Sit down and drink your coffee and other essential life rules I learnt from the French

April 13, 2026 — 5:00am

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Roughly two and a half years ago, I moved to Paris on a gut-fuelled whim, arriving with no job, no apartment, and, as I quickly discovered, almost no French (my schoolgirl French didn’t quite cut it). Between waitressing, au pairing trilingual toddlers and eventually studying at a French university, I found my feet – and began adopting a few very French habits.

My first lesson? Sit down and drink your goddamn coffee. The French do not buy into eating or drinking on the go. The keep-cup culture that runs rampant in America and Australia? Non-existent. The French would assume Frank Green and Stanley were the names of some very Anglo-sounding old men.

I’m not claiming that the French, or Europeans in general, sip their coffee more slowly. That’s not always true, especially in Paris. Parisians are accused by the rest of France of being in a perpetual rush. And yet, even in all their busyness, they will sit down (or stand up at the bistro’s bar) to drink their coffee. Even if only for a few minutes.

I once served a man who sat, ordered an espresso, drank it and paid – all within 45 seconds. It didn’t........

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