[caption id="attachment_7521" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Gare de Lyon railway station, Paris, waiting for a train back south. And yeah, I left a tip..."]
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Michael Cosgrove - In France they even kiss on main street
as Joni Mitchell pointed out. But as British Prime Minister David Cameron, who is on holiday in Italy, showed recently, tipping isn’t mandatory in Europe and nor should it be.
Cameron was surely hoping that after the Murdoch tabloid press scandal, the war in Libya and other pressing issues that put him under intense pressure at the beginning of summer that he had earned the right to a little peace and quiet, which is why he went to sunny Tuscany in Italy for a holiday with his wife Samantha. But that was not how things turned out alas, and he soon found himself embroiled in controversy once again, and this time over the serious issue of…tipping.
The British press is today relating with delectation – and not a little malicious humor - how he went into a bar in Montevarchi a day or two ago and ordered coffees for himself and Samantha, only to be told by the busy waitress that he would have to carry them to his terrace table himself. The story goes that when he went back inside to pay
he didn’t leave a tip. Not even five cents. Needless to say, it was all over the Internet and in today’s printed papers in less time than it takes to say 'how much do I owe you?' Ironically, the tabloid press has snared him.
It would effectively seem a little strange that a man who can afford to pay thousands of Euros for a hotel room and hundreds more for a meal should be so tight-fisted that he wouldn’t leave a 25-cent tip for a waitress, but I would argue that he was right to put his change back in his wallet.
Service in Bars and restaurants is organized along roughly similar lines in both Italy and France. You sit down where you like without asking when you go to a bar and you ask for a table if you are in a restaurant. The waiter or waitress looks after the service and when it’s time to pay you consider whether or not to leave a tip.
Tipping etiquette is roughly the same in both countries. It is not mandatory but if the service is good and if what you have ordered is of reasonable to good quality it is good manners to leave a tip of around 10%, and even 15% if you are very happy with things. Make sure you have some loose change on you in case you decide to pay by credit card.
That’s what they say in tourist guides and for the most part it’s true. But here’s the reality rub.
Self-service cafés in Italien and French department stores, airports, train stations, self-service sushi bars, Chinese midday eateries and quick pizza joints, not to mention the large chain retail bakery-café outlets and sandwich counters that are to be found in ever-larger numbers, and even bars that sell alcohol, have begun putting tips bowls next to the point of payment.
I sat down on a café terrace in Lyon one afternoon a few months ago for a cool drink after an hour’s cycling, waiting for the waiter to come. He didn’t come after ten minutes so I went inside to ask if – as sometimes happens – the waiter had not seen me for one reason or another. And I heard;
“It’s bar service here monsieur. We don’t have waiters and waitresses.”
Flabbergasted as I was, I managed to order my Perrier-no-ice, pay for it, and carry it outside to my table. Opening the door to get out with two full hands was a little tricky but I finally worked it out and didn’t drop anything.
And when I left, I did not leave a tip on the table. Why?
Because I am someone who worked for five years as a waiter when he first arrived in France, bereft of any ability to speak French and thus condemned to serve tourists to earn a crust. I now earn a relatively easy living by putting words in front of your eyes and working just six hours a day. But I have not for as much forgotten what it is to put not words, but drinks, in front of your eyes.
I remember, twenty years ago, carrying four plates of food at once, putting up with insults from ignorant tourists, catering to the puerile whims of the rich and famous, unloading drinks delivery trucks and loading bar fridges, learning at the end of the evening that my pay had been docked by 50 dollars because of the table that left without paying, going to some bar somewhere to relax with my fellow waiters when the day was done at two in the morning,, having a few drinks and getting over it all, getting just a few hours sleep and doing the same thing the next day and the next and the next and on and on it went. I vividly remember how hard that job was – and it was very hard – but despite the hard side, many people left tips for me. I was very grateful, needless to say. Without those tips I would have felt very lonely. I would have had financial problems. So now I do my bit to pay back the tips that I was offered.
Which is why I think that Cameron was right not to leave a tip, strange as that may seem. Nobody should tip for the dubious pleasure of watching a number flash up on the customer side of a till display, paying before even tasting what they bought, hearing “have a nice day” and carrying their own meals or drinks to a table. No employer should be able to get away with paying checkout girls a misery of a salary whilst promising them a beggar's bowl of tips.
If table service is to disappear in Europe, so be it, that's how it goes. Swimming against the tide is futile after all. But I shall swim against that tide nevertheless, and I shall swim with vigor. I think it would be wise to protect those jobs which offer us human contact, an interaction, an interface with the rest of the world, even be it for just the ten minutes it takes to drink a coffee and smoke a cigarette, and if the waitress has a minute to talk, hey, any guy is happy with that, and the same goes for the ladies and the waiters. These things are important.
I would have done the same if I had been David Cameron, and I would, moreover, strongly exhort those who visit Italy and France to follow that example and by doing so not add to the thin edge of the wedge. If you are a tourist in Italy or France, and if you want to help maintain good and traditional service in Europe, do not tip anywhere that does not bring what you ordered to you, to your table, and do not frequent their establishments.
Jobs for all? Sure. But let's all do our bit to stop low wages and bad service...even if we know that the battle cannot be won......
The French say ‘tout fout le camp.’ In English that gives ‘things ain’t what they wuz any more…’
‘Vive la revolution’ I say!
Hurricane Katrina flooding - wikimedia commons[/caption]