My BIL will be receiving the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres later this month.

In speaking with his brother this morning, we realized we have no idea of how to appropriately address him now.

Is there a proper form of address for someone who has this?

I have heard Monsieur le chevalier, but I doubt that family members need to be so formal.
I'd say just call him whatever you are used to calling him and don't forget to féliciter him big time.
And félicitations !
But Maureen, how did you fall from grace and become the formerly favorite?

Ah, AinP, "formerly" doesn't necessarily mean that anyone has replaced her!

As a rule, I will say that French people do not emphasize title as much as in the US. If my informations are correct (which they may not be), Ph. D. are usually called Doctor in the US. In France, I have never heard anyone call someone else Doctor XXX appart from a Medical Doctor in a medical context.

This may not be true in high society though, I think you would say "Monsieur l'ambassadeur" to an ambassador for instance.

Off topic

When should I say "for instance" or "for exemple"? I have never seen any difference between the two.

Sylvain,
In Paris and Geneva, I have also heard ambassadors addressed as "votre excellence".
In France, lawyers are also addressed as maître, no?
And a minister seems to be addressed as monsieur le ministre for life!
For instance = for example. No difference in meaning; no difference in semantic field.

I wanted to say that titles are used in a professional context. I will admit that my view of the US usage stems from books where Ph. D. are called Doctor even in a non professional context so it is quite a narrow field to extract a generality.

As I said, in the high society, the titles are more prominent. Maybe they view nearly all relationships as more professional or social than in other class of society?


So example an instance are another example of the double vocabulary in english. (I mean that you often found two words with the same meaning in english, one with a french root and one with a saxon root)

Thank you AinP. We are used to calling him "Il Maestro". He's Italian.

Now I guess we are forced to call him "Maestro monsieur le chevalier".

But, not being fluent in French, I may slip from time to time and address him as "monsieur chevelu". Close enough .

I saw in the news yesterday that one of his companions in the new batch of Chevaliers is Kylie Minogue...

Jonathan

Sylvain, just to clarify, "instance" and "example" are not quite the same by themselves. It's only with the addition of "for" that their meanings are identical.

"Instance" is usually roughly equivalent to "occurence." And "example" is.... well, the same as in French!

You do know that instance is also a french word with several meanings. One of these is the same as in english (at least in computer science)

Thanks, Sylvain!

An interesting article I read last week in the NY Times: here.

I imagine, Maureen, my dear FFM, that whatever you call him, your tongue will be firmly planted in your cheek.

Anyway, congrats, felicitations and auguri to your BIL. Whatever you call him, I love his music.