How does tipping work in Paris?

Tipping in Paris is genuinely optional, not a social obligation. Service is included by law in every restaurant bill under the *service compris* line, which adds roughly 15 percent automatically, so leaving nothing is completely acceptable. In practice, most locals round up at a café — leaving the coins from their change, maybe 50 cents to a euro — and at sit-down restaurants, one to five euros on the table after a good meal is appreciated but never expected. At higher-end restaurants, five to ten euros is reasonable for attentive service. Bartenders are not tipped the way they are in the U.S. Hotel housekeeping gets one to two euros per night if you feel inclined. Taxi drivers appreciate rounding up the fare by a euro or two. The key thing to understand is that Parisian servers are salaried employees with full benefits, so the American anxiety about under-tipping simply does not apply here.

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