French Food Guide

Meal times and the daily rhythm

France eats on a schedule, and restaurants stick to it. Breakfast (le petit-déjeuner) is small: coffee, bread with butter and jam, maybe a croissant on weekends. Lunch (le déjeuner) runs from about noon to 2 pm and is still a proper sit-down meal for many people, especially outside Paris. Dinner (le dîner) starts around 7:30 pm, and the dining rooms fill between 8 and 9:30 pm. In the south and in summer, everything slides later.

The part that trips up Americans is the gap in the afternoon. Most traditional restaurants stop taking lunch orders around 1:30 or 2 pm and don't reopen until 7 or 7:30 pm. If you get hungry at 3:30 pm, your options are a bakery, a café, a crêperie, a sandwich shop, or a brasserie advertising service continu (all-day service), which you'll find in cities, train stations and tourist areas.

Closing days matter as much as hours. Many independent restaurants close Sunday evening and all day Monday, and some close Tuesday too. In August, a sign reading fermeture annuelle or congés annuels means the owners are on their summer vacation, sometimes for three or four weeks. Check Google Maps hours, then confirm on the restaurant's own site or social media, since listings lag. Our culture and etiquette page covers closures in more detail.

How menus work

"Entrée" means starter

This is the classic mix-up. In France, the entrée is the first course, the dish that "enters" the meal. The main course is the plat (or plat principal), followed by cheese and/or dessert. If you order three entrées thinking you're getting three mains, you'll get three appetizers.

La carte, le menu, la formule, le plat du jour

• La carte is the full list of dishes, priced individually. If you want the physical menu, ask for la carte.
• Le menu is a fixed-price meal of two, three or more courses, usually with a few choices for each course. Asking for "the menu" gets you this, which confuses a lot of visitors.
• La formule is a set combination, typically entrée + plat or plat + dessert, sometimes all three. Lunch formules in ordinary neighborhood bistros often run about €15–€25 (about $17–$28), more in central Paris. They are the best-value meal in France.
• Le plat du jour is the daily special, usually chalked on a board called l'ardoise. It's often what the regulars order.
• Menu dégustation is a tasting menu, standard at high-end restaurants.
• Supplément next to a dish inside a set menu means it costs extra (common for steak or foie gras).
• Boissons non comprises means drinks aren't included. Vin compris (wine included) still turns up in country restaurants and at Sunday lunch menus.

French law requires restaurants to post their menu and prices outside, so you can read before you sit down. Look for the fait maison logo (a saucepan topped with a little roof): it means the dish was made on site from raw ingredients. Its absence doesn't prove anything, but a long menu at a cheap tourist-street restaurant often means reheated food.

Kids' menus and eating with children

Most casual restaurants offer a menu enfant for under-10s or under-12s: typically a steak haché (a plain beef patty) or chicken with fries or pasta, a drink and a scoop of ice cream, often for about €8–€14 (about $9–$16). Many French parents skip it and order a half portion or a simple adult dish, which kids here are used to eating. High chairs (chaises hautes) are common but not universal.

Bring kids at 7:30 pm, when restaurants open and are quiet. Crêperies, pizzerias and brasseries are the easiest choices, and the afternoon goûter is a lifesaver on long sightseeing days. For more, see Paris with kids and our families section.

Ordering, service and paying

How service works

French waiters are salaried professionals, and the service charge is built into the prices. That changes the rhythm. Your server won't introduce themselves, won't check on you every ten minutes, and won't bring the check until you ask. A two-hour dinner is normal, and the table is yours for the night.

To get attention, catch the server's eye, raise a hand slightly, and say "S'il vous plaît" or "Monsieur" / "Madame". Never call out "garçon", and don't snap your fingers. Order everything at once if you can. Substitutions and "dressing on the side" requests are less common than in the US; the dish arrives the way the chef designed it. Allergy and dietary requests are a different matter and get taken seriously.

Getting the check and splitting it

1. When you're ready, catch your server's eye and say "L'addition, s'il vous plaît." Miming a signature in the air works too.
2. The server usually brings a portable card terminal to the table. Contactless tap works almost everywhere; with a chip card you may be asked for a PIN, so know yours before you travel. See money and cards.
3. To split, ask "On peut payer séparément ?" Splitting evenly (en parts égales) is easy. Item-by-item splits for a big table can annoy a busy server, so for groups, one person paying and others reimbursing by app is smoother.
4. Always choose to pay in euros if the terminal offers dollars. The conversion rate is worse.

