THEY may sniff at our economic model but the French are showing a boundless appetite for British cultural traditions. The latest craze is le pub quiz, writes Matthew Campbell.

What started as an experiment three years ago has become a social movement: 19 teams of contestants lined up on Wednesday night to take part in a quiz at the Green Linnet, one of 15 British-style pubs in Paris that hosts a weekly test of general knowledge.

“It’s getting very popular,” said Paraic Maguire, the Irish quizmaster. “Quizzes in bars have never before been part of French culture. Now they are really catching on.”

At a table nearby, four earnest-looking French friends were sipping pints of lager while puzzling over who had played the title role in the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia. “Was it Laurence Olivier or Peter O’Toole?” asked Bérénice, a 30-year-old secretary. “I’m sure it was one or the other.”

She said it was fun to spend the evening pondering such issues in an Irish pub. “It’s a good way of meeting people, too,” she added. Stéphane, her friend, agreed: “I know a lot of men who come to these things in the hope of meeting English or Irish girls.” They were no doubt disappointed on Wednesday, however: the audience of more than 100 people was almost entirely French.

Even so, Maguire, a Dubliner who teaches English in Paris, asked all the questions in both languages. “People come here to listen to and improve their English,” he said.

There was fierce competition for the prize of a bottle of champagne. After five arduous rounds of questions ranging from “this week in history” to geography and mathematics, a team of six young computer programmers was declared victorious with 270 points.

Even they had struggled a bit over the last question: “In a game of Russian roulette with two players, the six-shooter has three bullets in three consecutive chambers; the game stops when one player dies; what is the probability that player two will survive?”

A team with 290 points was disqualified by Maguire on the grounds that it had too many members. “Teams must be limited to six. They had about 20 people playing for them.”

The audience seemed to appreciate Maguire’s firm grip: like a World Cup umpire, he repeatedly dished out “yellow cards” to those who questioned his answers — as they did when he said “two-thirds” was the right response to the Russian roulette question.

To convince the sceptics, he pulled out a diagram showing six possible “bullet configurations”. The heckling ceased.

Players caught using mobile telephones to check answers with friends at computers can be sent off the field and banned from participating in future. “I don’t like cheating,” said Maguire.

The popularity of le pub quiz underlines a curious aspect of Franco-British relations: while the two countries are often at loggerheads politically — the latest Franco-British summit seems to have been no exception — they are clearly in love with each other’s way of life.

More than 1m Britons flock to France each summer on holiday and hundreds of thousands have moved there permanently. The French, meanwhile, are stampeding to London in search of better-paid jobs and opportunities and from Paris to Toulouse they are busily assimilating British traditions.

The French have always had a fancy for what is known in the fashion world as “le style anglais” — essentially tweed jackets and brogues — but even cheddar cheese and cricket have a following these days on the other side of the Channel.

When it comes to le pub quiz, Maguire says that French people seem to know a lot more about British cinema, music and the arts than the British know about French culture. Asked whether there were any other differences between the quiz enthusiasts, he replied: “The French drink a bit less.”

This is probably why French participants had little trouble in dealing with questions such as: which Dumas wrote The Three Musketeers? (Alexandre senior); which king did The Three Musketeers serve? (Louis XIII); and which French painter was buried in the Marquesas islands? (Paul Gauguin).

There were gasps of disbelief from Pascale and Kelvine, both students, when Maguire read out the solution to question No 7: “Which of these countries first gave women the vote: France, Turkey or Spain?” The answer is Turkey in 1930 (Spain 1931, France 1944). “I could have sworn that would be France,” said Pascale. “That’s amazing. I suppose it is a trick question.”

As for who played the main role in Lawrence of Arabia, Bérénice, and her friends opted for Olivier. It was O’Toole.

“I hope we’ll do better next time,” said Pascale as the computer programmers uncorked their champagne.

French Test

1 Which French anarcho-syndicalist was born in Talence, near Bordeaux, on June 11, 1953?

2 How many protons are in a helium nucleus?

3 In which European Union capital is the Monument to the Discoveries?

Answers

1 José Bové

2 Two

3 Lisbon

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