Hi, It's not really true, it depends the social category of the french and the age. Most of the young french can speak English. We speak english when we travel abroad or at work. The first foreign langage is English, second is spanish and then maybe German. A french who speak daily english is working with foreigners so I think 5%. British people speak only english, only a little percentage speak french. ;)

coroline's talk is informative and intrestiong, thank you!

British people still use, now and then, French words (real words and in the right context, others in the wrong context, but also some made-up words they think is French but are not), either to sound posh or because they got used to them. For example, they may say "serviette" instead of "napkin" (real word, right context), or "bas-relief" (real word, but instead of saying BAH RUH LEE EFF like a French, they say BASS RUH LEEF) or "en-suite" (real word, wrong context, in French it means "in a row" but they use it as meaning "private toilet in the bedroom"), "double enttendre" (real words but bad bgrammar and sort of mean "hear twice", but they use it as meaning "something with a double meaning") or "decolletage" (made up word, the real French word is décolleté). Sometimes, they even conjugated those borrowed words, like "sautéed" ("sauté" is the past tense already, there was no need for an extra "ed"). My husband, who's British, likes to say "c'est la vie" (meaning "That's life") when he talks in English. I'm Canadian, so I won't venture on what French from France think of English. They do know English though, as both my father and sister (who went independently in France) can testify. They asked things in French (with their canadian accent) and both were answered back in English. (both were offended, French is our mother tongue).