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RESTAURANTS

18 ways your eating and drinking habits change when you live in France

People's habits change in subtle ways when they come to France and it's often most noticeable when it comes to eating and drinking. France is of course the country of fine dining and wining.

Published: 9 October 2019 16:40 CEST
Updated: 6 January 2023 10:49 CET
18 ways your eating and drinking habits change when you live in France
Customers eat a traditional morning meal named "machon" in a "bouchon" typical restaurant in Lyon (Photo by PHILIPPE DESMAZES / AFP)

When you first move to France it’s likely you’ll still be liberally pouring milk into your tea for some time but the longer you’re here the more you’ll find yourself happy to drink and dine a la française.

Here are just some of the ways your eating and drinking habits might change, depending on how resistant you are. 

1. Drinking tea without milk

You might have balked at the idea of not having some semi-skimmed to splash into your tea when you were at home but once you’ve been in France for a few months/years (delete as appropriate for you) you’ll find yourself turning your nose up at the very idea of it.

2. Spicy food is hard to come by

There are many (many) benefits for your stomach when you move to France but one of the things you’ll find yourself waving goodbye to is spicy food. While it’s easy to get a hot curry on the other side of the Channel, in France you’ll have to take time to hunt one out. And you’ll probably have to ask the waiter to spice it up (plus épicé s’il vous plaît).

3. Eating offal 

While you might take to eating French steak like a duck to water, you’re likely to find your introduction to French offal slightly more challenging.

But you’ll know France is truly your home when you’re gobbling down tripe without a second thought (although many long-term residents still consider andouillette beyond the pale).

READ ALSO: From crêpes to cassoulet: The ultimate food map of France

4. Eating is not cheating

In the UK, you might hear people use the phrase “Eating is Cheating” on a wild night out. But once in France you’ll find this law is not applied. In fact you’ll be laughed out of town. In France is “Eating is living”, especially on a Friday night.

5. No more snacking

Old snacking habits might die hard for expats living in France but it won’t be long before you’re wiping those greasy crisp paws clean for good. Eat at meals times or at the specified snack time of “gôuter”.

6. Swapping pints for demis

You’ll know you’ve become something of a native in France when you don’t feel embarrassed by ordering a half pint (demi).

7. Wine only with food

Gone are the days of ordering a bottle of Chardonnay and three glasses on a Friday night out. Wine and dine rhyme and it’s no coincidence. In France wine is to accompany food (unless it’s rosé and it’s summer). If you want to get sozzled they have plenty of other choices.

And that goes hand-in-hand with our next point…

8. No more binge drinking

Despite moving to the land of the apéro and endless varieties of wine, it’s time to put your binge drinking behind you and learn to drink in a more civilized way. You’ll probably have a tipple a lot more often, but you’ll be less likely to drink until you drop on a Saturday night. 

(This one might take a while to get used to.)

9. Get your cheese fix BEFORE dessert

Moving to France means that a world of delicious cheese is right on your doorstep. And now you’re allowed to eat it with every meal…as long as it comes before dessert that is. The theory is that dessert is needed after cheese so dinner guests can still talk to each other comfortably without reeling away from Camembert breath.

10. Eating a proper lunch

Even though the heyday of the two hour sit down lunch might be (mostly) a thing of the past in France, it’s still common for work contracts to include a rule that prohibits dining al desko. French workers will also get restaurant vouchers to encourage them to eat in the nearest brasserie.

11. Swapping your weekend fry-up for viennoiserie

It’s time to swap your Saturday morning rashers of bacon and fried eggs for a pain au chocolat, croissant or pain au raisin. If you truly want to go native, that is.

12. Eating crepes all year round

In the UK, crepes (or pancakes) are usually reserved for Shrove Tuesday but in France, praise be, you can eat them all year round.

13. Enjoying a baguette with dinner (but no butter allowed!)

The importance of the role of the baguette in French food can’t really be underestimated. After a few months you’ll be buying fresh baguettes twice a day. Once for breakfast, once for dinner. And when you do, you’ll bite the end off before you get it home.

Just remember the following, French people tend to only put butter on a baguette at breakfast, not at dinnertime.

14. Espresso after dinner 

While you might previously have avoided a coffee after dinner, thinking it would ruin a good night’s sleep, it won’t be long before you’re ordering an espresso after every meal. Dinner just won’t feel the same without that little shot of caffeine.

15. No more filling your glass of wine to the top

While it might not seem like such a bad thing to slurp from a glass of wine that’s full to the brim at home, in France it’s a big no no. So take your time, there’s plenty to go around.

16. You’ll discover fruit and veg

Once you see what’s on offer at French markets or even les primeurs (fruit and veg stores) you’ll suddenly take pleasure in sticking to the “five-a-day” rule. In France apples taste like apples and melons like melons. And you’ll have to get used to what’s in season too.

17. Quality over quantity

When you first come to France you’ll often feel like you’ve been ripped off when you see the size of your main meal. Then you’ll have to order two desserts. But you’ll soon get used to eating less but better. 

18. You’ll eat a lot of pizza

You might expect this to happen if you move to Italy, but in fact the French are the world’s biggest scoffers of pizza. To put it into numbers the French ate a stomach-churning 819 million pizzas in 2015. You’ll no doubt be contributing to that record being broken in 2020.

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SCHOOLS

Are packed lunches really banned in French schools?

