Imagine my name is Archer. If you call my folks and I pick up the phone, I'm apt to say something like, "You've reached the Pug residence." How would I say something like that in French? I assume the idiom there does not translate directly--or at least that it wouldn't be used the same way in France. I was able to find a handy guide on how to answer the phone at the company I work for, but that's not quite the same thing.
"Allô" is the traditional French greeting for over the phone. I've never called a French number where I got any weird idioms that I didn't understand. It's usually something quick and simple like we use "Allô, c'est Archer. Laissez un message." Not sure if I conjugated laisser correctly, but you get the idea. Most of my experience with french people are from France, but they were coworkers who did business in the US, they may have kept it simple for that reason, I don't know.
I'm French Canadian, so there might be some differences in France. When I answer the phone, I say: "Allô?" Others will answer "Oui allô" or "Oui bonjour". I've never heard someone state whose residence I was calling, unless it was the answering machine picking up. The message would say something like "Bonjour, vous êtes bien chez Archer Pug. Laissez un message", or if there's more than one Pug in residence, "Vous être bien chez les Pug..." (The last name remains singular even if there's more than one Pug.) "Bonjour, ici la résidence des Pug", sounds more formal.
