Vouvoie

My hairdresser does not like this, for instance, and will often vouvoie even clients younger than him if he doesn't know them.[…]In the local gyms I've been to there has been a very "copain copain" ambience and tutoiement has been the rule, in the changing rooms as elsewhere. I noticed for instance that at my free trial session the personnel vouvoied me but once I had signed up I was tu.[…]Alex immediately eliminated one of the suspects because the murdered woman would have vouvoied her.

At this, Marianne makes a sudden ‘confession’ that she and her husband have continued to vouvoie Linda and Jean-Pierre, although they have known them for years and, by implication, fulfil the criterion of getting on well.

Tutoiement of a person who would generally be “vouvoie-d” is a deliberate sign of disrespect, a provocation.[…]Charlotte is expected to vouvoie her French in-laws despite having been shown an extensive collection of nude photographs of her husband’s mother.