{"id":285240,"date":"2025-07-23T13:00:24","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T13:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/285240\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T13:00:24","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T13:00:24","slug":"what-foreign-guidebooks-say-about-britain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/285240\/","title":{"rendered":"What foreign guidebooks say about Britain"},"content":{"rendered":"

How does the rest of the world view Britain? Surely the stereotypes about queueing for fun, stiff upper lips, endless fish and chips and flagons of warm beer are no longer in circulation<\/a>? Think again.<\/p>\n

When our writers trawled through French, German and American guidebooks, they unearthed plenty of outdated opinions, terrible errors, and one truly baffling theory about hard-boiled eggs.<\/p>\n

What French guidebooks say about Britain\u2018They describe mostly a middle-class Britain of a generation ago\u2019<\/p>\n

Most mainstream French guidebooks to Britain are pretty good. In more than 400 pages of Michelin\u2019s Guide Vert to London, I found only one claim with which to take issue. In the pub food section, they mentioned Lancashire hotpot \u2013 scarcely a London speciality \u2013 and, much worse, claimed it was a stew of beef. If you don\u2019t spot the mistake there, you\u2019re probably not from Lancashire, so I can\u2019t help you.<\/p>\n

And the generationvoyage.fr<\/a> website suggested that Cambridge was an \u201cemblematic town of northern England\u201d.<\/p>\n

Otherwise, both sources seemed straight up across all other details. That went for most other guides, though there was a sense that they were dealing mainly with a middle-class Britain of maybe a generation ago.<\/p>\n

A \u2018sorry\u2019 state of affairs<\/p>\n

Much was made of British politeness. \u201cYou\u2019ll be surprised how often you\u2019ll hear \u2018sorry\u2019 in any given day,\u201d claims the guide bellabritannia.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Others suggest that French visitors would be required to queue properly (\u201cnot like in France\u201d) and not to push or shove when getting on or off the Tube. \u201cThe British are orderly in Tube stations,\u201d future French visitors are told \u2013 preparing them, perhaps, for serious disappointment.<\/p>\n

\"Tube<\/p>\n

French guidebooks suggest queueing etiquette in Britain extends to the Tube platform – Getty<\/p>\n

Lip service<\/p>\n

According to the Routard guide<\/a>, French visitors must remember that they should shake hands only on first meeting someone \u2013 not every time they bump into that person \u2013 and forget all that French stuff about exchanging cheek kisses. That doesn\u2019t wash in Britain.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, they should not be surprised to be addressed as \u201clove\u201d or \u201cdarling\u201d by shop personnel or other people whom they don\u2019t know and will never see again. \u201cGenerally,\u201d says bellebritannia.com, \u201cthe British are not unpleasant and go naturally towards others\u201d.<\/p>\n

Nor should the French expect French-style Cartesian logic from the British, according to the Akteos<\/a> website. The Briton distrusts intellectualism and logic. The French defend the virtue of reason.<\/p>\n

The British, we are told, prefer pragmatism, accepting the instability of things as inevitable and against which it would be vain to protest. \u201cWe\u2019ll muddle through\u201d is the British retort to the French preference for life which should respond to ideology.<\/p>\n

No laughing matter<\/p>\n

Almost everywhere, the British are praised as non-judgmental, whence the anything-goes attitude to fashion and the \u201csomewhat marginal look\u201d of many people. Punks, say. Pride in \u201cugly Christmas jumpers\u201d also comes into play here for one guide writer.<\/p>\n

Almost everywhere, too, the French are told to expect British phlegm, humour, a sense of the absurd and a sort of universal self-deprecation which the French struggle to master. This is thought to be a reaction to the uniformity of British housing arrangements, with estates on which houses are all in a line and identical. Whence an urge to be different. The worst insult with which you can charge a Briton is his or her lack of a sense of humour.<\/p>\n

Know your eggs<\/p>\n

The Routard guide says the British remain masters of tea-time. To be accepted by the British, you must, apparently, put milk in last, and not dunk your toast. And \u2013 a bit of a mystery, this one \u2013 a British person, on finishing a boiled egg, will pierce the shell with the spoon, \u201cto let the demons out\u201d. I didn\u2019t know that there were demons in hard-boiled eggs.<\/p>\n

\"Tea<\/p>\n

French guidebook Le Routard offers invaluable information of the intricacies of British tea drinking – Getty<\/p>\n

