Q-jumping

I don't often rant about the French and their ways, as despite only having lived in France for 2 separate years, I've been married into a French family for 5 years now, so have got used to quite a lot!

It really must be true that Queuing is a British thing. I remember teaching hubby the etiquette when waiting for a bus in England, how you had to remember who was waiting first and let them on before you, and if you're in a shop waiting to pay you stand in a nice neat line where possible. I taught him so well, he now gets annoyed with his fellow countrymen about their lack of manners when queuing!

The worst place has to be the supermarket, Oh there are proper queues at each till, but BEWARE if a cashier appears to open a new till, for some reason the person at the back of your queue OR the fastest person to notice, grab their trolley and run, gets to be the first in line?!?! There is NO etiquette or kindliness in letting those who've been waiting longer go before you. I'm actually laughing at the memory of being in Sainsburys back in the UK, noticing a new till open up and tapping the person in front of me on the shoulder to ask them politely if they would like to go first?! It would never happen here!
There are however more sacred establishments in France, where some unwritten rules must be obeyed. These are the pharmacy and the doctors. Upon entering either of these premises you must take a mental note of who was there before you, and remember each person who arrives after you so you can work out when it's your turn!
Then there are places with ticketing systems, these are the public service offices such as Social security, health insurance etc. These work very well of course as you have your number and just have to wait for it to be called out. What makes me laugh though, is that on the rare occasion there is no-one else waiting ahead of you (these places tend to be very busy as there's always some problem you have to go and sort out with french administration and it has to be done face-to-face!), they will still make you take a ticket, watch you sit down, then call your number and take your ticket from you! I promise you that has happened to me twice now!!!