The French are quite a formal crowd when it comes to greetings, they have a greeting for just about every occasion but even with the simple “Bon Jour” there are quite a few subtle and significant variations.

Passing someone on the street with whom one has a nodding acquaintance one says “Bon Jour”.

Should one have a slightly more than nodding acquaintance, or wish to convey a little extra respect one says “Bon Jour Monsieur” (or “Madame”, or” Messieurs” or “M’sieur, Dames” as the case may be.) Or indeed, a little more informally, one can leave out the “Bon Jour” altogether and just say “M’sieur” or “Madame”.

But just recently (as I relax more into the French language) I have begun to hear another subtle variation on this theme. By simply saying “Madame (Monsieur) Bon Jour” and thus inverting the order of the greeting one is being slightly more polite and formal and therefore showing just a little more respect to the person greeted.