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Foods I Regret Not Trying My First Week in France
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items Spent my first trip to France eating croque monsieurs three meals a day because I was too intimidated to order anything else. Came home, talked to friends who actually knew what they were doing, and realized I'd walked past some of the best food expe...
Sections
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Bakery Stops That Ruined All Other Bread for Me
Cheese Experiences Worth Rearranging Your Day For
Market Food That Beats Most Sit-Down Restaurants
Bistro Dishes I Completely Overlooked at First
Sweet Things That Made Me Rethink Dessert Entirely
Wine and Drink Moments I Almost Skipped
Bakery Stops That Ruined All Other Bread for Me
Walked past dozens of boulangeries my first morning and just grabbed the closest croissant. Huge mistake — the difference between a random corner bakery and these places is like comparing frozen pizza to Naples.
Get there before 9am or the escargot pastry sells out — I showed up at 11 on a Tuesday and watched someone walk away with the last one. Flaky, pistachio-filled, unlike anything you've had at a US bakery. For anyone who thinks croissants are croissant...
Du Pain et Des Idées
Grab a quarter loaf if you're solo — the full round is massive. Took one bite and genuinely got angry at every sourdough I'd eaten before. Perfect if you're renting an apartment and want to make the simplest, best lunch of bread, butter, and salt.
Sourdough bread - Buy online
Try this instead of another plain croissant on day two. Caramelized, buttery, slightly crunchy edges — a friend dragged me here and I went back three mornings in a row. Wish someone had told me about kouign-amann before I spent a week ignoring it on ...
Kouign-amann
Snag a tradition baguette still warm and eat it walking down the street like a local. Crispy crust that actually shatters, soft inside. Anyone who thinks French bread is overrated just hasn't had the right one yet — this fixed that for me permanently...
Boulangerie Utopie: The Best Baguette in Paris is
Cheese Experiences Worth Rearranging Your Day For
Figured I'd just grab some brie at a grocery store and call it done. Then a local took me to an actual fromagerie and I realized I'd been eating plastic my whole life.
Walk in and tell them what you're eating it with — they'll pick for you. Did this with a bottle of red wine and some bread, sat by the Seine, and had the best cheap dinner of the entire trip. For anyone too nervous to pick their own cheese at a Frenc...
Fromageries Laurent Dubois · Maître Fromager · Affineur
Swap your usual gruyère habit for this — nutty, slightly sweet, and completely different from the young stuff. Kept buying wedges to snack on back at the hotel. Stock up before your flight home because the US versions just don't compare.
Comté Aged 24 Months (Jura, France)
Bring cash and an open mind. Pointed at something I couldn't pronounce, turned out to be a washed-rind cheese that smelled terrible and tasted incredible. Perfect for anyone who wants to push past brie and camembert without having to study a cheese t...
Fromagerie Beillevaire
Use this as your gateway into stinky cheese — spread it on bread and trust the process. Smells like gym socks, tastes like heaven. Pair it with a crusty baguette and you'll understand why French people think Americans are missing out.
Epoisses de Bourgogne
Market Food That Beats Most Sit-Down Restaurants
Spent too much money on mediocre tourist-trap restaurants before realizing the outdoor markets had better food at a fraction of the price. Kicked myself for not going sooner.
Get the Moroccan couscous plate from the stall in the back corner — massive portion, under fifteen euros, and better than any tagine I've had in the States. Show up around noon on a weekday if you hate crowds. For anyone who thinks markets are just f...
Fire destroys Paris's oldest covered food market
Grab a poulet rôti and ask for extra jus — they'll pour pan drippings over it and hand you potatoes cooked underneath the bird. Ate this on a park bench and it beat every chicken dinner I've had at actual restaurants. Bring napkins.
Marché alimentaire Bastille
Ditch the Nutella tourist crêpes and try a savory galette with ham, cheese, and egg from this Sunday market. Buckwheat batter, crispy edges, runny yolk. Took me embarrassingly long to realize savory crêpes exist and they're better than the sweet ones...
