French Food Guide: 20 Traditional Dishes to Try in France

The foods to try in France start at the bakery, with a fresh baguette and a butter croissant, then move through the regional classics: boeuf bourguignon from Burgundy, bouillabaisse from Marseille, cassoulet from the Languedoc, choucroute from Alsace, crêpes and galettes from Brittany, and a cheese course that changes every 50 kilometres. French food is regional first and national second. The best version of a dish is usually the one cooked where it comes from.

This guide covers 20 dishes a visitor to France should eat, grouped by when you eat them: bakery and breakfast, café lunch, the great slow-cooked mains, regional specialities and desserts. Each entry gives the origin, the ingredients and where it is at its best, so you can match the dishes to your route. If Paris is your base, pair it with our guide to things to do in Paris.

French dishes at a glance

Bakery and breakfast foods to eat in France

French breakfast is light: bread or a pastry with coffee, eaten standing at a café counter or at home. The boulangerie is where France buys its bread every day, and judging a town by its bakery is a habit worth picking up.

Baguette

The baguette, or French stick, is a long, thin wheat loaf with a crisp crust and an open, chewy crumb, made from flour, water, salt and yeast and eaten every day across the country, at breakfast with butter and jam. In November 2022 UNESCO added the artisanal know-how and culture of the baguette to its list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The recognition is for the craft, and you can taste the difference. A baguette de tradition made by an artisan baker under French rules contains only flour, water, salt and leaven or yeast, with no additives. It has a darker crust and a more irregular crumb than a supermarket loaf.

Buy it in the morning or late afternoon when batches come out of the oven, and eat it the same day; by evening it is stale. For the better loaf, ask for "une tradition" at a boulangerie displaying "artisan boulanger". Many Paris bakeries display awards from the city's annual best-baguette competition in the window.

Croissant

Folding butter into yeast dough many times gives the croissant its crisp, flaky layers when it bakes. This crescent-shaped pastry traces back to the Austrian kipferl, brought to Paris bakeries in the 19th century, which is why pastries of this kind are called viennoiseries. A good one shatters when you bite it, is honeycombed inside and smells of butter; have it at breakfast with a café crème. Many bakeries label the all-butter version "croissant au beurre"; an unlabelled one may be made with other fats.

Try its sister pastries too: the pain au chocolat (called a chocolatine in much of the south-west, a regional argument that never ends) and the pain aux raisins, a spiral with custard and raisins.

Kouign-amann

In Breton the name means "butter cake", and it is an accurate description: bread dough layered with butter and sugar, baked until the sugar caramelises into a crunchy crust. Local tradition credits a baker in Douarnenez, on the Finistère coast of Brittany, with creating it in the mid-19th century. It is dense, sticky and very rich. One slice is enough, in the afternoon with cider or coffee.

Smaller individual versions now sell in bakeries far beyond Brittany, but the best are still found warm in the bakeries of Douarnenez, Quimper and other towns in Finistère.

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Café and bistro lunch dishes in France

Lunch is the main meal for many French people, and the fixed-price formule or menu du jour at a bistro is the best-value way to eat well. Ask for the plat du jour and a carafe of tap water (une carafe d'eau), which is free.

Croque monsieur

The croque monsieur appeared on Paris café menus in the early 20th century and is still the classic quick lunch: a grilled sandwich of ham and cheese (usually Emmental or Comté), often topped with béchamel sauce and more grated cheese, then baked until bubbling. Add a fried egg on top and it becomes a croque madame. A good one has a crisp, browned top and a creamy centre; a bad one is a toasted sandwich microwaved to order.

It is cheap, filling and served all day in most cafés with a green salad, which makes it the default lunch on a busy sightseeing day.

Quiche lorraine

Lorraine, in north-eastern France, gave the country this open tart: a shortcrust base filled with eggs, cream and lardons (smoked bacon pieces), baked until just set. The original lorraine version contains no cheese, whatever many recipes abroad suggest. Bakeries and traiteurs across the country sell it by the slice, and it is served with a green salad as a light lunch.

Expect it at room temperature in bakeries and warm in bistros. In Lorraine itself it often appears as a starter.