Free tap water and bread

Tap water in France is safe and, with a meal, free. Ask for "une carafe d'eau, s'il vous plaît." If you just say "water," some servers will bring a bottle of Evian or Badoit and charge you €5–€8 (about $6–$9). Ice is used sparingly; ask for des glaçons if you want it.

Bread comes free and gets refilled, usually in a basket and sometimes placed straight on the tablecloth, since there's no side plate. There's normally no butter, except with oysters, radishes, charcuterie, or in butter country like Brittany and Normandy. Tear off a bite-size piece rather than biting into a whole slice. Using a small piece of bread to wipe up sauce (saucer) is fine in bistros; in formal restaurants, do it with the bread on the end of your fork. Bread is meant to go with the food, so save some for the main course.

Steak doneness

French kitchens cook meat less than American ones do, and the terms don't map one-to-one. If you like your steak American medium, order à point and expect it pinker than you're used to.

Duck breast (magret) and lamb are normally served rosé (pink). Steak tartare is raw, and tartare aller-retour is just seared on both sides. Burgers get the same doneness question.

Tipping

By law, the menu price includes service, so the check you get is the final amount. Leaving a little extra is an optional thank-you: round up or leave a euro or two at a café, and 5–10% at a restaurant only for service that was really good. Card terminals now sometimes prompt for a tip; you can skip it without anyone minding. Full details are on our money page.

Coffee and café drinks

Ordering "a coffee" in France gets you a small espresso. Everything else needs its own word.

Milky coffee is a breakfast thing. After lunch or dinner, the French drink espresso, and it arrives once dessert is finished. If you want them together, say "avec le dessert, s'il vous plaît." A café gourmand (espresso with three or four mini desserts) is a great way to end a meal if you can't choose.

Prices depend on where you stand. A drink at the counter (au comptoir or au zinc) costs less than the same drink at a table, and a terrace can cost more again. Cafés must post their prices, often by the bar. Expect roughly €1.50–€3 (about $1.70–$3.40) for an espresso outside the famous Paris terraces, where it can be double. Specialty coffee shops serving flat whites, filter coffee and oat milk are now common in every big city; see eating and drinking in Paris.

Menu decoder

Keep this list on your phone. French menus mix cooking methods, cuts and regional names, and a few words (looking at you, ris de veau) are false friends.

Bakeries and pastry

A boulangerie makes bread and usually viennoiseries (croissants and other breakfast pastries). A pâtisserie specializes in cakes and tarts. Many shops do both. The UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage added the craft and culture of the baguette in 2022, and you'll see why after a week.

How to use a boulangerie

• Look for "artisan boulanger." Only bakeries that knead, shape and bake on site may call themselves a boulangerie. Chains like Paul and Marie Blachère are fine in a pinch, and a shop with racks of identical frozen-looking loaves is probably a point chaud (bake-off shop).
• Order a "tradition." The baguette de tradition française is made with essentially just flour, water, salt and yeast or sourdough, with no additives, and can't be frozen at any stage. It has a chewier crumb and a craggier crust than the ordinary baguette, for a few cents more. Most cost well under €2 (about $2.25).
• Say how you like it. Bien cuite (well done, darker) or pas trop cuite (paler). Some bakeries sell a half baguette (une demi).
• Know the hours. Bakeries open early, around 7 am, and many in small towns close from about 1 to 3:30 pm. Each has a weekly closing day posted on the door. Sunday morning is busy; Sunday afternoon, many are shut.
• Be quick. Say "Bonjour" as you reach the counter, know your order, and step aside to pay. Eating the tip of the warm baguette on the walk home is a national habit.

Breads and viennoiseries

• Pain de campagne: a rustic country loaf, often with some rye. Keeps for days.
• Pain complet / pain aux céréales: whole wheat / multigrain.
• Ficelle: a thin baguette. Boule and bâtard are round and stubby loaves.
• Croissant: in many bakeries, the straight one is made with butter and the curved one with other fat. A good one shatters when you bite it.
• Pain au chocolat: called chocolatine in the Southwest, a subject of real local pride.
• Pain aux raisins, chausson aux pommes (apple turnover), croissant aux amandes (twice-baked with almond cream), brioche, chouquettes (sugar-studded puffs sold by weight).