Excellent organic market
Try half a dozen even if you think you don't like oysters — fresh, cold, a squeeze of lemon, standing at a market counter at 11am. Felt ridiculous doing it alone until I looked around and saw locals doing the exact same thing. Way cheaper than any re...
Marché couvert des Enfants Rouges
Bistro Dishes I Completely Overlooked at First
Kept ordering steak frites because it felt safe. Meanwhile the tables next to me were eating things I'd never heard of that smelled incredible. Finally got brave on day five and regretted waiting.
Switch from steak frites to this on your second dinner out — crispy skin, tender meat that falls apart, and those little potatoes cooked in duck fat. Sat outside watching the Panthéon lit up at night and nearly cried over a duck leg. For anyone playi...
Comptoir Du Pantheon Menu, All Signature Dishes
Toss your fear of raw beef aside and order this at a place that's been serving it since 1896. Capers, mustard, egg yolk on top, under twelve euros. The dining room alone is worth the visit — massive, loud, old-school Parisian. Wish I hadn't waited un...
Le Bouillon Chartier Grands Boulevards - Steak tartare
Keep this in your back pocket for a rainy day in Paris — creamy veal stew that feels like a French grandmother cooked it for you personally. Not glamorous, not photogenic, just deeply comforting. For anyone who needs a break from trying to look cool ...
Chez Janou
Pair this with a glass of white wine at 2pm on a weekday and pretend you live there. Yes it's touristy, yes the prices are silly, but the béchamel is perfect and the egg on top makes it. Treat yourself once — you flew across an ocean, you've earned a...
How to Make Café de Flore's Croque Monsieur
Sweet Things That Made Me Rethink Dessert Entirely
Used to think a good dessert meant chocolate cake or cheesecake. France broke my brain in the best way — realized I'd been settling for years and didn't even know it.
Grab this instead of another macaron — choux pastry filled with praline cream, hazelnut crunch, and it's the size of your head. One bite and I understood why French pastry chefs train for years. For anyone who's bored of macarons but doesn't know wha...
Paris-Brest In Jacques Genin
Use this as your default dessert order when you can't read the menu — caramelized upside-down apple tart, usually served warm with crème fraîche. Simple, impossible to dislike, and way better than it sounds on paper. Kicked myself for ordering crème ...
Recipe: Tarte Tatin
Bring someone to split it with because it's rich — layers of crispy puff pastry and vanilla cream that actually tastes like vanilla, not sugar. Tiny shop, easy to miss, absolutely worth the detour. For the person who always picks the most architectur...
Nos pâtisseries - Paris
Ditch your Starbucks mocha instinct and drink this thick, dark hot chocolate at least once. Feels like melted chocolate in a cup because it basically is. The line looks scary but moves fast — go at 3pm on a Wednesday. Stock up on their chocolate bars...
Chocolat chaud au Thermomix
Wine and Drink Moments I Almost Skipped
Nearly defaulted to cocktails the whole trip because French wine lists intimidated me. A bartender in the Marais finally talked me into just asking for the house pour, and everything changed from there.
Walk in, tell them what you usually drink, and let them pick something weird for you. Ended up with an orange wine I never would have ordered myself and it paired perfectly with their charcuterie plate. For anyone who freezes up staring at wine lists...
Paris Bar "Le Verre Volé" Poster
Try one glass with water and ice on a hot afternoon — it turns cloudy, tastes like licorice, and suddenly you understand why every French person over fifty drinks this. Didn't think I'd like it. Ordered three. Perfect for the anise-curious who've nev...
Pastis Jakarta
Swap wine for dry cider next time you order a savory crêpe — it's the traditional pairing and it works ridiculously well. Served in a ceramic bowl sometimes, which feels strange and delightful. Wish someone had told me this combo existed before I pai...
Breizh Café Abbesses | La Crêpe Autrement
Snag a spot at the bar during oyster season and order a glass of cold Sancerre with a half dozen — the whole experience costs less than an appetizer at most tourist spots. Standing room, locals elbowing past you, zero pretension. For anyone who wants...
Le Baron Rouge