An usual French lunch will include: an appetizer (une entrée), such as a mixed salad, soup, terrine or pâté; main course, (le plat principal), choice of beef, pork, chicken, or fish, with potatoes, rice, pasta and/or vegetables; cheese course (from a local selection) and/or a sweet.
Lunch At Home:
There are still many people in France who eat their midday meal at home, which is typically simpler than the elaborate meals that are served in restaurants that consist of multiple courses.
A meal often consists of three courses, hors d'œuvre or entrée (introductory course, sometimes soup), plat principal (main course), fromage (cheese course) or dessert, sometimes with a salad offered before the cheese or dessert.
The three meals of the day– breakfast, lunch, and dinner– often include both bread and cheese. Maybe that is why the French rarely snack. But truth be told, once you've tried French cuisine, you won't blame them– a bag of chips is worth skipping to save room for a sweet crêpe any day.
Roasted chicken with potatoes is the traditional Sunday lunch in France, whether you buy it already roasted at the local farmers market or you make it at home.
Lunch is usually between midday and 2 pm, when the kitchen will go off duty. Watch out, as during these times, service can be rather slow if you find yourself in a business area. Parisians don't dine until at least 8.30 pm as prior to that, time is set aside for “l'apéritif”.
It begs the question - why exactly are the French so keen on their long lunch breaks? Thibaut de Saint Pol, sociologist at the Ecole normale supéreure de Cachan, says that lunch time is just traditionally more important in France than in other countries. "Meals are the most enjoyable moments of the day.
Eating between meals is discouraged in France, yet there is one snack which is never passed up, a beloved tradition known as 'le goûter' (also called 'le quatre-heures' or 'la pause gourmande') and an integral part of French culture.
Unlike in America, lunch a big meal in France. That's why there's a big break at lunch at almost every place of business. Sometimes even two hours. For lunch, French people meet up, and order at restaurants.
Think a couple of biscuits, a piece of cake, a pain au chocolat (or chocolatine, for right-thinking people in southwest France), piece of fruit, pain au lait, a croissant, yoghurt, compote, or a slice of bread slathered in Nutella.
Distribution of bedtime during the week among French 2019
It displays that 33 percent of respondents declared going to bed between 11 pm and 12 pm on weekdays.
You are expected to pass dishes around and to hold a dish so your neighbour can retrieve some of the meal. When one begins a meal, they typically say “bon appétit” (enjoy your meal). Dinner guests should not open their mouth or talk when eating, and should gently wipe their mouth after taking a drink.
A typical French breakfast consists of a croissant or bread with butter and jam and sometimes a sweet pastry. Fresh fruit juice and hot beverages, like coffee or tea, are also included. Here all meals for French breakfast. The tradition of eating a large meal mid-day continues at dinner time in France.
“Le déjeuner”, lunch, is always taken between 12 and 2 p.m. and sometimes longer in the sunny south. It is very common for people to enjoy a table red (wine) during a workday lunch.
French people usually eat a smaller meal for dinner, such as a soup or salad with bread and a dessert (often a yoghurt or a slice of cheese). Considering French people famously don't snack, they must survive a long break between lunch and dinner. The solution is that lunch is the biggest meal of the day.
MAIN COURSE: rôti de boeuf (roast beef ) or oiseaux sans tête (not real birds! they were little meat parcels with a filling) served with charlotte potatoes and boiled green beans, sprinkled with parsley.
Le bœuf bourguignon
Also called beef Burgundy, this is one of the most classic French dishes, and usually ranks as France's favourite food.
What is a typical French dinner menu? The typical French dinner menu is salade verte (green salad) followed by viande avec garniture (meat with vegetables), fromage, and dessert. You may also see potage (soup) and hors d'oeuvres (appetizers) as a first course.