Where else do we see the relationship between French and English life played out in Paul’s experiences of Paris? What are we to conclude about...

In the first chapter of the roman à clef, "Septembre," Paul and his colleagues are discussing possible names for their new tea room.

Bernard, one of his colleagues, offers, "My Tea Is Rich." This makes no sense to Paul. Jean-Marie, another co-worker, explains that it is a play on a humorous expression that was common in English-language textbooks: My tailor is rich. This, too, makes no sense to Paul who also insists that, regardless of its perceived humor among the French, it is still an awful name for a tea room.

This launches the group into a discussion on the ways in which both the English, who really stand in for all Anglicized peoples in the novel, and the French appropriate aspects of each other's cultures and get things wrong.

Still on the subject of the name of the tea room, Marc, another member of the team, offers "Tea's Café." Names with apostrophes are considered very "English" in France, a notion that baffles Paul who insists that when the French do such things, it is not really English. Marie counters that the English are just as guilty of doing such things to French products—strawberry crème brûlée, for example, or orange juice in champagne to make mimosas.

Jean-Marie finally insists on making a list of their suggestions and doing a market survey to see which name would appeal most to the French public. He deems their meeting very "constructive" and "Anglo-style," for they were "taking decisions." Paul quietly disagrees; they hadn't made any decisions other than agreeing to pay a consultant "who's going to be bribed into agreeing with the guy with the crappest ideas."

This meeting, Paul's first, is a foreshadowing of what will come in other French meetings: bantering back and forth, no decision-making, and ultimately, fobbing off responsibility to someone else. This scene illuminates certain key differences between the French and the English regarding work ethic and humor.

A second area in which we see key cultural differences between the French and the English is in expectations regarding restaurant service. Paul remarks on how a server takes his and Jean-Marie's order without ever writing anything down. When he brings their lunch, Jean-Marie asks for his frites, or French fries, and the waiter responds politely, but rather abruptly, "I only have two hands, sir." This strikes Paul as rude, while Jean-Marie insists that the waiter only feels a bit hurried due to the lunch rush. From the English perspective, there is never any excuse to be abrupt with a customer. From the French perspective, it is understood that servers are still people and are, thus, entitled to feeling a bit peeved in stressful moments. Still, Jean-Marie notes that the French server, like the English one, will ensure that the customer is happy, in the interest of getting a tip.

There is a similar scene later in the book, in which Paul and Jake, an American expatriate, are in a café. Jake instructs Paul on the nuances of ordering coffee like a native: not a café au lait, but un crème; not an espresso, but un express; an espresso with a bit of coffee is une noisette, and a weak black coffee is un allongé. Saying anything else makes one look like a tourist, therefore subjecting the customer to a rip-off.

From these examples, we can conclude that the French are more laissez-faire when it comes to matters such as work and service, while the English prefer to stick to a certain protocol. Secondly, French language is far more nuanced than what a native English speaker would expect. Very much is said in far fewer words.