Pastries to try

• Éclair and religieuse: choux pastry filled with coffee or chocolate cream.
• Millefeuille: layers of puff pastry and vanilla cream.
• Paris-Brest: a ring of choux with hazelnut praline cream.
• Tarte au citron: lemon tart, with or without meringue.
• Flan pâtissier: a dense vanilla custard tart, cheap and filling.
• Macarons, financiers and madeleines: small, packable and good gifts.
• Regional stars: kouign-amann (Brittany), canelé (Bordeaux), tarte Tropézienne (Saint-Tropez), kougelhopf (Alsace), gâteau basque (Basque Country), calissons (Aix-en-Provence).
• Seasonal: galette des rois in January (an almond-cream pie with a tiny charm baked inside; whoever finds it wears the paper crown) and the bûche de Noël at Christmas.

Cheese

France makes hundreds of cheeses, and more than 40 carry a protected designation (AOP) that ties them to a place and a method. Many of the best are made with raw milk (lait cru). Learning the main families and how to buy will get you a long way.

The main families

Some cheeses are seasonal. Mont d'Or, a spoonable washed-rind cheese from the Jura sold in a spruce box, is only on sale from about September into spring; locals bake it whole with white wine. Raclette and fondue cheeses taste best in the cold months, and fresh goat cheeses are at their peak from spring through early fall.

Buying at a fromagerie

1. Greet the cheesemonger and say what you want: "Je voudrais un fromage pour ce soir" (a cheese for tonight) gets you something ripe now.
2. Ask for a taste (Je peux goûter ?). Good shops offer.
3. Say how much: a slice of a big wheel is priced by weight; a quarter pound (about 100–150 g) per person per cheese is plenty. Small cheeses sell whole.
4. For travel, ask for it vacuum-packed: "sous vide, s'il vous plaît." Many shops do this, which also keeps your suitcase from smelling.

Ordering a cheese course

In France, cheese comes after the main course and before dessert, and set menus often say fromage ou dessert (cheese or dessert). Upscale restaurants may roll over a cheese trolley (chariot de fromages); point at three to five and let the server cut them. Eat them mild to strong, ending with the blue, with bread rather than crackers.

White wine often pairs better than red: Sancerre with goat cheese, Jura whites with Comté, Sauternes with Roquefort. When cutting from a shared cheese, follow its shape so everyone gets a bit of center and rind. Never cut the "nose" (the creamy point) off a wedge of Brie. Eating the rind is up to you, except for wax or wood.

Regional specialties

French food is regional first. A Breton crêpe, an Alsatian choucroute and a Marseille bouillabaisse belong to different worlds, and menus change as you drive. Here's what to look for, with links to our region guides.

Markets, supermarkets and corner stores

Open-air and covered markets

Almost every town has a weekly market (marché), and cities have one somewhere every day except usually Monday. Markets run from about 7 or 8 am to 1 pm; by 12:30 vendors are packing up. Covered market halls (halles), like Les Halles Paul Bocuse in Lyon or the Marché des Capucins in Bordeaux, keep longer hours and often have counters where you can eat oysters or lunch on the spot. The famous Provence and Dordogne markets, such as Uzès and Sarlat on Saturday mornings, draw big crowds in summer; arrive by 9 am. Days change, so check the town's tourist office page.

In summer, look for evening farmers' markets (marchés nocturnes or marchés des producteurs de pays), where you buy food from the stalls and eat it at long communal tables. They are one of the best cheap nights out in rural France.

How to shop a market

1. Say "Bonjour" to the vendor before anything else.
2. Don't handle the produce at most stalls. Point, and let the vendor choose and bag it. Self-serve stalls have baskets or bags set out, and the vendor will tell you if they want you to pick.
3. Order by weight or piece: "un kilo de tomates" (2.2 lb), "une livre" (half a kilo, about 1.1 lb), "trois pêches." Small quantities are fine.
4. Tell them when you'll eat it ("pour ce soir" or "pour demain") and they'll pick for ripeness.
5. Look for signs reading producteur or producteur local: those sellers grow what they sell. Resellers (revendeurs) are fine but may stock imports.
6. Bring a tote bag and some cash in small notes and coins. More stalls take cards than a few years ago, but not all, and many have a minimum.

