trip, often a first-time visit to Paris or a return after a long gap. We don't try to make you fluent. We build out the high-frequency vocabulary and phrases you'll actually use, drill pronunciation enough that French speakers can understand you on the first try, and brief you on the cultural manners that translate respect more efficiently than words do. A typical travel French student reaches a comfortable A1 to high-A1 level in 8 to 12 lessons, which is enough to handle the daily transactions of a trip with grace. If you have a few months of school French in your background, the same eight lessons can carry you closer to A2.

The single most important cultural rule is the bonjour rule. Walking into a French shop, restaurant, hotel, or any service space and starting with do you speak English or just launching into your request is read as actively rude, in a way that closes doors instantly. The greeting comes first: Bonjour Madame or Bonjour Monsieur, and only after the response do you move into your request. The cashier, the waiter, the boulanger, the hotel concierge, the métro information clerk. Every one of them deserves the greeting, and every one of them registers when they don't get it. Merci when you receive something. Au revoir on the way out, even from a shop where you bought nothing. Pardon when you need to interrupt or get past someone. These four words are the structural beams of French daily politeness. They take five minutes to learn and they pay off in every interaction afterward.

The regional register split is the second thing worth knowing. Paris speaks fast, clipped, and verlan-flavored, with shorter pleasantries and a more transactional rhythm in service interactions. The Parisian waiter is not being rude when they don't smile and chat; they are doing their job efficiently, with respect for your time and theirs, and an American expectation of café small-talk warmth often misreads this as coldness. Marseille and the Provençal south speak a noticeably warmer, slower, more melodic French with longer hellos, more eye contact, and an entirely different café rhythm where it is normal to spend an hour at a single coffee. The southwest (Toulouse, Bordeaux) sits somewhere in the middle. Lyon has its own Lyonnaise pride and a more reserved register. Brittany, Normandy, Alsace, and the Basque country each carry regional flavors layered onto standard French. None of this blocks comprehension. But knowing that the brusque Paris waiter is not personal, and that the Marseille shopkeeper is not flirting when they spend ten minutes asking about your trip, saves a lot of cultural confusion.

A few practical specifics worth knowing pre-trip. The SNCF runs France's national train network, including the high-speed TGV between major cities, the slower TER regional trains, and the international Eurostar to London and Thalys to Brussels and Amsterdam. The Île-de-France region around Paris is served by the RER (commuter rail) and the Paris métro. Trains require validation before boarding for most regional and SNCF tickets: look for the yellow composteur machine on the platform, or the new contactless validation systems. Train station vocabulary worth knowing: quai (platform), voie (track), départ (departure), arrivée (arrival), billet (ticket), aller-retour (round trip), aller simple (one way), en correspondance (with a transfer), contrôleur (ticket inspector). The Navigo card is the Paris monthly transit pass for longer stays. For short trips, contactless bank card payment now works at most Paris métro gates.

Restaurant French has its own focused micro-curriculum. The distinction between la carte (the menu, listing items à la carte) and le menu (the fixed-price meal, usually appetizer-main-dessert) catches American travelers regularly. Asking for le menu when you wanted to choose items from the list gets you the prix-fixe option. La carte, s'il vous plaît is what you want to ask for. Une carafe d'eau is a free pitcher of tap water; you do not have to buy bottled. L'addition, s'il vous plaît for the check, which French servers do not bring until asked, ever. Tipping is a soft 5 to 10 percent at most, rounded up; service is included in the menu price by law (service compris) and a small tip is appreciated but never expected. American-style 20 percent tipping is over-tipping by French standards and may confuse the server. The standard café orders: un café is a small espresso, un café allongé is a slightly longer espresso, un café crème is closer to a latte, un café au lait is morning coffee with milk and rarely ordered after breakfast.

Hotel and accommodation French is the other workhorse domain. J'ai une réservation au nom de… for checking in. La chambre is the bedroom; la salle de bain is the bathroom; les toilettes are the toilet (a separate room from the bathroom in many French apartments and small hotels, an arrangement that surprises some travelers). Le petit-déjeuner for breakfast, often charged separately at French hotels. L'ascenseur for elevator. La clé for key. Quelle heure est-ce que je dois rendre la chambre ? for what time is check-out. For short-term rentals, la caution is the security deposit and les charges are utilities, both terms worth knowing in writing if not in conversation. Our blog post on things not to do in France covers the cultural side of travel etiquette in more depth.

The most useful pre-trip phrases beyond restaurant and transit are the small social ones. Pardon for excuse me. Désolé(e) for sorry. Excusez-moi de vous déranger for sorry to bother you (much politer than just excuse me). Je ne comprends pas for I don't understand. Pourriez-vous parler plus lentement, s'il vous plaît ? for could you speak more slowly. Parlez-vous anglais ? if you need to switch (often yes in central Paris, less often in the south). Je voudrais… for I would like (the conditional is politer than the indicative je veux). None of these need much grammar. They just need accurate pronunciation and the confidence to say them first, before the other person switches to English.

For multi-region trips beyond Paris, calibration helps. A Paris-Lyon-Marseille itinerary will give you exposure to three quite different French registers. The TGV makes Lyon a two-hour ride from Paris and Marseille a three-hour ride; both are realistic day trips or long weekends. The Riviera (Nice, Cannes, Monaco) speaks a softer, slower Provençal-influenced French with significant Italian and Mediterranean cultural overlay. Bordeaux and the southwest carry their own slight cadence. The Loire Valley châteaux region speaks a more traditional, slower, almost textbook French that is genuinely easier for learners to follow. Brittany and Normandy speak a register closer to Paris than to Marseille but with their own regional vocabulary and a slower café rhythm. Tell your tutor your itinerary at the trial and they can prep you for the specific regions you'll be in.

The Strommen French for Travel roster includes native French teachers based across France (Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux, Lille, the Riviera, the southwest), francophone tutors from Belgium, Switzerland, and Quebec for travelers headed to those francophone destinations, plus longtime French-American bilinguals based across the United States. Several of our travel French tutors have spent years working in the French tourism industry or as guides and bring direct knowledge of what travelers actually need versus what textbooks teach. Each tutor's bio specifies their background and regional knowledge. For longer-term French goals, our Conversational French, Parisian French, and French classes pages cover related programs. Browse the full tutor list, pick a tutor whose regional knowledge fits your itinerary, and book a 30-minute trial. The trial is free. Eight weeks of weekly French lessons before your trip is enough to change how France opens up to you.