--- title: Republican Debate: French Ambassador Offended By Jeb Bush description: At Wednesday night's Republican debate, Jeb Bush took a swipe at Marco Rubio, but insulted France in the process. canonical: https://time.com/4092827/french-ambassador-jeb-bush-gop-debate/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-29T15:35:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:57.688Z article:section: Politics og:title: Here's How France Responded to Jeb Bush's Debate Dig og:description: "The Senate, what is it like a French work week?" og:url: https://time.com/4092827/french-ambassador-jeb-bush-gop-debate/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt45623976eb45b51e/69886ea6e20a877471a8df20/gettyimages-494746416.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Jeb Bush og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's How France Responded to Jeb Bush's Debate Dig twitter:description: "The Senate, what is it like a French work week?" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt45623976eb45b51e/69886ea6e20a877471a8df20/gettyimages-494746416.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's How France Responded to Jeb Bush's Debate Dig  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Oct 29, 2015 3:35 PM UTC  Jeb Bush on during in the CNBC Republican Presidential Debate on Oct. 28, 2015 in Boulder, Colorado. Jeb Bush on during in the CNBC Republican Presidential Debate on Oct. 28, 2015 in Boulder, Colorado.Robyn Beck—AFP/Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Oct 29, 2015 3:35 PM UTC Jeb Bush took a swipe at Marco Rubio during [Wednesday night’s Republican debate](http://time.com/4092125/republican-debate-jeb-bush-lost/?xid=homepage)—but he rubbed France the wrong way in the process. While criticizing Rubio, the Florida Senator, for missing votes in Congress, Bush said, “The Senate, what is it like a French work week? You get like three days where you have to show up?” France has a 35-hour work week policy. [Rubio parried with Bush onstage](http://time.com/4091922/republican-debate-marco-rubio-jeb-bush/), but French ambassador to the United States Gérard Araud responded on Twitter. > [](https://twitter.com/GerardAraud/status/659538723655303168) > [](https://twitter.com/GerardAraud/status/659540690507063297) > [](https://twitter.com/GerardAraud/status/659542483584614400) The data may support Araud rather than Bush. Data from 2014 shows that “French workers are about as productive as American workers,” [Fortune reports](http://fortune.com/2014/08/28/france-workers-work-week/). “And when they aren’t on vacation, they work roughly 40 hours per week, just like Americans do.” Republican Debate: French Ambassador Offended By Jeb Bush ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4092827/french-ambassador-jeb-bush-gop-debate/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4092827/french-ambassador-jeb-bush-gop-debate/"},"headline":"Here's How France Responded to Jeb Bush's Debate Dig","datePublished":"2015-10-29T15:35:50.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:57.688Z","description":"\"The Senate, what is it like a French work week?\"","url":"https://time.com/4092827/french-ambassador-jeb-bush-gop-debate/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","jeb bush","Republican debate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt45623976eb45b51e/69886ea6e20a877471a8df20/gettyimages-494746416.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt45623976eb45b51e/69886ea6e20a877471a8df20/gettyimages-494746416.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Jeb Bush","caption":"Jeb Bush","creditText":"Robyn Beck—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4092827/french-ambassador-jeb-bush-gop-debate/","name":"Here's How France Responded to Jeb Bush's Debate Dig"}}]}] ```