Embassy of France

The officers in the visa section were extremely rude and unaccommodating. If you want to visit Europe, my suggestion is to plan your trip so that you spend more days in another Schengen country thereby avoiding French consulate altogether!

Had a visa application appointment. Quick and extremely courteous. He just checked we had all the required paperwork and didn’t ask too many questions. Very friendly. We were in and out in less than an hour. Visa approved a couple days later.

The worst embassy I have ever visited. I have been working in U.S.A for last 15 years and wanted to take a vacation in Paris for the first time. I have a US green card. The guy on the counter was rude and asked for additional documents as my insurance letter did not say that it will cover for repatriation. He asked me to fax it later. I got it updated and faxed it next day. Then they email me that the don’t have my employment letter. I offered to fax it or email it or drop it in person. They said no only US post. When the guy went over my documents during person interview I showed him direct deposit on bank statement, my federal tax return for 2014, stable balance of close to $ 50K. Now despite that he wants a pay stub. I don’t know why he did not tell me that during person interview. During the personal interview he said only my updated insurance letter is needed.
This is not say that I had to drive 4 hrs to reach to appointment from Leigh valley in PA to this consulate, when NYC consulate in 1hr away from where I live.
The whole experience has been bitter and I am ready to cancel my request and get my passport back. I think these guys are crazy.
Don’t know what their fear is. I am brown skinned and may be a terrorist lot I want to settle in France???
I know nobody who has immigrated from US to Europe for better jobs??? I might be missing something here.

Horrible. Ridiculous! I was at the France embassy, visa sec located on reservoir rd, Washington DC earlier this morning. When I enter the visa service area, the place was not busy, and me and my husband was quickly being called and helped. However, the immigration officer’s attitude was not friendly at all! (comparing to the one that helped us later to paid for the fees, he was actually OK) so he asked for everything he need, and we were done in about 15 mins. Then, a lady immigration officer called, and ask us to pay (RUDE, very unpleasant. seems to be very annoyed, when I didn’t hear her and ask her to repeat!) So we were informed that my husband need to have another type of medical insurance since our insurance did not state the amount covered outside of the U.S. That was ok, they have their requirements, BUT when I asked what is the actual requirements, she simply said: like what is stated online! At the moment, I was about to blow off, but I hold my temper. She then proceed on asking us to sign and confirm everything. Since France write their date format a little different than U. S, I wanted to make sure that it’s (date/month/year)format for my husbands birthday. Again, she was very impatient! And annoyed by this! She then said: «oh your going to the Tahiti, not France. Then I charged you more, it’s not $ 63 but $ 9!» (that was fine, everyone makes mistake. She then walks off with my card again for the refund.) While she was gone, my phone vibrated in my bag I quickly took a glance at the phone (she returned, and saw this.) She violently said: «PUT YOUR PHONE AWAY BEFORE I THROW IT OUT THE WINDOW!» Oh my god. I was just taking a peek. She said that there’s sign everywhere said no cellphone, BUT she did not have to be so rude! It might be my fault to have the phone out, but again, is it necessary to act like this? An embassy, especially an immigration officer should represent ones country, to be so rude and unpleasant towards visitors that’s going to your mother country is definitely a shame. I hereby ask someone to pay attention to this matter, and make France embassy a friendly place to be! I’m an U. S citizen myself, and had it not been my husband, who needs a shengen visa to visit Tahiti, I absolutely will not step back into this embassy ever again! FYI it’s this lady at the first window!

To be fair, I’ve only come to one of the embassy’s cafeteria, but it was delicious! Take a tray, some silverware, and start with the create your own salad section. On the day I went, they had quiche, soup, fish, and spaghetti with tasty sides (bok choy!). I noticed someone ordered a steak freshly grilled. Delicious and seemingly affordable, you might possibly need an ID? But otherwise, worth it! I hope to come back for a quiet lunch.

