So, naturally, eating is one of my favorite pastimes whenever I travel. When we first got to France this trip, I was crazily stuffing every one of these items in my face, desperate to get as much of them as I could. Eventually I settled down! Here’s my list of my favorite foods in France, in no particular order.
1. Smoked Salmon
I don’t know why I eat more smoked salmon in France than here. It’s just so fresh and plentiful, not to mention cheap. When we went to Paris, I woke up at 2 am a week straight, and for some reason, just had to get out of bed and eat salmon! I bought some as soon as we got to Provence, thinking I’d repeat the pattern, but alas, I slept much better.
2. Coffee
French coffee in cafes is surprisingly bad. But their home coffee is fab. In fact, as a result of using a Nespresso machine on our Paris trip, we bought one when we returned, and love it dearly. This time we had a Senseo maker. It just makes damn good thick coffee.
3. Chocolate
Cheap. No preservatives. No corn syrup. Nuff said.
4. Beer
Since I only recently started drinking beer, this is a new phenomenon. There aren’t that many great beers in France, but what they do have is about 1/10 the price of what expensive imported brews are in the US. Therefore, you can afford to drink 10x more!
5. Butter
Mmmmm. Butter. It’s better in France. We bought a ginormous block of it, and no, it didn’t last the entire 5 weeks. I really like Le President butter, and can get it in the US if I’m willing to pay for the privilege.
6. Cheese
I bought a book of all the 300+ cheeses in France on our last trip and have dedicated each trip to trying as many as possible and taking notes. I have my work cut out for me. On this trip, I had amazing brebis and chevre.
7. Cider
Before I drank beer, I drank cider. And it’s never better than in France, where a 2-liter costs $1.50.
8. Aioli
We ate a lot of grocery store aioli this trip, putting it on bread, meat, vegetables. I even made my own when we got back. Not as good.
9. Waffles
Max and I adore gaufres as snacks. I like the little sugar crystal nuggets that crunch in each bite.
10. Wine
What trip to France would be complete without wine? Provence is known for its rose, and you’ll taste the gamut from thick and syrupy sweet to a drier and lighter version. Love it all.
Bonus Fave
Fresh eggs. They don’t refrigerate them, and they’re perfectly safe. I think they taste like a beautiful golden meadow. You can taste that the chicken was relaxed when she laid it. Best scrambled eggs: put chevre and shallots in. To die for!
Oh, and: shelf-stable milk. Europeans do something different in the homogenization process, and where American milk makes me congested, I can drink this wonderful thick stuff all day long.