I'll bet the French don't have a word for louvres.
Used to work with a guy called Christophe from Grenoble. Our favourite piece of office sport was to ask him "Hey Christophe, what's the French word for raison d'etre?' and other adopted French expressions. He would always fall for it and patiently explain that they were French words, whilst we would tell him they were in the English Dictionary so they could not be French and he must be mistaken...
The one that depresses me in France is the word entrepreneur - a French word, you would think.
Anyone who has been in business here will confirm that the apparatchiks of the state have either never heard of it, or don't understand what it means. They seem to think it means idiot, criminal, patsy or cash cow.
Until they work it out, the French economy cannot recover.