French onion soup

Soupe à l'oignon gratinée was the late-night meal of the old Les Halles market district in Paris, eaten by market porters and night owls. Onions are slowly caramelised in butter and simmered in beef stock, then topped with bread and grated cheese and grilled until golden. It remains a cold-weather staple at traditional brasseries, with a glass of red wine. The long caramelisation is the secret: the onions should be deep brown and sweet, and the cheese crust should stretch.

Order it as a starter or on its own as a light supper. Since it is a winter dish, many bistros drop it from the menu in summer.

Escargots de Bourgogne

Burgundy snails, baked in their shells with a garlic and parsley butter and served sizzling in a dimpled dish with tongs and a small fork, are the classic French starter that first-time visitors are curious about. The texture is like a firm mushroom or mussel, and most of the flavour comes from the butter. The real pleasure is mopping that butter up with bread, and a white Burgundy suits them.

They usually come by the half-dozen or dozen. Snails are also a celebration dish and a Christmas tradition in many French households.

Steak frites

Every bistro in the country serves steak frites: a pan-fried steak (often entrecôte or bavette) with French fries, sometimes with a sauce such as béarnaise or pepper, and a glass of red. Steak in France comes rarer than many visitors expect, so learn the terms: bleu (barely seared), saignant (rare), à point (medium-rare to medium) and bien cuit (well done). If unsure, ask for à point.

Bavette (flank) is cheaper and has more flavour; entrecôte (rib-eye) is more tender. Béarnaise, an emulsified butter sauce with tarragon, is the traditional partner.

Slow-cooked French classics you must try

These dishes made French home cooking famous: cheap cuts and local wine, cooked slowly for hours. They taste best in winter and in the regions they come from.

Boeuf bourguignon

Boeuf bourguignon is the Burgundy kitchen in one pot: chunks of local beef braised in Burgundy red wine with onions, carrots, garlic, lardons, mushrooms and herbs, on a low heat for hours until the meat falls apart. It is usually served with boiled potatoes, pasta or bread, a glass of red Burgundy, and it often tastes better the day after.

Traditional restaurants in Dijon and Beaune serve it, and bistros nationwide put it on winter menus. In Burgundy, combine it with a visit to the wine villages along the Côte d'Or between the two towns.

Coq au vin

Coq au vin began as a farmhouse way to tenderise an old rooster through long cooking: chicken braised in red wine with lardons, mushrooms, onions and garlic, the sauce reduced until glossy. It is a Sunday lunch dish. Burgundy wine is the classic choice, but other regions have their own versions: coq au Riesling in Alsace uses white wine and cream, and coq au vin jaune in the Jura uses the region's nutty yellow wine.

Most restaurants now use chicken in place of rooster, so the cooking time is shorter.

Cassoulet

Three towns in the Languedoc claim the right version of this great dish of south-western France: Castelnaudary, Carcassonne and Toulouse. It is a slow-baked casserole of white beans with duck or goose confit, pork sausage and pork, cooked in a deep clay pot until a crust forms on top. Castelnaudary calls itself the world capital of cassoulet and is home to a brotherhood, the Grande Confrérie du Cassoulet, that defends the dish. The pot it is cooked in, the cassole, gives it its name.

It is extremely filling, a winter meal with red wine. Order one portion to share as a main and skip the starter; restaurants in all three towns serve it.

Bouillabaisse

Marseille fishermen started bouillabaisse as a stew made from fish they could not sell. Today it is expensive, because a proper one needs several kinds of fresh local rockfish, cooked with olive oil, tomato, fennel and saffron. It is served in two parts: the broth first, with toasted bread and rouille, a garlic and saffron mayonnaise, then the fish, cut at the table. A summer dish, it pairs with Provence rosé.

A real bouillabaisse is often ordered in advance and priced per person, so be wary of very cheap versions in tourist areas. Look around the Vieux-Port and the Vallon des Auffes.

Ratatouille

From Nice and Provence comes ratatouille, a dish of summer vegetables (aubergine, courgette, peppers, tomato and onion) cooked in olive oil with garlic and herbs. The best versions cook each vegetable separately before combining them, so each keeps its texture. It is served hot, warm or cold, as a side with grilled meat or fish, or on its own with bread and a glass of rosé.

