well you everyone so if you've been following me on social media you know that I just came back
from a trip to France and I didn't film a vlog as I normally do when I travel because we were
on a babymoon and I didn't want to be working well I'm gonna babymoon but what I thought I
would do is I would sort of do a video on some eating tips in France so if you're gonna go to
France in the future I really believe these will be helpful for you and as I talk about them I will
be showing you some footage that I did shoot to go along with my tips as well so you still get to see
some videos that I shot so I divided these tips into two main categories the first lot is sort
of what to eat and then the second lot is sort of how restaurants work because they work a little
bit differently and I kind of wish I'd known that going in as well so I'm gonna share some of that
tips with you let's get started tip number one don't just eat out now before you go hey I don't
want to cook while I'm on vacation you don't have to cook but here's what I'm talking about
in France just about every city wherever you go you're going to find that there are farmers
markets that happen definitely on the weekend and some on the weekdays as well so I would find out
when those markets are happening go there it's a foodie heaven and when you're there here's
what you should get some cheese definitely some raw milk cheeses because you can't get that if
you're in North America so Lake who is the word that you're looking for for raw milk you want to
get some charcuterie maybe some strawberries French strawberries are delicious by the way
rotisserie chicken every farmers market will have a rotisserie chicken stand it's a thing there you
should get one of those and then if it's a nice day out you go and have a picnic with your market
find it's a beautiful thing delicious thing to do if it's not nice out like when we were there it
was freezing cold so what we did was we went back to the hotel which brings me to a sub suggestion
for your trip defense is if you're not staying at an apartment rental like theyd there are many
vacation apartment rentals make sure you choose a hotel that's a Epoque hotel they're basically
half hotel have apartment and all means is you will have a fully equipped kitchen in your hotel
room complete with stove fridge cutlery wine glasses everything so you can actually have
a nice little platter with your market score so we did that twice once in Paris and once in
Exxon Mobil's and they were honestly my favorite some of my favorite eating moments in France was
just enjoying the stuff that you found from the market next seek out some classic French dishes
in the same way that if you go to Thailand you want to have your party and your thumb yum if
you don't know what some of the classic French dishes are make sure you research them write
them down you can find classic French dishes at many many restaurants things like Coco van which
is chicken braised in red wine you might want to put the fur which is like a beef and vegetable
soup or in my case veal and vegetable soup or some classic pastries like a fatty breast or Oh
an you float on which is like a fluffy meringue floating in a creme anglaise oh and my god do not
leave France without having tried a croissant or a bow or shkolu just like that's a sin even if you
have 24 hours in France you must try them because they are so much better there then in at least in
North America anyway and you can find a bakery like every other block so there should be no
reason why you don't get to try a croissant or a Palo Chocolat wherever you are in France make sure
you find out what the local specialty food is the friends are really into local food items whether
it's a dish or an ingredient or a wine or cheese so you want to find out what those are and don't
miss those for example when we were in lyon they have a special dish called Cannell which is kind
of like a fish mousse but the way I describe it is like an Asian fish ball like the ones in noodle
soup but bigger and fluffy and soft in the cream sauce delicious they also have path praline [ __ ]
which is candied almonds basically like almond praline but hot pink and they put that in a lot
of different pastries and you walk around lyon and you just see all these pink pastries everywhere
and when we were Exxon Province they have a little suite called cally song not my favorite it's made
from almond paste and melon and I think lemon zest I don't like almond paste he thinks it was
my favorite but I tried it anyway because you know what when index you gotta try one of those if you
are hungry and you are looking for a good deal order the set menu just about every restaurant
even casual ones have some sort of a combo than you can order for a fixed price and it's always
a much better deal than ordering things ala carte right so but let me explain a little so the men
when you go to a restaurant the menu that you get like the book with a list of things that is
not called new menu that is called lock cast okay the menu refers to the prix fixe menu that i was
talking about so in your cast you're going to see the menu usually it's like a three-course meal so
it would be on Trey Platt this air so appetizer main course and dessert yes entree in French does
not mean entree where you see it wrong it means appetizer for more casual places it might only be
a two combo thing like on Trey Platt or plaid sf4 fancier places they might have for though add a
fromage which is a cheese course that comes at the end of your meal so right before dessert highly
recommend that but make sure you're hungry because it's gonna be a lot of food and we did that just
about everywhere we went and we were full all the time finally try something that you might
consider weird food the French eat a much wider variety of foods especially meats than people do
in North America so now's a good opportunity to try them it might be escargot which is snails or
it might be something called torre de veau which is sweet bread and you can find that more commonly
than you can find here in North America I myself I try what they call Bulo which are whelks or a
type of sea snails delicious they're so good could be something even more tame something like rabbit
or pheasants even they have a lot of game over there too you definitely find something you've
never had before if you go to restaurant so don't let that opportunity go by so let's move on to
tips about navigating the way French restaurants operate firstly and importantly operating hours
French restaurants do not open between lunch and dinner or many of them don't open especially the
nice ones and their operating hours are very tight lunch is between noon to 2:00 sometimes 2:30 and
then they close and they do not open again for dinner until 7:00 okay so that's the long break
so if you find yourself hungry in between what I would do if I found myself hungry is find yourself
