The French do not follow Brits in their ‘faux’ road-crossing habit

You cannot change the French. No matter how much you wish that, in certain situations, they had more of a different and dare I say it I - British approach, this is – bien sûr! – impossible. 

One such situation which regularly presents itself is when one approaches a zebra crossing (passage piéton) whilst driving. Two very French patterns of behaviour soon become apparent. 

The first is that often the person waiting to traverser la rue (cross the road) will thrust forward their palm in a pre-emptive, somewhat authoritarian ‘Arrêtez!’ (Stop) gesture, even if it is already clear that you, the driver, have sufficiently slowed down in order to do the civil – and legal – thing and let them cross in peace. 

The second is that a French person will rarely – in my experience, this is – indulge the waiting driver with a kind of ‘faux’ jog that one might see on British crossings, ie. cross the road with an almost comical, faster-than-walking shuffle that implies they are grateful to you for having stopped and that they will not hold you up any longer than necessary. 

The ‘faux’ element here, meaning that which is not true, or is an imitation of the real thing – namely actually crossing the road as quickly as you can.

One of the many uses of the word faux in French is ‘qui dissimule ses vraies intentions, fourbe’ – ‘which conceals one’s true intentions, deceitful’, so one might argue that at least the French are being true to themselves with their go-slow crossing.

Another use of faux that you will hear in France – apart from ‘vrai ou faux’ – ‘true or false’ in a quiz – is when describing a piano or voice being out of tune: un piano faux or il chante faux (he sings out of tune).

Read also: Learning French: what does faire semblant mean and when should it be used?