I well remember being in France once with an elderly relation. I made to pay the entry fees to a museum when the woman behind the desk said very quietly to my companion, "Monsieur a peut-être plus de soixante ans?"

It occurred to me that if we'd been in an Anglo-Saxon country the woman would probably have screeched at him, in a stentorian voice that everyone around could have heard, "Are you over sixty?" The French way seemed much more gracious somehow.