I recently visited the consulate to apply for a visa. The first thing I would like to say: Don’t come near that «troubled» woman on the 1^st window (she explicitly shows no respect anyone who comes NEAR her with a question and while she sits there doing nothing). Talk to any of the two guys on window 2 and 3. They are Okay but could be more diplomatic considering they are representing the French government. The other staff are helpful and they take ur situation under consideration.

I attended the Halloween Gala and Party that the French Embassy was having. It appeared that Things To Do DC was hosting the event and the venue was the embassy. I am going to base my review just on the embassy itself. The embassy from what I saw was nice. The hall had two bars, a dance floor, large area for coat check, and plenty of seating. I would love to come here for another event in the future

This is only for the Fête de la Musique held outdoors at the embassy as we didn’t get to tour inside or anything like that. The venue was beautiful, the people were diverse — literally, figuratively, representatively, in every demographic, etc. — AWESOME. But the event itself was incredibly INCREDIBLY poorly executed and ill prepared. There were two or three stages, three «booths» to buy tickets in, no explanation for what the fuck tickets were meant for, excruciatingly long lines that were very disorganized — it wasn’t clear if i was standing in line for a crêpe, a ticket, or god — standing in line for a chance to cross the line yeesh.
To buy anything at the fête — food, drink (yes water), activities — you had to first get tickets. They don’t tell you this. Have fun standing in a food line until someone clues you in. There were 3 ticket lines stationed all around the place and some of them blended into other lines and others were just plain slow. Oh and expensive. With 10 tickets = 20 dollars. We got 3 pastries and 1 faux tattoo. Yeaaaah… And you had to buy them bc no outside food or drink was allowed (not that they checked…)
Food: They only had 1 section for crepes which meant the line wrapped around basically the entire fountain (possibly more than once). They ran out of cheese for the crepes… There were 3 lines for pastries but really it was just a mob of people halfassing it. Tere were no clear distinction of which line was for what or if they all had everything, no signs for what was being served. Subs and ice cream were also offered. Those lines…
Drinks: Did not have any, but I did hear someone say it was 12 tickets for a bottle of champagne.
Activities: Face painting and faux tattoo artist were STELLAR and quick and the lines weren’t long. But they were slow.
Bottom line: Go early and/​or go with groups that are willing to splinter off and stand in line. We took our food, sat out on the gorgeous green hill/​lawn, chilled, talked, listened to softpop from the 90s, and people watched. Not bad for a couple hours. Certainly an experience. But not one I’d readily repeat…

2.75 (yeah I’m petty like that)
Initially, I was warned as far as parking goes. But on a Sunday afternoon there was surprisingly lots of parking along the street. My 1^st visit here and I am working. Earlier that day I had an opportunity to see the ins and outs from the aspect of a rental facility.
We had a chance to walk around outside and the patio area nice, wooded clean, a few sculptures here and there. The main area from the entrance is large enough for vendors to set up booths, a small reception, and in this case a fashion show to seat 200 some odd people. Not bad, but here is where the problem came in. As I was bouncing from the registration desk to seating people, women were coming out the bathroom complaining about the smell and saying there was no soap, paper towels or toilet paper? What do I tell these women? Hold on and shake yourself dry? Embarrassing… Well maybe more embarrassing for them.
WHERE IS MAINTENANCE!!! Shouldn’t there be some old man in a flannel shirt, overalls, and thick gum-​soled shoes, walking around with 80 keys on his hip? WHERE’S THAT MAN!!! Finally after an hour or so, we found a closet that we presumed was locked, well it was actually open, and fully stocked with paper products and cleaning solution. A worker friend took one for the home team and went in the bathroom and did a quick cleaning and restocked all the stalls. Thank God!!!
I must say any faint thoughts of prominence or prestige that I ever had for this place just through word association at this point went right down the drain. Not that I expected this place to be The Vatican, but the property was severely understaffed with furniture that was considerably aged and dreary.
Embassy of France is in serious need of minor upgrades and weekend staff, with 400 employees and they say this is their largest foreign embassy? They could really use a boost.

The Grand Fête is one of my favorite events — I’ve been going for years and I love it! So many wonderful countries serving their best food, chocolate, wine, beer etc. and a fabulously diverse, fun crowd.

