When we first meet Emily Cooper on Emily in Paris, she has no social media following, no knowledge of French whatsoever and is still dating her drag of a boy toy back home in Chicago. How naïve she was back then. She eventually picks up a thing or two about embracing the Parisian way of life, but no one said moving to a foreign country was gonna be easy. Here are all of the lessons Emily learns about French culture in Season 1.

1. The ground floor in a French building isn’t the first floor –– that’s one flight up.

In Paris, toting bags up five flights of stairs only gets you to the fourth floor, not the fifth, cherie. That would explain why Emily is always knocking on the door of her hot chef of a downstairs neighbor, Gabriel, thinking his apartment is hers.

15 Lessons About France Emily Learns in ‘Emily in Paris’

2. French people will find you arrogant if you show up to your new job without knowing a lick of French.

When Emily arrives in Paris for her first day at marketing firm Savoir, all her coworkers naturally assume she would know French, at least conversationally. But she only knows “Bonjour” and quickly realizes that her ignorance comes off as arrogance after a riverside chat with her compassionate coworker, Luc.

15 Lessons About France Emily Learns in ‘Emily in Paris’

3. Don’t be early for work.

Emily doesn’t realize early on in her new gig that most people show up... when the doors open, at 10:30, not two hours before like she’s used to. That’s where enrolling in 7 a.m. French lessons comes in!

15 Lessons About France Emily Learns in ‘Emily in Paris’

4. Don’t plug your American vibrator into a French electrical outlet.

When Emily is left feeling rather unsatisfied after her FaceTime with her Chicago boyfriend, she doesn’t realize that plugging her American vibrator into a French electrical outlet will cause a power outage in her entire neighborhood. Girl desperately needed a voltage converter AND a power adapter, stat.

15 Lessons About France Emily Learns in ‘Emily in Paris’

5. Dinner is taken very seriously.

When Emily meets Mindy in the Jardin du Palais Royal on her lunch break, Mindy gives Emily her number so they can grab dinner sometime. Emily takes Mindy up on her offer, asking if she was sincere in her invite. And Mindy, in no uncertain terms, insists that everyone in France is serious about dinner, as meals are considered an art form in the City of Light.

15 Lessons About France Emily Learns in ‘Emily in Paris’

6. French people greet you with kisses on both cheeks.

One of Mindy’s first nuggets of French knowledge that she imparts to Emily is that shaking hands is so American. Don’t know how common kissing people on both cheeks will be in a post-COVID world, but c’est la vie.

15 Lessons About France Emily Learns in ‘Emily in Paris’

7 . French people will be mean to your face.

As Emily learns firsthand from her office nickname of “Le Plouc,” or, shall we say, “hick,” French people are blunt, even if their sentiments are harsh. But at least you’ll know what they think (as long as you use Google Translate).

15 Lessons About France Emily Learns in ‘Emily in Paris’

8. In Paris, the customer is not always right.

When Emily and Mindy go out for dinner at Les Deux Compères, Emily doesn’t even take a bite of her steak before asking the waiter to send it back. Little does she know that the restaurant’s chef is Gabriel, and after he comes out from the kitchen and asks her to taste it first, boy, does she regret knocking it before trying it.

15 Lessons About France Emily Learns in ‘Emily in Paris’

9. Don’t talk about work at a party or at the dinner table.

Emily’s boss Sylvie isn’t a fan of many of Emily’s charms, but least of all, she is none too pleased with how often Emily brings up her passion for work at after-hours affairs. At Emily’s first work party, Sylvie implores Emily to remember that a soirée is not a conference call.

15 Lessons About France Emily Learns in ‘Emily in Paris’

10. Extramarital affairs and workplace romances are more common than you think.

Emily’s shocked to learn that Sylvie is sleeping with Savoir client Antoine Lambert, who’s the head of French parfumerie Maison Lavaux. But little does Emily know that Antoine’s wife is well aware that he and Sylvie are an item. As Mindy comes to teach her, husbands and wives often approve of and are friends with their spouse’s lovers, since no one wants to have to sleep with the same person forever, right?

15 Lessons About France Emily Learns in ‘Emily in Paris’

11. Don’t clean your pans after cooking omelettes.

After Emily’s shipment of peanut butter explodes, Gabriel makes her a Parisian omelette in his flat. But when Emily tries to wash the skillet in which it was cooked, he balks in horror. Take it from a professional chef: Don’t clean. Instead, leave the pan be and let things season.

15 Lessons About France Emily Learns in ‘Emily in Paris’

12. French endings to movies are more tragic.

When Emily shares her excitement to be collaborating with Hollywood starlet Brooklyn Clark on a marketing campaign, her coworkers Julien and Luc mourn the lack of believability of American movies, and especially, the ever-sought-after happy ending. Luc prefers more tragic, and realistic, storylines where “he dies or loses a limb or she prefers to be a lesbian, which happens.”

15 Lessons About France Emily Learns in ‘Emily in Paris’

13. Touring someone’s home is not a thing.

When Emily heads down to Champagne with Gabriel and his girlfriend Camille for a weekend getaway, she assumes that Camille’s mom will give her a tour of their château. But she reminds Emily that people live in this place, mon petit chou; their home is not a museum. But a wine tour is just down the road.

15 Lessons About France Emily Learns in ‘Emily in Paris’

14. Athletes spraying Champagne was actually invented in France.

When Emily takes Camille’s family on as a client to market their Champagne as a spray for celebrations, she presents her pitch back at the office. When Sylvie dismisses the idea as so American, Luc informs her that the tradition of spraying Champagne actually began with Formula 1 drivers in France in the 1960s. Who knew Luc was into race cars?

15 Lessons About France Emily Learns in ‘Emily in Paris’

15. The bureaucracy of terminating someone’s job takes forever.

Sylvie (temporarily) fires Emily after a fiasco during client Pierre Cadault’s fashion week show, but Julien and Luc tell her not to worry since firing someone takes ages in France. All she needs to do is abandon all self-respect and show up at the office to shuffle some papers around once or twice a week and none will be the wiser. Well, Sylvie is, but she lets Emily get away with it (and eventually rescinds the termination).

15 Lessons About France Emily Learns in ‘Emily in Paris’