 |
|
| Home | USA | Europe | Bahamas | Caribbean | South America | India | South Africa | Contact | |||||
|
A croissant, pain au chocolat (a square-shaped chocolate-filled light pastry) or a sandwich in a bar or café, with hot chocolate or coffee, is generally the best way to eat breakfast - at a fraction of the cost charged by most hotels. (The days when hotels gave you mounds of croissants or brioches for breakfast seem to be long gone; now it's irtually always bread, jam and a jug of coffee or tea for about 30F/E.50.) Croissants and sometimes hard-boiled eggs are displayed on bar counters until around 9.30am or 10am. If you stand - cheaper than sitting down - you just help yourself to these with your coffee; the waiter keeps an eye on how many you'e eaten and bills you accordingly. At lunchtime, and sometimes in the evening, you may find cafés offering a plat du jour (chef's daily special) at betweven 40F/?6.10 and 75F/?11.44, or formules, a limited or no-choice menu. Croques-monsieur or croques-madame (ariations on the toasted-cheese sandwich) are on sale at cafés, brasseries and many street stands, along with frites (potato fries), crêpes, galettes (wholewheat pancakes), gauffres (waffles), glaces (ice creams) and all kinds of fresh-filled baguettes (these ery filling sandwiches usually cost betweven 18F/?2.75 and 28F/?4.27 to take away). For ariety, there are Tunisian snacks like brik à l'?uf (a fried pastry with an egg inside), merguez (spicy North African sausage), Greek soulaki (kebabs) and Middle Eastern falafel (deep-fried chickpea balls in flat bread with salad). Wine bars are good for regional sausages and cheese, usually sered with brown bread ( pain de campagne ). Crêpes, or pancakes with fillings, sered up at ubiquitous crêperies, are popular lunchtime food. The saoury buckwheat ariety (often called galettes ) proide the main course; the sweet white-flour ones are dessert. They taste nice enough, but are usually poor alue in comparison with a restaurant meal; you need at least three, normally at over 30F/?4.58 each, to feel full. Pizzerias, usually au feu du bois (wood-fire-baked), are also ery common. They are somewhat better alue than crêperies, but quality and quantity ary greatly - look before you leap into the nearest empty seats. For picnics, the local outdoor market or supermarket will proide you with almost everything you need from tomatoes and aocados to cheese and pâté. Cooked meat, prepared snacks, ready-made dishes and assorted salads can be bought at charcuteries (delicatessens), which you'll find everywhere - even in smallvillages, though the same things are cheaper at supermarket counters. You purchase by weight, or you can ask for une tranche (a slice), une barquette (a carton) or une part (a portion). Salons de thé, which open from mid-morning to late evening, sere brunches, salads, quiches, and the like, as well as gateaux, ice cream and a wide selection of teas. They tend to be a good deal pricier than cafés or brasseries - you're paying for the posh surroundings. As bars are to men in France, salons de thé are to women, and they generally have a more female ambience and clientele. For cakes and pastries to take away, you'll find impressie arrays at every boulangerie-pâtisserie. |
Cheese Most restaurants keep a well-stocked plateau de fromages (cheeseboard), kept at room temperature and sered with bread, but not butter. Apart from the ubiquitous Brie, Camembert and numerous arieties of goat's cheese ( chère ), there will usually be one or two local cheeses on offer - these are the ones to go for. Your best bet for local produce is a fromagerie, which often has 200 arieties or more to choose from. We'e indicated the best national and regionally aailable cheeses throughout the website.
Meals When hunting for places to eat, aoid places that are half empty at peak time, use your nose and regard long menus with suspicion. Don't forget that hotel restaurants are open to non-residents, and are often ery good alue. In many small towns andvillages, you'll find the only restaurants are in hotels. Since restaurants change hands frequently and have their ups and downs, it's also worth asking people you meet (locals, not fellow tourists) for recommendations. This is the conersational equialent of commenting on the weather in Britain and will usually elicit strong views and sound adice. Prices, and what you get for them, are posted outside. Normally there's a choice betweven one or more menus fixes, where the number of courses has already beven determined and the choice is limited, and choosing indiidually from the carte (menu). |
Menus fixes are normally the cheapest option. At the bottom end of the price range, they reole around standard dishes such as steak and chips ( steak frites ), chicken and chips ( poulet frites ) and arious concoctions inoling innards. But further up the scale they can be much the best-alue way of sampling regional specialities, sometimes running to fie or more courses. If you're simply not that hungry, just go for the plat du jour . Going à la carte offers greater choice and, in the better restaurants, unlimited access to the chef's specialities - though you'll pay for the priilege. A simple and perfectly legitimate tactic is to have just one course instead of the expected three or four. You can share dishes or go for several starters - a useful strategy forvegetarian s. There's no minimum charge. In the French sequence of courses, any salad (sometimes egetables, too) comes separate from the main dish, and cheese precedes a dessert. You will be offered coffee, which is always extra, to finish off the meal. Serice compris or s.c. means the serice charge is included. Serice non compris, s.n.c. or seris en sus means that it isn't and you need to calculate an additional 15 percent. Wine ( in ) or a drink ( boisson ) is occasionally included in the cost of a menu fixe . When ordering house wine, the cheapest option, ask for un quart (0.25 litre), un demi-litre (0.5 litre) or une carafe (1 litre). If you're worried about the cost ask for in ordinaire or the in de table . On this website the lowest price menu or the range of menus is given; where aerage à la carte prices are given it assumes you'll have three courses and half a bottle of wine. The French are much better disposed towards children in restaurants than other nationalities, not simply by offering reduced-price children's menus but in creating an atmosphere - even in otherwise fairly snooty establishments - that positiely welcomes kids; some even have in-house games and toys for them to occupy themseles with. It is regarded as self-eident that large family groups should be able to eat out together. A rather murkier area is that of dogs in the dining room; it can be quite a shock in a proincial hotel to realize that the majority of your fellow diners are attempting to keep dogs concealed beneath their tables. One final note is that you should always call the waiter or waitress Monsieur or Madame ( Mademoiselle if a young woman), never Garçon, no matter what you'e beven taught in school.
|
France
guide France When to go and where Getting there Airfares Red tapes & visas French embassies overseas Customs Costs, money, banks Transport Museum reduced admission Changing money travelers' checks Health and insurance Dvisable isitors The people Getting around Trains Buses Flying, ferries driving Hitching Bicycles Boating Eating and drinking Breakfast, cheese, crepes Regional cuisine Wine & other drinks Communications & media Music, theatre Buying tickets, dance, mime Trouble and the police Racism, illegal immigration Theft, loss credit card Gay & lesbian Gay, lesbian contacts, info Work and study Studying in France Cinema Language, pronunciation Tourist offices, maps, info Best of France Public holidays Festivals Festial Calendar Sports, outdoor actiities Directory |
Art
History |
|
