From powerful unions and staff who can’t work more than 35 hours a week, to the perils of kissing or guzzling down too much vin rouge, France may just be over the Channel but it’s another world, discovers Charles Orton-Jones.

1 Cheaper trains for foreigners

Eurostar tickets are ten per cent more expensive for British buyers. If you book online, when it asks for your country of origin, click France. You’ll be charged £52.60 rather than £57 if you originate from Blighty. Even more inexplicably, if you claim you are American, Japanese or Australian the price falls to £45.80.

2 Check the price

Watch out when shopping for property. The price you see isn’t the one you’ll end up paying. French notaries, or notaires, charge triple the UK rate, and French stamp duty is stonking as well. In total, you’ll pay 6.5 to seven per cent extra on the quoted price of any property.

3 How “French” is your Frenchman?

Nick Fulford of PR firm EdenCancan: “It is important to establish whether the person you are doing business with has an Anglo Saxon outlook – has worked outside of France, smiles in the meeting, keeps it brief and to the point – or whether they are truly Gallic – smokes constantly during a five-hour meeting that seems to have no point or resolution.”

4 Non means oui

“As someone who has spent periods living and working in France, I have noticed the following,” says marketing consultant Yehuda Shapiro.

“When confronted with a new idea, a Frenchman will often start off by explicitly rejecting it (whereas an Anglo-Saxon will often start off by saying he finds it interesting, even if he doesn’t).

This does not in fact mean that he will not eventually accept the idea, but he will expect you to talk him round by arguing your case with both rigour and passion.

In this context, it’s worth remembering that the French tend not to take it too personally if you disagree with them strongly in a business discussion. It’s all to do with having studied philosophy at school: argument/counterargument ...”

Etiquette tips, courtesy of Gavin Hartland of Servigistics, and Sarah Sherman, MD of Hoffman Europe (5 – 14)

5 Don't get too friendly

Don’t call your contacts by their first name, rather use Madame or Monsieur, until expressly allowed to do so.

6 Sip don't gulp

When going out for a meal, don’t hog a whole bottle of wine to yourself: two glasses are probably enough for a French person, and overdoing it isn’t as cool as it might be in Britain.

7 Don't be funny

You may find sarcasm hilarious, but beware – the French find it rude.

8 Respect your superiors

French business is highly hierarchical. There is a military-like sense of respect; and only the highest-ranking individual will make the final decision.

9 Old school tie counts

Be aware that social status and degrees are important: 85 per cent of the CEOs and VPs graduated from the Grandes Écoles (the French equivalent of Oxbridge), so they almost form a Members’ Club.

10 Work to live

Most French people place a significant importance on their life outside work. They do not believe their life should revolve around work. For example, by the time employees get back to work in January from the Christmas holidays, they have already planned their summer holiday.

11 Say nice things

Flattery will get you somewhere in France.

12 Don't be nosey

The French possess an inherent sense of privacy, and don’t like to mix work discussions with personal talk. It is a mistake to discuss your family or other personal matters during negotiations.

13 Lingo a go-go

Learn some basic French – and make an effort to use it. Something beyond “Une pression s’il vous plait” would be good. Your efforts will be appreciated.

14 Be bold

Don’t be unnerved by lively debate during negotiations.

The French are a cerebral bunch and will appreciate your ability to defend your position against vigorous questioning.

15 La France perfide

“It is a very serious offence to bounce a cheque in France,” says Trackaphone CEO Phil Derry. “Which is probably why they never pay on time!”

16 If you must…

Not all entrepreneurs are enthusiastic about trading with the French. Phil Robinson, founder of CD Wow!, advises fellow entrepreneurs considering a French foray: “Really – just don’t.

The world is a big place, just open up somewhere else. French employees and Hepatitis B are just the same: you can’t get shot of either. The amount of paperwork involved with every little thing is overwhelming.

Nearly everything is protected in some way or another, and getting your cash is hard.” For the undaunted he says, “If you do really have to and you have commercially conquered every other country in the world then find a French solicitor who has spent at least five years in commerce in the UK (not the US).

They should act as an honest broker and will:

•Find you a firm to run the company secretarial side of your business;
•Find you a company to work out what the French employment and pension payments are for your employees;
•Draft your employment agreement, which is different for every employee;
•Find you a company to take on the pension contributions of your employees.”

