Tipping In France

This afternoon, we met up with Art and Amy for lunch and decided to try a place called Restaurant D’Angleterre that was recommended by travel expert Rick Steves in his France book, which Art had brought with him. 

After we had ordered, Art asked us if we knew what the tipping custom in France was since he hadn’t paid for a meal at a restaurant so far because the first part of their trip was with relatives who kept paying for everything (how nice!).  We told him that, from what we’ve been told by our friend Armel, who is from Paris, the service charge is included in the price on the menu, but you can leave 1 or 2 euro extra if you feel you had good service.  On most of the menus we have looked at it actually says “service compris” (service included) but on this particular menu there was no mention of this.

When our food arrived, Art asked the waiter if service was included in the price, and he said no, so we became kind of confused.  We checked in Rick Steve’s book and again it said that service is normally included in the price, but you can leave a little bit extra if you feel you had good service.  We weren’t sure if the server was just trying to get us to give him more money, but we decided to leave 2 euro on the table after settling the bill.

When we got back to the hotel, I googled tipping in France, and have learned that Armel was right, the law in France does require a 15% service charge to be included in the bill, and it is customary to leave a little extra if you feel service warrants it.  While I felt the service we received today was ok, it is a little annoying that they would lie to us like that.  Add in the fact that we got a better meal last night for less money, and I would suggest Rick Steves leave Restaurant D’Angleterre out of his book in future editions! (editor’s note: Or at least have that guy fired who’s working there!)