-Or- How to survive on 20 different variations of ham and cheese.

We were in France 15 days (including travel days). That gives a decent amount of opportunities to see what the fuss is about French foods.

The quick and dirty: bakeries, really good; restaurants, okay.

French evening meals (and I think this is true for much of Europe) in restaurants are based on menus. I know this sounds “no, duh,” but the menu is a one-price for three (or more) courses. The menus are fairly limited in what they offer. The carte (what we would call a menu) is a la carte. Any way you look at it, French restaurants were fairly expensive: typically 8-20 euros, which is currently 12-30 dollars per person. You do NOT want to order a drink at a French restaurant – sodas cost 3-6 euros, and these were always just a normal can or bottle of Coke. $5-9 for a bottle of Coke? Ouch!

Back to the food: Most restaurants would have omelettes available – these were good and cheap. Many restaurants also had very thin crust pizza (most European pizza is about cardboard-thick or less). In some restaurants, you could get frites (french fries or “chips”). I almost always could fall back on these when I did not want fancy sauces and meats I don’t think of (and the occational  offering of snail). So, most French restaurants allowed me to have nice simple fare, but I never did eat any “real” French food as the main evening meal. I did eat and enjoy dessert crepes (chocolate crepes are nice).

We also found a Chinese restaurant toward the end of the trip, which was very welcome. It appears that the French do very little with chicken in their restaurants. The chicken and rice I had were very very good. We also ate at two Italian restaurants. The meal we had near Notre Dame in Paris was exceptional Italian.

The French excel in their bakeries and baked goods. The breads at every meal (including breakfast) were excellent. We rarely ate lunch, but when we did, we always got it at a bakery; most bakeries offered sandwiches on baguettes, or made of flaky pastry crust. it was half a game to see how many different ways I could eat ham and cheese (at least six different ways – maybe more).

French breakfasts were simple – breads and croissants with spreads, and sometimes cheese. But where the French displayed their cultural superiority was the fact that at EVERY breakfast, and in most restaurants, I could get hot chocolate. It was considered as normal as coffee and tea. Many times, the hot chocolate was so dark they served it with sugar on the side. It was always made of warm whole milk. Ahhhhh.

French pastries were exceptional as well. Mer and I had dark chocolate tarts several times, and these were drool-worthy. The French also decided it was worthwhile to fill their éclairs with chocolate filling. They were right to do so.

So, all in all, we ate well in France. If the supper choices were a tad limited for my fussy palate, this was more than made up for by a country where pastry shops easily outnumber gas stations. Well done, France!