It is the obvious choice for vegetarians in a cuisine that otherwise leans on meat, and it is at its best in summer when the vegetables are local.

Regional French specialities by area

Some dishes barely travel outside their home region. These four are worth planning a meal around when you are in the area.

Choucroute garnie

Alsace sits on the German border, and its cooking shows it. Choucroute garnie is fermented cabbage braised slowly in Alsatian white wine with juniper, then topped with a pile of pork: Strasbourg and Montbéliard sausages, smoked shoulder, bacon and potatoes. It is filling and best shared after a cold winter day, with Riesling or beer.

Eat it in a winstub, the traditional Alsatian tavern, in Strasbourg or Colmar, ideally during the Christmas market season.

Aligot

Waiters often lift aligot high from the pan to show how it stretches: mashed potatoes beaten with fresh tomme cheese, butter, cream and garlic until the mixture forms long, elastic ribbons. It comes from the Aubrac plateau in Aveyron, in the Massif Central, and is served with local sausages. The cheese is the fresh, unripened tomme used to make Laguiole or Cantal.

It is a mountain dish, rich and heavy, and exactly right after a walk in the cold.

Local tradition says it was first cooked for pilgrims on the way to Santiago de Compostela who stopped overnight on the plateau. In summer it is the main dish in the burons of the Aubrac, old stone dairy huts converted into seasonal restaurants, where it often comes with thick Toulouse sausage.

Socca

Nice's street food is a thin, crisp pancake of chickpea flour, water and olive oil, cooked in huge round copper pans in very hot wood-fired ovens, seasoned with black pepper and sold hot by the slice. It is naturally gluten-free and cheap. Eat it standing, with your fingers, while the edges are still crisp, in the morning or as a snack with chilled rosé.

The stalls and small shops around the Cours Saleya market in Old Nice are the best places to find it, especially in the morning.

Crêpes and galettes

A crêperie meal in Brittany starts with a savoury galette made with buckwheat flour, usually the complète (ham, cheese and egg), and ends with a sweet wheat-flour crêpe with butter and sugar, salted caramel or chocolate. The traditional drink is dry cider served in a ceramic bowl, and you can eat them at any time of day.

Crêperies exist all over France. The Montparnasse area of Paris has many, a legacy of Breton migrants arriving at the station that served Brittany.

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French desserts and cheeses worth ordering

A French meal often ends with cheese, dessert or both. Order the cheese before dessert, not after.

Tarte Tatin

The tarte Tatin is credited to the Tatin sisters, who ran a hotel in Lamotte-Beuvron, south of Orléans in the Loire Valley, in the late 19th century. Apples are caramelised in butter and sugar, covered with pastry, baked and turned out upside down so the fruit sits on top. The popular story says it was a mistake: an apple tart started upside down. True or not, the result is dark, sticky apples on crisp pastry, best in autumn.

Serve it warm with a spoon of crème fraîche, which cuts the sweetness.

Crème brûlée

Vanilla custard is baked until just set, chilled, then topped with sugar and caramelised with a flame until a thin, glassy crust forms. The appeal of crème brûlée is the contrast between the cold, smooth custard and the hot, cracking top. A good one has a thin, even crust and real vanilla seeds in the cream. It is on almost every bistro dessert menu in the country, which makes it a fair test of a kitchen. Finish with coffee.

French cheese board

France makes hundreds of cheeses, and the plateau de fromages, served after the main course and before dessert with bread, local wine and sometimes a green salad, is the way to taste them. Many are protected by AOP status, which ties them to a place and method. Roquefort, the blue sheep's-milk cheese aged in caves at Roquefort-sur-Soulzon, received French protected-origin status in 1925, the first cheese to do so. Others to try include Comté from the Jura, Camembert de Normandie, Reblochon from Savoie and Brie de Meaux.

A good board moves from mild to strong. At a market fromagerie, found in every town, ask the cheesemonger for a picnic selection; they will cut small pieces and suggest what is ripe that week. Roquefort-sur-Soulzon offers cave visits.

