Skip to main content

Breakfast in Paris


Our mothers always told us that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and that we have to be sure we include all food groups or the ‘pyramid’: bread or cereals, fruits, dairy,…

But breakfast traditions are different. In Belgium we were used to eat ‘heavy’ breakfasts with bread, butter, eggs, cheese, and ham. The British eat baked beans, eggs, bacon, mushrooms, black pudding, toast and marmalade and in Scandinavia fish is on the breakfast table.

But not in Paris!
Breakfast in Paris is, like lunch, mostly an ‘outdoor’ activity. Only few families have breakfast together during weekdays as most schools offer breakfast for the kids before classes and the parents have ‘something’ on the way to the office.

During my stint in Paris, I usually took my breakfast in the bar/restaurant Le Barbusse in front of our office building. In every neighborhood with offices or workshops there are plenty of those small neighborhood bar/café/restaurants offering breakfast from early in the morning.

What are Parisians calling ‘breakfast’?
Standard is ‘pain beurre’, sliced fresh baguette with creamy butter, sometimes with a little jam and coffee. I always had a ‘café noir’ (strong espresso served with a small sachet of white sugar) but my French colleagues mostly ordered a ‘café crème’, an espresso with steamed milk, served in a larger cup.                                                                                     
Parisians have a sweet tooth when it comes to breakfast. Think of the ‘croissant’, that delicious golden brown pastry made of buttery puff pastry and, even more delicious, the ‘pain au chocolat’, a pastry with melting pieces of chocolate inside. If you are lucky the pastries are oven fresh and still warm when served. Very often Parisians replace their café creme with a hot chocolate and enjoy their bread and butter or croissant dunking in the creamy chocolate drink.

But the neighborhood café/restaurant as the breakfast place to go, have more and more competition of the bakeries whom invested in an espresso machine and a few tables and chairs and offer their fresh crusty baguette with butter and still warm pastries to the customers.



And then there is McDonalds!

In 2004 McDonalds opened the first McCafe in Paris La Defense, where no burgers and fries are served but sandwiches, soups and breakfast! During the day customers can enjoy cakes, pastries, macaroons and specialty coffees as a direct competitor for Starbucks.

Today there are more than 200 McCafe’s in France, a number that is still growing. Globally the McCafe formula seems to be successful with more than 1300 in more than 20 countries, from Paraguay over Australia, Malaysia to the Philippines.

McCafe is a total different style, it’s more like Starbucks, as the breakfast formulas offered all over the world in the typical ‘McDonald’s fast-food’ style where every country has an adapted menu.


But breakfast in Paris is part of the Parisian way of life and surely no fast food! The café-culture will be Paris forever.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

My Grandma's Kitchen

My mom always told me that it was exceptionally cold for the time of the year that day in March when I was born 61 years ago. I was the first born in the family and the first grandchild. Both my parents were teachers, my mom teaching French language and my dad applied economics. Both in the same school were I would spend 14 years of my young life, from kindergarten over elementary till my high school graduation when I was 18. Detail, I got French class from my mom during 3 years and two years my dad was my economics and finance teacher. You can imagine how adventurous my high school days were (except for meeting my girlfriend when we were 16 and got married 7 years later). My grandmother, (the mother of my dad) was a World War 2 widow and lived with us taking care of the house and, most important, of the kitchen till the day she, suddenly, passed away in March 1969 only 61 years old. My grandma had a huge impact on the developing of my taste and on how to experience food. ...

Jacques, the soup vendor

Writing about my memories on the horrible school canteen of my youth I remembered ‘Jacques Soup’. He was a soup merchant selling fresh soup out of his car from door-to door in the small town I lived. And he delivered also the soup at the school refectory. And I remembered that his car had a huge bronze bell to let the house wives know that he was on his way and that they had to prepare their pots and be standby at their door! He was always dressed in a spic and span white coat complete with shirt and tie. But that was almost all I got out of my deep memory as help was just around the corner.  I emailed the ‘Aarschot Historical Society’, whom has as objective to keep the history of our small town alive for the generations to come and the next morning I had a reaction and a few hours later a second one, with picture this time. The next morning a new update. One of the board members of the society had contacted, the daughter of ‘Jacques Soup’ as everybody called him wit...

Sunday in Paris

Sunday was our lazy day. No rush to prepare for school or work and no stressful rush to the metro station (underground) to go to the office. After a slow breakfast, hot chocolate with ‘pain au chocolat’ (chocolate pastry) bread for the kids, coffee and bread or a few croissants for us we prepared to go out for our Sunday mission: The Market. All over Paris there are nearly daily markets as, by law, every district  has to organize two markets a week. There are not only street markets but Paris has also numerous covered markets such as The Enfants Rouges Market. Created in 1615 its Paris oldest food market.  But still today Parisians and foodie-tourists like the Enfants Rouges to buy the fresh produce at the stalls full of color and fragrance. Even in wintertime it is like hanging around on a Provence market is July. Sundays is our market day to get our provision for the week in vegetables, seafood, poultry, charcuteries and cheese of course. And in Les ...