During the festive season, our diaries – much like our stomachs – are fit to burst. Every night, there’s a Christmas party, pub booking, carol concert, dinner, or drinks, up until the moment we eventually arrive at the closing New Year’s Eve champagne bender. It’s exhausting to type out, let alone attend. Which is why many people will often employ a sneaky technique to get themselves tucked up at home in their matching pinstripe pyjamas faster – the French exit.
The term, which originated as “French leave” in the mid-1700s, denotes leaving a party without saying goodbye to one’s host. If you think this sounds like a problematic jab towards our friends across the Channel, don’t worry, they hilariously shoot exactly the same insult right back at us: “filer à l’anglaise”, I’m told, translates to “leave English-style”.