Across guidebooks, the belief remains that British cuisine has not yet hit the heights of France\u2019s own \u2013 but, according to the whereismarion.com<\/a> website, our nation is far more accommodating of vegetarians and vegans. And, if our food isn\u2019t invariably terrific, we host a vast number of other, international cuisines which will ensure a French visitor isn\u2019t restricted to the full English breakfast and\/or fish and chips.<\/p>\n

Guide writers are unanimously impressed by the fact that most London museums \u2013 or their permanent exhibitions, anyway \u2013 are free, like the many great parks. They appear less impressed that it costs \u00a330 to visit Westminster Abbey<\/a> and \u00a326 for St Paul\u2019s. Entry to Notre Dame in Paris<\/a>, they point out, remains free. And visitors are warned, by whereismarion.com and others, that public transport costs in Britain are prohibitive.<\/p>\n

The final words<\/p>\n

Though the survey was far from exhaustive, I found no guide warning about knife crime in London<\/a>. There was a lot more emphasis on how great it is to have shops open on Sundays.<\/p>\n

French people are warned to be aware that Britain has three-point plugs and that the plug points often have switches that need switching on if you wish the plug to be effective. This is clearly a source of widespread annoyance among visitors.<\/p>\n

Finally, a key element of any French person\u2019s visit to London is witnessing the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace<\/a>. Don\u2019t bother, advises londres.fr<\/a>. The ceremony \u201cseems very long and monotonous\u201d.<\/p>\n

Anthony Peregrine<\/p>\n

What German guidebooks say about Britain\u2018Smugness seems to appear when it comes to Brexit\u2019<\/p>\n

German guidebooks aren\u2019t generally shy about resorting to clich\u00e9s when it comes to Britain \u2013 \u201cland of fish and chips and football\u201d is the kind of thing that\u2019s generally churned out, which is perhaps fair when you consider that we might in turn cheerfully describe Germany as a \u201cland of beer and sauerkraut\u201d.<\/p>\n

Clouded judgment<\/p>\n

The German Wikivoyage guide has a whole section on how the \u201cunofficial national dish of the United Kingdom is fish and chips\u201d, although it does have the wherewithal to mention that we also serve them with peas (whole or mushy peas), pickled onions, gherkins or baked beans, with \u201cbrown sauce, ketchup or other sauces added to taste\u201d.<\/p>\n

It also adds, with a discernible air of schadenfreude, that the English climate is \u201cknown for its abundant rainfall and the interplay of sunshine and clouds\u201d. They could have at least mentioned the five days of uninterrupted sunshine we get each year.<\/p>\n

\"Pedestrians<\/p>\n

German guidebooks are often keen to prepare readers for the changeable British weather – Getty<\/p>\n

Please please me<\/p>\n

The Marco Polo guide<\/a> is a little more nuanced. Its guide to London admits that the \u201cclich\u00e9 that two Brits immediately form a queue when they meet is no longer true\u201d but adds that we do pay attention to a fair queue order and that it\u2019s a good rule of thumb to ask where the end of the queue is.<\/p>\n

They also advise always adding the word \u201cplease\u201d to your sentence when ordering in a shop or restaurant because \u201cnot doing so, sounds simply unfriendly to English ears\u201d. As someone who has lived in Germany for nearly 20 years but who is still often shocked by the bluntness of German interactions, I can only concur.<\/p>\n

Love lost<\/p>\n

Some smugness seems to appear when it comes to Brexit. \u201cWhile Brexit is limiting the influx of EU citizens, immigration from outside the EU<\/a> has increased due to a shortage of workers, particularly in the hospitality industry, nursing homes and hospitals. Many bring their families with them, so immigration from non-EU countries has doubled,\u201d says the German guide.<\/p>\n

That said, it is clear how much the Germans secretly love us \u2013 football, fish and chips and all \u2013 from a recent Welt<\/a> article that tearfully reports on the new ETA restrictions<\/a> that came into effect in April 2025. \u201cWe love the royals, we wear tweed and trench coats, we diligently visit National Trust castles and manor houses,\u201d it whimpers. \u201cAnd what do the British do to us? They treat us like strangers and deny us entry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul Sullivan<\/p>\n

What American guidebooks say about Britain\u2018There\u2019s much discussion of Britain\u2019s role in the slave trade\u2019<\/p>\n

Trips to Olde England tend to be the gateway drug for American travel to Europe, which is to say that we get the numbers but not the exotic sense of adventure that other destinations may garner. In the f\u00eated New York Times list of 52 places to go in 2025, three British destinations warrant entries:<\/p>\n