FRANCE: Travel Tips

France, as every U.S. tourist knows, is one long landscape of outstretched, tip-expectant hands—the doorman, the waiter, the wine steward, the cabbie, the deliveryman, the barber, the junior civil servant, the cinema usher, the concierge and the ancient harpy who stands guard at the entrance to the public lavatory.

Even so, the direct tip is not the only way the omnipresent hotel porter gets into the tourist's pocket. Last week France's hotel and restaurant trade journal, L'Echo Touristique, gave away a trade secret. In addition to the usual service charge of 15% and...

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