Page 26 - (DK Eyewitness) Back Roads Travel Guide - France

24 BACK ROADS FRANCE

Where to Eat

One of the greatest pleasures of travelling in France is sampling
the country’s regional dishes. Menus will nearly always feature
local specialities that showcase the best and most typical produce
of the area. Seasonality also prevails strongly in France, on menus
as well as in markets. There is also a range of enticing shops where
you can stock up with delicious items for an outdoor feast – the
French take their pique-niques as seriously as any other meal. Above Basket filled with various kinds
of Normandy cheese

French Regional Cuisine noon to 2pm and dinner from 7pm choice. Bread and tap water are
Each region takes great pride in its to 10.30pm, with last orders taken 30 usually provided free. Cheese is
own cuisine. In the north and west, minutes before closing time. Most served as a separate course, before
the seafood – mussels, oysters, sole, restaurants are closed at least one or instead of dessert. Coffee is served
lobster – is superb. Northern dishes, day per week and, off the beaten black unless you specify café crème.
especially those of Normandy and track and in resort towns, they are Lunch menus can be very good
Brittany, feature butter and cream, often closed out of season. It is value, offering the chance to dine
orchard fruits in autumn and fine always best to phone ahead. afford ably at a top restaurant. Menus
early-season vegetables in spring. Credit cards are widely accepted must, by law, be displayed outside,
Cheeses are rich with cow’s milk, and but small country restaurants may giving you the chance to make an
often pungent. The cuisine of north- take cash only. Tax and service charge informed choice before you enter.
east France reflects its centuries of are included in the bill by law, but
Germanic rule and influence, with most people leave some small change Restaurants
cabbage, ham and sausages (notably in cafés, 5 per cent elsewhere, and up This term encompasses everything
combined as choucroute garnie) on to 10 per cent for outstanding service. from tiny rural places with rush-
the menu. Alpine food is warming The dress code in restaurants is bottomed chairs to stately dining
and sociable, typified by the classic generally very relaxed, except in rooms lit by chan deliers, and the
fondue. Duck and goose rule in the high-end places, but the French are cutting-edge kitchens of world-
southwest, featuring most famously generally well turned out and you famous chefs, but it generally implies
in the hearty bean and meat stew, may feel more comfortable if you something a little more formal than
cassoulet. The south is the land of are too. French children are typically a bistro or brasserie. Prices at restau-
olive oil, where little butter or cream very well behaved in restaurants, so rants of the same rating are more or
features, dryish goat’s cheeses pre- children are usually made welcome less consistent throughout France,
dominate, and dishes are perfumed but are expected to be similarly except in large cities, where they are
with wild herbs, ripe tomatoes and civilized. Smoking is now banned usually more expensive and can be
spices. Bouillabaisse, the fish soup- from any indoor area, including cafés stratospheric. As well as restaurants
stew of Marseille, is an iconic dish. and bars. Wheelchair access may be serving French food ranging from
restricted, so check in advance. classical haute cuisine to fashionable
Dining in France Most eating places offer a choice cuisine moderne, there is a growing
The traditional large meal at noon of set-price (prix fixe) menus as well number of foreign dining options in
survives mainly in rural France. as à la carte. These are usually very France, from African to Japanese.
Elsewhere, dinner is the main meal of good value. Many offer a dish of the Except in university towns, strictly
the day. Usually, lunch is served from day (plat du jour), often a good vegetarian restaurants are limited or