School children in France are entitled to a lunchtime meal of three, or even four courses – but what if you prefer to provide meals yourself? 

Published: 22 May 2024 12:24 CEST
Are packed lunches really banned in French schools?

French school meals are, famously, pretty good – children get a three or even four-course meal of properly prepared dishes and the menu (including cheese course) is usually published in the local town newsletter so everyone can see the types of meals being served.

The concept of a proper meal at lunchtime is an important one. “The diet of a school-age child is essential for their growth, mental development and learning abilities,” the French Education Ministry says in a preamble about school meals on its website. “It must be balanced, varied and distributed throughout the day: for example 20 percent of total energy in the morning, 40 percent at midday, 10 percent at four o’clock and 30 percent in the evening.”

And it’s not all about nutrition, the social aspect of sitting together and eating a meal is also important – the ministry continues: “Mealtime is an opportunity for students to relax and communicate. It should also be a time for discovery and enjoyment.”

All schools provide meals in a canteen and most pupils take up the opportunity – however it’s also possible for pupils to go home at lunchtime so that they can eat lunch with their parents.

The idea of taking in a packed lunch (panier-repas) is much less common in France – but is it actually banned?

The rules on lunch

At écoles (up to age 11), the local authority or établissement public de coopération intercommunale (EPCI) is responsible for providing quality school meals. This generally involves meals being provided via a central kitchen, and then delivered to the school’s kitchen, where it can be kept warm, or reheated as necessary.

The system is slightly different in collèges and lycées (attended by children aged 11 and up). In those establishments, catering falls into the purview of the wider département or region – and is routinely managed directly by individual establishments, which will have catering staff on site to prepare meals. Often, meal services are outsourced to private businesses, which operate the kitchens.

There are various rules and regulations in place regarding what food is offered, and how long a child has to eat – which is, in part, why the school lunch period is so long. Children must be allowed a 30-minute period to eat their meal, from the moment they sit down with it at the table. 

Then, they’re given time to play and relax before afternoon classes start.

READ ALSO What you need to know if your child is starting school in France

At a minimum lunch must include a main course with a side dish, a dairy-based product, as well as a starter and/or a dessert. Meals must also, the government says, be composed of 50 percent sustainable quality products (including 20 percent organic).

Some local authorities go further and serve only or mostly food that is organic, locally sourced or both.

Water and bread must be freely available, but salt and condiments can only be added in preparation – no sauce bottles or salt and pepper on the tables. 

Daily menus are generally available to view on school websites and many town newspapers or newsletters also publish them.

Parents pay a fee for the school lunch, which is calculated according to income and can be free in the case of low-income families.

Packed lunch

But what if your child doesn’t like the school lunches and you don’t have time to pick them up, cook a full lunch and take them back in the afternoon everyday? The obvious solution would seem to be to send them in with a packed lunch, as is common in the UK and USA.

In theory this is possible, but only in certain circumstances and with very strict rules and caveats. 

The Ministry, in a written response to a Senator’s question in 2019, said: “The use of packed lunches [home-supplied meals] by primary school students can provide an alternative to school meals. This method of catering is authorised in particular for children with a medically established food allergy or intolerance, requiring an adapted diet.”

READ ALSO How to enrol a non-French speaking child in school in France

It added: “the preparation and use of packed lunches in schools must follow certain rules. First of all, it is important to respect the cold chain”.

The cold chain is a term applied to food handling and distribution – it’s usually used by food-preparation businesses, but in the context of a packed lunch it means that food prepared at home must be kept in appropriately cool conditions until it is ready to eat. It would be the responsibility of parents to ensure that the food is delivered to school in containers appropriate for the job (ie an insulated cool bag).

Once at the school, it is up to whoever manages the kitchen to ensure that food is properly reheated. This becomes the sticking point at which many parents’ requests to send their children to school with a packed lunch, rather than go to the canteen, or eat back at home, are refused.

The reheating concern suggests that schools are also expecting parents to prepare a proper meal – rather than just throwing some sandwiches and a cereal bar into a bag.

Unless there’s a genuine and proven health reason for your child to eat a home-prepared meal, most parents will probably find the school won’t budge on this – even in cases of a strike by kitchen staff or lunch monitors.

READ ALSO Just how much do private schools in France cost?

The Ministry’s written response explains: “[A]s this is an optional public service, the municipality can justify its refusal to admit the children concerned by objective material and financial constraints, such as the need to equip itself with additional refrigerators, or for additional supervisory staff to supervise them during lunch.”

As well as the practicalities, for some schools this is an equality issue – because of the varied fee structure for school lunches what happens in effect is that richer parents are subsidising a good quality lunchtime meal for poorer students in the class; if everyone brought in a packed lunch and therefore stopped paying the fee, the lower-income kids would miss out. 

What about allergies or other health issues?

Children with allergies or other health issues that require a particular diet must be accommodated. An individual meal plan – known as a projet d’accueil individualisé (PAI) can be set up. More details (in French) are available here, on the government’s website.

It also becomes easier for parents to provide home-produced meals in such instances. As ever, it is up to the parents to ensure any meals are appropriately packaged and transported to school.

Not all schools

Some individual schools in France do permit pupils to bring in meals from home. They must be taken to school in an appropriate cold-storage container, and they will be stored in the kitchen area until they are needed, when meals will – if necessary – be reheated.

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