The Advantages and Perils of Ordering in French

Advantages:

1. If done well from start to finish, can give you the satisfying feeling of having a thoroughly authentic Paris experience.

2. My experience has been that when you order in French, you also get French service. This means they generally leave you alone unless you indicate you want something, which I really like.

3. If you complete the entire transaction in French, it feels like you actually can speak the language, even though you have only successfully employed six memorized phrases. This is how you get the most bang for your phrase-book buck.

Perils:

1. Inevitably, you will be asked a question in French. At that point, the game is up. This is always slightly embarrassing.

2. Not always clear what the menu items are.

3. You never quite know what you are getting. Whatever you think you’ve ordered, something slightly different will arrive.