a boulangerie which is a bakery and they often have sandwiches or sometimes even like pre-made
salad or just like a savory bread type thing that you can have to tie you over until 7 o'clock some
even 7:30 before the restaurants will open French restaurant will serve bread with everything
doesn't matter if you ordered a sandwich you will still get a basket of bread on the table
ok so don't be alarmed it's free you don't have to pay for it if you finish it they will refill
it at no charge and for those of us who are Asian and if you're used to nice soft fluffy bread the
French breads are a lot cheerier and crustier it is not anything like breads in Asia so like I know
my mom would never like French bread because she loved soft fluffy bread but it's delicious their
breads are really tasty and flavorful so don't be alarmed by like how hard they are to begin
with you know give them a try oh and by the way they're not gonna come with butter they're not
gonna come with oil vinegar anything to dip it in you're just gonna get plain bread and they're
not going to be warm they're going to be room temperature just FYI coffee coffee and France
works a little differently when you sit down and order a coffee of uncaf a what you will get is
an espresso ok they don't do big thermoses of brewed coffee that fills your 12 ounce mugs no
they don't do that if you want something with more volume than just an espresso you can order at cafe
along J cafe along J is basically espresso with more water in it but it's still small like you're
gonna get instead of this much coffee you're now gonna get this much coffee you're not gonna get a
12 pound coffee anywhere except at Starbucks which is by the way incredibly expensive in France let's
talk French servers I have to say though I had great experience with French servers everybody
was super nice and everything but it does require that you understand how they work and they work
more similarly to Thai server so I was used to it one difference is that they will not check on
you mid meal they drop your food and they will let you enjoy your food uninterrupted so if you
need their attention again you simply just call them over and you just say s'il vous plait which
means please and they will come to you no problem they will also not bring you your check when you
are done okay you have to ask for it which I actually really like cuz and it doesn't feel
like they're rushing you if you're in a hurry you can get up and go pay at the cash register
that's normal as well and you do not have to tip it is not required that you tip but if you had
a really great experience and you want a tip they will appreciate it so the next tip was definitely
important for me because I was pregnant during this trip and that is French people smoked a lot
more than people here in North America and when it became an issue is in restaurants because if you
walk along Paris you're gonna see these beautiful little Brasserie that are so cute and so French
and they have all these chairs outside on the sidewalk and I was so tempted to just go sit and
enjoy and people watch and and be very friends with my cafe but I couldn't because most of the
time whoever sitting outside they are smoking they don't smoke inside I would just warn you that if
you don't want to smell cigarette smoke and you see an empty patio don't be tempted to sit there
because you never know who might join you later and then you're gonna be smelling cigarettes for
the rest of the meal so just FYI finally French restaurants don't always have boxes for you to
pack up your left overs I believe it's not a thing they're not once did I ever see anybody pack their
things home and if I ate and I had leftovers on my plate not once did servers ever ask me if I wanted
to take at home so as I understand it it's just not done and if you're in a sit-down restaurants
they're probably not gonna even have boxes for you because if they don't do takeout they're not
going to have boxes for any reason so you could always ask but don't be surprised if they say no
now if you're in a place that also do takeout and they clearly have boxes then you know you
can ask and they'll probably give it to you what I don't know and please anyone who's French please
you know give me your thoughts here I don't know if it's considered rude or not classy to ask you
know like is it okay to ask and be rejected or sits just like we shouldn't even ask at all so
let me know and I'm going to leave you with one bonus tip on how to be treated well in France so
I didn't have a single bad experience with rude French servers or anything that you might have
heard like everybody was nice and professional but I did do my research so I'm gonna pass on
my research to you when you're in France before you say anything to anybody the first word that
should come out of your mouth is Bonjour you walk into a restaurant Banjul to whoever sees you in a
store anywhere in France it is considered rude to start a conversation with someone without saying
hello first okay excuse me is not good enough so if you're trying to get a store store clerks
attendant you can't just go up and say excuse him one that's not cool either you have to say bonjour
excuse him one and then go on with your whatever you're saying and say it with a smile of course
smile it helps everything and that I have not gotten a single bad experience when I did that
all the time bonsoir for evening time so if the Sun has set switch to bonsoir be very very very
generous with your maxy which is thank you you are s'il vous plait which is please and when you leave
wherever you're at the restaurant or the store always say avoir which is goodbye or bonne journee
which is have a good day or say so you know you have to say hi when you leave and bye when you
know hi when you arrive and bye when you leave basically and if you do that I promise you you're
going to have a good time and if they're still rude you know what some people just have bad days
and that happens everywhere right and as a bonus for our patreon members for the show after the
show I'm gonna share with you my experience eating at a three-michelin-star restaurant in France
complete with footage and my commentary it was amazing if you want to find out how to join the
club I've put the link in the description below I hope that was useful so these are just some of my
experience that I have learned I did some research before I went and I gathered some more knowledge
while I was there obviously I was only there once so if you have more tips and more insights to
share definitely share it with us in the comments below and if you haven't subscribed to the show
this is not really a typical thing that I do on the show but normally we do tons of recipes and
some travel stuff as well subscribe anyway because it's awesome and click the bell icon so you get a
notification when I post a new video thank you as always for watching and I will see you next time