Sip Code–A Guide to the French Cafe Experience Sunday, Jul 31 2011
Food and Wine and Paris and Travel in France 5:51 pm
French cafés are not just a place, they’re a way of life. You can drink, eat, converse, read, watch the world go by, even make it your home away from home. For the price of a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, your café table and the accompanying cultural panorama belong to you for as long as you like. What a way to “own” some French real estate!
But like so many aspects of French culture, it really helps to know some insider tips and info to enjoy your French café time to the fullest. Here are my top 10 recommendations for cracking the French café code. Read on, and make plans to head straight for a café next time you are in France…
1) Which café? Wherever you are in France—in a small country village or in bustling Paris—be sure to choose a café with the most French people (i.e. avoid anybody wearing fanny packs, cameras, and tennis shoes). You want to feel like you’re in France, not in a Starbucks at home.
2) Where to sit? Hands down, if it’s a nice day, sit outside on the terrace. It’s great for people watching, and weather in France is generally lovely. There’s often some street entertainment going on such as the accordionist below. These days, even winter café going can be a pleasure as many cafés have electric heaters overhead to keep things warm and toasty. On the other hand, if you’re on a strict budget, sitting inside is always a good option since menu items cost more on the terrace than inside the café. On that note, if you’re going in for a drink, standing at the bar costs less than sitting at a table. Ditto in Italy.
3) Engaging with the waitstaff: To ensure good relations with the wait staff, always greet your (usually male) waiter with a nice “Bonjour, Monsieur!” And attempt your best French. He’ll be more attentive to you if you try. And whatever you do, don’t call him over with a loud “Garçon!” It’s very fifties…and also rude.
4) Ordering coffee: Coffee is a French café staple. You can order un express (an expresso), un crème (how the French order coffee with hot milk these days), un café américain (black coffee but not as strong as expresso—more like drip coffee) or perhaps un thé (tea). My morning beverage in France is un grand crème, or an extra large coffee with milk. Note that the French do not have milk in their coffee later in the day or at night—it’s strictly expresso for them following lunch or dinner.
5) What about other drinks? There are a variety of other beverages on offer at French cafés besides le café (coffee). Of the non-alcoholic variety, you can order un citron pressé (fresh-squeezed lemonade where you add sugar and water to taste), les jus de fruits (fruit juices), un Orangina (sparkling orange soda made in France), un coca / coca light (Coke and Diet Coke) and les eaux minérales such as Vittel or Evian (flat mineral waters) and Badoit or San Pellegrino (sparkling mineral waters). It is helpful to remember that Coke can cost more than the house wine in France. Also, hip French people these days forego all the wonderful French mineral waters in favor of San Pellegrino. Go figure?!
If it’s apéritif time, there are a variety of bières (beers) available. Draft is une pression or un demi (half pint). And then of course, there’s wine—un vin rouge, un vin blanc (a glass of red or white wine) or un rosé (glass of rosé wine). In summer in France, I drink almost nothing but chilled rosé as it is the perfect summer drink. If you are celebrating something, or even if you’re not, a nice coupe de champagne (glass of champagne) is never wrong in France. Finally, you can order hard liquor, brandy (France has amazing ones, bien sûr), or something like pastis, the licorice flavored liqueur typical of southern France.
6) What about café food? Food is almost always very good in France, even in cafés. The menu du jour (day’s set menu) allows you to have a nice meal—often a starter, main dish and dessert—for a reasonable price. Another option is to ask the waiter what he prefers on la carte (the paper menu). He’ll be flattered you asked his advice, and often times will go above and beyond to make sure the plate he brings to the table is excellent!
Or you can order quintessential French dishes such as quiche lorraine or un croque monsieur (open faced hot ham and cheese sandwich) or steak tartare served with a green salad. While most cafés won’t win gourmet food awards, you’ll get a good, honest meal and experience a slice of French daily life at the same time.
7) How to get the check? In French cafés and restaurants, you must always ask for your check, or l’addition. Make eye contact with your waiter and call him over with “Monsieur.” Then you can say, “L’addition, s’il vous plaît.”
8) What about tipping? Tipping in France is often confusing for Americans. French tipping is included in the price of food and drink; menus will say somewhere service compris to indicate this. So leaving another 15 to 20% can come off as an insult—the waiter might think you see him as a charity case. However, I have seen waitstaff in Europe who take advantage of the fact that foreigners are not aware tips are already included and relish or even encourage the additional tip windfall. In French cafés, the right protocol is to pay your check with cash or a credit card and then leave a euro or two extra in cash as a gesture of good will.
You can also leave a cute note to your waiter. I once took some college girls on a February trip to Paris, and they thought our young waiter at Les Deux Magots was handsome enough to merit a quick thank-you note in English with a nice “Happy Valentine’s Day” in French. We left the café before he came back by our table—I wished I could have seen the look on his face when he read it!
9) Toilettes: You can use the facilities in a café if you are a paying customer. Note that café restrooms are often in the basement so look for a small stairway going downstairs.
10) Good Paris cafés: Next time you are in Paris, drop by the Left Bank café icons Les Deux Magots and the Café de Flore. They’re pricier than some but the people-watching is divine. While there will be tourists, enough French people fill the tables to make these cafés endlessly interesting. A little more off the Left Bank beaten path is La Palette on the Rue de Seine. Very French and what most cafés used to feel like.
If you have a great café anecdote to share, let other French Affaires readers in on your experience by posting it here. We love to hear about any and all French cultural adventures!
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