Where to eat regional French food

Each region has its own table. Here is what to order where, so you can match dishes to your route.

Paris and the north: café and brasserie classics

Paris has the croque monsieur, onion soup, steak frites and the best bakeries in the country. Normandy brings Camembert, cider, Calvados and cream sauces, and Lille and the north serve moules-frites (mussels and chips) and Flemish beer stews.

In Normandy, check the label on the Camembert. Only "Camembert de Normandie", protected since 1983, must be made from raw milk of Normande cows, and it accounts for roughly a tenth of all Camembert produced. A cheese marked only as made in Normandy is usually pasteurised. In Lille, moules-frites is at its most festive during the Braderie, the huge street market held over the weekend of the first Sunday in September, when nearly three million visitors leave piles of empty mussel shells outside the restaurants.

Burgundy, Lyon and the east: wine-country cooking

Burgundy is the place for boeuf bourguignon, coq au vin, escargots and gougères (cheese puffs), and Alsace for choucroute, tarte flambée and Riesling. Lyon's traditional bouchons serve quenelles, saucisson and cervelle de canut cheese dip.

Many Lyon restaurants call themselves bouchons, but only about twenty carry the "Les Authentiques Bouchons Lyonnais" certification. It has been awarded every year since 1997 and is shown by a sticker of Gnafron, the city's puppet character holding a glass of wine. Inside a certified bouchon, expect salade lyonnaise with bacon and a poached egg, andouillette, tablier de sapeur (breaded tripe), quenelles, cardoons with bone marrow, a Saint-Marcellin cheese and a praline tart to finish.

The south: olive oil, herbs and the sea

Marseille means bouillabaisse and panisse (chickpea fries); Nice means socca, salade niçoise and pissaladière (onion tart); Toulouse and the Languedoc mean cassoulet, duck confit and Toulouse sausage.

In Marseille, eleven restaurateurs drew up a bouillabaisse charter in 1980 to define the real dish. A version that follows it includes rascasse, a bony rockfish, and is served in two stages: the hot broth first, then the fish and potatoes on a separate platter. Expect it to be one of the most expensive plates on the menu, and book ahead at places known for it. In Castelnaudary, the Fête du Cassoulet has run every year since 2000, with three days of tastings and concerts.

French food by season

French menus follow the seasons more closely than most. These are the dishes and ingredients to look for at each time of year.

Some foods have fixed dates. Mont d'Or, the soft cheese from the Jura that is often served warm in its box and eaten like fondue, is only on sale from 10 September to 10 May. Aligot is easiest to find in summer, when the Aubrac's seasonal mountain restaurants in former dairy huts open for the walking season.

Summer: June to August

Provence serves ratatouille and salade niçoise, the Marseille waterfront serves bouillabaisse, and Nice markets sell socca. Every bakery fills with stone fruit tarts.

Autumn: September to November

New-season apples go into tarte Tatin, wild mushrooms turn up in bistro specials, and Burgundy holds grape harvest meals. Rural restaurants add game dishes.

Winter: December to February

This is the season for cassoulet, choucroute and aligot, and for onion soup in Paris brasseries. Oysters and escargots mark Christmas, and Mont d'Or cheese is baked whole.

Spring: March to May

Asparagus arrives from the Loire and Provence, lamb dishes appear around Easter, and fresh goat cheeses come back. Strawberry tarts follow in late spring.

Tips for eating in France as a visitor

Eat at French meal times. Lunch runs roughly from noon to 2 p.m. and dinner from about 7:30 p.m., and outside those hours many kitchens are closed, especially away from big cities. The fixed-price lunch menu (formule or menu du jour) is the best value in France: starter plus main, or main plus dessert, usually costs much less than ordering à la carte.

A carafe of tap water is free in restaurants, while bottled water is charged. Bread is also served at no charge and refilled if you ask; it goes directly on the table, not on a side plate. Restaurant prices include service by law (service compris), so leaving small change or rounding up for good service is appreciated, never required.

French menus lean on meat, butter and cheese. Vegetarians do best with ratatouille, crêperies and market produce; say "je suis végétarien(ne)" clearly when ordering.

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