My first visit to the Embassy of France. It occupied a spacious real estate in Georgetown right across from the Georgetown University Hospital. It was Fête de la Musique, there were multiple sites with bands playing all kinds of music. The security people were idiotic, totally singled me out to scan me as if my tiny dress was hiding some dangerous weapon! Need no spelling out what opinion they had of Asian people. The turn out was great there was probably about a thousand people. There were food stands everywhere selling croissants to French sandwiches. Other than beer, they sold wine and champagne by the bottle as well. Young people with amazing etiquette were drinking right out of the bottles! The event was from 4 PM to 12 and I originally wanted to go at 4 PM but due to the LAME cancellation of a later plan, I was able to go to the later part of the event.
I saw everyone out of the woodworks. One friend who knew other friend, social network friends, people I met online that I didnt want to meet in person, people I met once and never saw again etc it was crazy! Every turn I took I saw someone I knew. It was a great night indeed.
The night ended with the rest of crowd dancing in the hall of the Embassy the music was not great and the sound quality was awful!

Snooty but impeccably dressed Frenchmen «greeted» me at the bottom of the hill. Sure, using valet or even taking a cab would have been a more glamorous mode of transport to an Embassy event, but my two feet work just fine, thankyouverymuch.
The event space within the Embassy is great: open and meandering with a lot of options for set-​up. Two large bars and an area for coat check, as well as a great patio outside that would have worked well tented with food/​beverage outside. This is how event planners see spaces, I suppose. Even though the weather outside was quite mild, it was uncomfortably hot inside, to the point that I really couldn’t enjoy the party… or drink more wine.
I’ll likely be using the French Embassy for an upcoming event so I’ll be sure to update on the inner-​workings of the place.

Much to my delight there was a preponderance of attractive, young ladies at the French Embassy today. Oh yes, I noticed. No doubt they found my wandering gaze boyishly charming. :) [Further evidence of my delusional 30-​something daydreaming]
Alright, so the Embassy of France is pretty nice. It lies off a shady, tree-​lined residential area on Reservoir Road NW. There are lots of cultural events open to the public and they frequently update their calendar with lectures, concerts, films and exhibitions.
My visit coincided with Passport DC’s «Shortcut to Europe» embassy open house.
While not as magical as the Embassy of Sweden, our French neighbors provided food, wine and music for our pleasure and entertainment.
At this point I must mention the enchanting hostess selling the Strawberry Tarts. 1. The Strawberry Tart was delicious 2. Her accent was melting my rippling, masculine persona (hehe) 3. She was gracious and friendly.
While the embassy itself didn’t wow me, I enjoyed my time there and would definitely return for an interesting event or occasion. The weather was incredible, and I kind of wanted to sprawl out on the grass with a Strawberry Tart. Naturally, a man of my sophistication and refinement, I resisted the urge. :)

Bastille Day July 7, did not live up to expectation. Some of the featured events did not materialize as expected. Plenty of food and of very good quality. The disco was extremely disappointing, they over promised with the parisenne music. The closest thing played was an ABBA song and they are Swedish.
Generally, the events held at the French Embassy are fantastic and I will attend them in the future. I doubt that I will attend Bastille Day in again especially for the $ 85-​$ 100 charged for the event.

The cab ride to the Embassy of France was beautiful, taking me through Georgetown’s most stately homes before arriving at the gated compound on Reservoir Road. Designed by Andre Remondet, who was once France’s Chief Architect of Public Buildings, it is the largest French diplomatic mission in the world.
The embassy regularly hosts events that are open to the public such as the French wine and food celebration I recently attended there. This event was hosted by The French Wine Society and the French International Culinary Society and it paired wines from the Loire Valley (which happens to contain some of my favorite appellations) with food prepared by local restaurants and chefs. We toured table after table savoring crepes and cheese and quiche and other delights that were well-​matched with the wines we tasted.
The Embassy of France is the closest you can get to the country without leaving DC. I highly recommend a visit!