I think felis's point is that the French attitude to rules is different from the American attitude. Even the English sometimes think we are written-rule crazy.

I lived in Italy almost four years, and have travelled in France. Both countries have what you might call a more "latin" attitude toward written rules and law.

When you run up against a petty bureaucrat-type who will run your life for the next few whiles (like a ticket agent or gate agent), they are VERY AWARE that you are at their mercy. Written rules DO NOT sway them. Our concepts of "fairness" and "play by the rules" ARE NOT operative.

You can brandish all the brochures you want, in English or in French, and it will rarely make a difference.

My experience is that being very nice and polite, and trying very hard to be understood in Italian or (less successfully) French, will get you much more consideration than being pushy or status-conscious or rule-thundering. Proletarian revenge, it's called in Italian.

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"Service" should be a noun, not a verb.
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