17 Long lunches

The French attitude towards food and wine is a major difference,” says Mark Davey, MD of Fidelity Information Services, and a French university graduate. “People joke about it but you really do need to have an affinity towards food and wine if you want to be successful in France.

Everything is done around lunch and dinner, but, again, they invest much time and effort into this activity. They are appalled by our working lunches. Eating curling sandwiches while we continue to work through a meeting is just not the done thing in France.”

18 The home of Luxury

Ever heard of Bernard Arnault? The French love the guy (think Richard Branson with better suits), and his brands are famous worldwide. Arnault’s LVMH owns brands such as Givenchy, Christian Dior, Chateau D’Yquem and dozens more of the same calibre.

But what should you do if you want to compete with Arnault? A great place to start is by talking to the Comité Colbert, a group of 68 French luxury goods brands. The British version of this organisation is The Walpole.

19 Don’t watch the clock

“You should be prepared for a lengthy process when setting up business in France,” says Mike King of Johnson King. “If the UK is famous for its love of queuing, France is definitely famous for its red-tape. In my experience, they are only beaten by the Dutch when it comes to bureaucratic smog.”

20 Free euros

You may be eligible for a cash handout. “My firm announced a deal to buy a French company,” recalls Jerry Randall of Sinclair Pharma. “We quickly got a message from the French Embassy saying they would like to support us financially.

This came as a complete surprise! We are on course to received €1m in grants to help us upgrade the factory we bought in France. This is not EU money, and we don’t have to refund it. The French are simply keen to reward and help investors into France.”

21 Union hell

Watch out for employee unions, warns Sinclair Pharma’s Randall. “If you have more than 50 employees they will belong to a work council. These are very powerful. If you are making a substantial change to the business you must consult the council. This is onerous and time-consuming. If you don’t comply the results can be punitive. I know of one firm that lost nine months’ production because the workers walked out after not being consulted about a minor change.”

22 35-hour week

President Sarkozy is hinting he may abolish or water down the 35-hour week. As the law stands, employees can work for a maximum of 35 hours per week. If they want to work longer, they can put in an annual 220 hours’ paid overtime, and you’ll have to reimburse them with extra holidays.

“This, coupled with the minimum requirement of five weeks’ paid holiday, and around seven to eight bank holidays a year can prove to be a logistical nightmare, and should therefore be carefully considered when drawing up your business plan,” warns Mike King, founder of marketing firm, Johnson King, which set up a French subsidiary in 2000.

23 Harmonisation

French wages are ten to 20 per cent lower like-for-like than in the UK. The EU insists that British firms can’t take advantage of this, though: similar jobs must be paid the same irrespective of location. “Ignore that!” says Sinclair Pharma’s Randall.

“There is a loophole in EU law that says you can give a regional weighting, as currently happens with London’s public sector employees. Cite this if you want to pay UK workers more.”

24 Don’t kiss!

“Contrary to popular belief, the handshake is the most common form of greeting not kissing on the cheek,” says Sarah Sherman, MD of PR agency Hoffman Europe.

“Friends may greet each other by lightly kissing on the cheeks, once on the left cheek and once on the right cheek.” First names are reserved for family and close friends. Wait until invited before using someone’s first name.

25 Watch your language

Be careful when translating. For starters, French takes up a lot more room than English, so packaging may need to be redesigned. “Don’t just hire a native speaker.

Get a professionally trained translator with the correct technical vocabulary,” says Gary Muddyman, the founder of translation service Conversis. “The French are very particular about their language and won’t forgive small errors.”

26 Meet to discuss, not to decide

Stephen Davies, managing director of Penderyn whisky says: “My experience of meetings in France is that, whereas the British use meetings to make decisions, the French use them for reflection and make the decisions afterwards.

“Never expect too many decisions in a meeting in France. I haven’t had any problems working with them as they seem to love our whisky, and we export more to France than any other country.”

Steve Parks, founder of Flyingstartups.co.uk, adds: “French business people have a very relaxed attitude to time – so you shouldn’t expect meetings to start at the specified hour, and should be prepared for people wandering in as the meeting continues.

“If a meeting really must start at an (almost) exact time they use the phrase l’heure anglaise to denote this.”

27 Bush was right!

OK, so the current US president never actually said that the French have no word for entrepreneur, but if he had… he would have been spot on. In France, “entrepreneur” means a contractor, for example, a funeral director is known as an entrepreneur de pompes funèbres.

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