Supermarkets

Supermarkets are where you'll find the best-value souvenirs: mustard, salted-butter caramels, tinned sardines, good chocolate, fleur de sel, and wine from about €5 (about $5.60) a bottle that's often better than the price suggests. In cities you'll see small formats (Carrefour City, Carrefour Express, Monoprix, Franprix, Intermarché Express); bigger stores are E.Leclerc, Carrefour, Auchan, Intermarché, Super U and Lidl, usually on the edge of town. Picard sells excellent frozen food, handy if you have a rental with a kitchen. Organic chains include Biocoop and Naturalia.

• Hours: typically 8:30 or 9 am to 8 or 9 pm Monday to Saturday. Many city stores open Sunday morning until about 1 pm; big out-of-town stores are mostly closed Sunday.
• Bags: stores don't hand out free single-use plastic bags. Bring a tote or buy one at checkout.
• Carts: large stores lock carts with a €1 coin or a token (jeton).
• Produce: in some stores you weigh fruit and vegetables yourself on a scale that prints a sticker. Skip it and the cashier will send you back.
• Checkout: you bag your own groceries, fast, while the cashier moves on to the next customer. Self-checkouts are common.

Convenience stores and late-night food

Small neighborhood grocers (épiceries), often open until 10 pm or later in cities, are the fallback for water, snacks and a bottle of wine, at higher prices. Gas stations on the highways sell sandwiches around the clock. In small towns, almost nothing is open after 8 pm or on Sunday afternoon, so stock up if you're arriving at a rental late.

Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and allergies

Vegetarian and vegan

Big cities now have plenty of vegetarian and vegan restaurants, and most menus have at least one vegetarian option. In the countryside, it's harder. Traditional French cooking uses meat stock, lardons and gelatin in places you wouldn't expect, and "no meat" sometimes gets you a salad with ham, since ham doesn't count as meat to some cooks.

• Say "Je suis végétarien" (or végétarienne) and add "Je ne mange ni viande ni poisson" (I eat neither meat nor fish). Vegans can say "Je suis vegan" or "végétalien" and add "pas d'œufs, pas de produits laitiers."
• Reliable fallbacks: crêperies, Italian, Lebanese, Indian and Asian restaurants, omelets, cheese plates, goat cheese salads and Provençal vegetable dishes.
• Ask about stock: "C'est préparé avec un bouillon de viande ?" Soups and risottos often use chicken stock.
• The HappyCow app works well in France.

Gluten-free and celiac

Bread is everywhere, but awareness of celiac disease (maladie cœliaque) is good, and sans gluten options turn up in supermarkets, pharmacies and dedicated bakeries in big cities. Buckwheat galettes in Brittany can be naturally gluten-free, but some crêperies add wheat flour and cook on shared griddles, so ask. Macarons are made with almond flour but are often produced alongside wheat pastries. The French celiac association, AFDIAG, publishes resources in French.

Food allergies

EU rules require restaurants, bakeries and caterers to tell you whether a dish contains any of 14 major allergens: cereals with gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, peanuts, soy, milk, tree nuts, celery, mustard, sesame, sulfites, lupin and mollusks. Ask for the allergen information ("la liste des allergènes"); it should be available in writing. Watch for nuts in pesto, praline, frangipane, nougat and many pastries, and for mustard in vinaigrettes.

Bring at least two epinephrine auto-injectors in your carry-on with a copy of your prescription. French pharmacies stock auto-injectors, but they need a prescription. In an emergency, call 15 (medical) or 112. See safety and health.

Our French phrases page has spoken versions of the key allergy phrases with pronunciation.

Kosher and halal

France has the largest Jewish community in Europe and one of its largest Muslim communities, so both diets are well served in cities. In Paris, kosher restaurants and shops cluster in the Marais (around rue des Rosiers), the 9th arrondissement near rue Richer, and parts of the 17th and 19th; look for certification from the Beth Din of Paris. Strasbourg, Marseille, Lyon and Nice have kosher options too. Not every restaurant in a Jewish neighborhood is certified, so check.

Halal butchers, North African and Middle Eastern restaurants, and kebab shops are found in every city, and large supermarkets carry halal sections. Certification bodies vary, so if you follow a specific standard, ask. Outside cities, both diets are harder; vegetarian and fish dishes are the usual workaround.

The Michelin Guide and Bib Gourmand

The Michelin Guide started in France, and its stars still shape where people eat. One star means high-quality cooking, two means excellent cooking, and three means exceptional cooking worth a special trip. The guide also lists thousands of recommended restaurants without stars, a Green Star for sustainable practices, and the Bib Gourmand for good food at moderate prices.

The 2026 selection

• The France and Monaco selection was revealed on March 17, 2026, at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.
• 31 three-star, 84 two-star and 553 one-star restaurants, 668 starred in all, out of more than 3,000 recommended.
• One new three-star: Les Morainières in Jongieux, a Savoie wine village, run by chef Michaël Arnoult and his wife Ingrid. It also has a handful of guest rooms.
• Seven new two-stars, including Hakuba at the Cheval Blanc hotel, Virtus and Alliance in Paris, and Arbane in Reims. There were 54 new one-stars.
• Pierre Gagnaire received the Mentor Chef Award.
• The Bib Gourmand list reached 430 restaurants, with 75 new. Michelin puts the average price of a full meal without drinks at about €40 (about $45) in the regions and €45 (about $50) in Paris.

The full list is free on the Michelin Guide website and app. The printed guide costs €35 (about $39).

Booking a starred restaurant

• Book weeks ahead for one- and two-stars, and as early as reservations open (often one to three months) for three-stars. Most take bookings on their own site.
• Expect to give a credit card and accept a cancellation fee.
• Flag allergies and dietary needs when you book. Top kitchens handle them well with notice and badly without.
• Lunch is the bargain. Many one-stars serve weekday lunch menus well under their dinner price.
• Three-star tasting menus commonly cost several hundred euros per person before wine. Check the restaurant's site for current prices.
• Dress code is smart casual. Jackets are rarely required, but sneakers and shorts will feel wrong.

Food tours and cooking classes

A good food tour is a fast way to learn how to shop and eat locally. Most run two to four hours on foot, with tastings at a bakery, cheese shop, charcuterie, chocolatier and wine shop, and they are especially useful on your first day in a city. Look for small groups (eight to twelve people), guides who live locally, and tours that stop at independent shops rather than one big market hall. Read recent reviews, because routes and guides change.

Cooking classes range from two-hour croissant or macaron workshops to full-day market-and-cook sessions. In Paris, long-running options include the amateur workshops at Le Cordon Bleu, the École Ducasse Paris Studio, and La Cuisine Paris, which teaches in English. Expect roughly €100–€200 (about $112–$224) per person for a half-day group class in Paris; private classes cost much more. Check each school's site for current schedules.

In the regions, the best experiences are often small: a market-and-lunch class in a Provençal farmhouse, a bouchon cooking session in Lyon, a crêpe workshop in Brittany, a truffle hunt in the Périgord in winter. Regional tourist offices list them, and many wine estates pair tastings with meals; see our wine page.

Drinking age, alcohol rules and smoking

Drinking age and alcohol rules

The legal age to buy or be served any alcohol in France is 18, and that includes beer and wine. Bars and shops can ask for ID, so carry a photo ID (a copy of your passport plus a driver's license usually works). Because it's 18, many college-age Americans can drink legally here for the first time. Wine with meals is normal, drinking to get drunk is not, and public drunkenness is an offense.

• Drinking outdoors: a bottle of wine with a picnic in a park or on a riverbank is common and generally allowed. Many cities ban drinking in specific streets, squares or parks, or at certain hours, by local decree. Look for posted signs, and if police ask you to stop, stop.
• Takeaway sales: some cities limit late-night sales of alcohol to take away. Supermarkets sell wine, beer and spirits every day they're open.
• Driving: the legal limit is 0.5 g of alcohol per liter of blood (0.05% BAC), lower than the 0.08% used in most US states, and 0.2 g/l for drivers with less than three years of experience. Two glasses of wine can put you over. See driving in France and our wine page for winery visits.

Smoking

Smoking has been banned inside restaurants, cafés and bars since 2008. It's still allowed on open-air terraces, which is why outdoor tables can be smoky; if that bothers you, sit inside or at the edge. Since June 29, 2025, a national decree also bans smoking on beaches during the swimming season, in public parks and gardens, at bus shelters and other transit waiting areas, and within about 33 feet (10 m) of schools, libraries and sports facilities. The fine is €135 (about $150). E-cigarettes aren't covered by the outdoor ban, but they're banned on public transport and in many indoor spaces.