Stories of Your First Meals in France
The other day, I asked readers to tell me about their first meals in France. I got some terrific responses! Some readers posted on the original post, others on Instagram, and even more on my Facebook page.
I’m collecting them all in one place here, as I think they’re all just lovely. Enjoy the read!
Part travelogue, part dining guide book, this tome includes great storytelling as well as compelling dining narratives and insights, along with charming drawings of Paris restaurants, both famous and off the beaten path.
P.S.: There’s still time to post your own recollection of your first meal in France for a chance to win this lovely book: A Table in Paris: The Cafés, Bistros, and Brasseries of the World’s Most Romantic City. Post your story on this Facebook post. [UPDATE DECEMBER 10: A winner was chosen via a “random number generator.” Gary wins the book! Thanks to all who contributed their stories.]
Here they are, in no particular order. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have!
It’s Never Only About the Food
1. Gerry writes:
In Balleroy, some opted to stay at la Camaderie, a chateau. Others went into Bayeux to get vittles. Of course being Sunday afternoon nothing was open yet.
We found a restaurant and had a delicious meal and requested some for those at the chateau. They prepared and wrapped the to go orders on their own plates and silver and said to bring them back when we were back in town. We knew at that point that we were in our vision of France.
We had a group of 14. Needless to say we ate there often.
2. Amy writes:
I was 12 yrs old. I had a thick smooth vegetable soup and a bottle of coke. Cheese and bread. I was with my parents, we were visiting my brother who had been stationed in Germany. My father had been in Paris during WWII. He wanted to see it again.
Raising the Standards—One Cup of Espresso at a Time
Sue writes:
[My first meal in France was] breakfast at a wonderful bistro after a long overnight flight from Minnesota 22 years ago! I don't remember what I ate, but I do remember that my husband was introduced to "real" French espresso. No more diluted American coffee for him ever again!
The Secret Ingredient: Fellowship
Lindsay writes:
I was 7 and don't remember what I ate (probably poulet frites) but I'll always remember the little auberge, and befriending the owners' daughter over our mutual love of Polly Pockets that transcended our language barrier.
C’est Ca, Voyager!
A little simple green salad, served with anything from quiche to a mushroom omelet, made a striking impression on a number of readers.
Lindy writes:
Fresh mushroom omelet with a simple green salad, bread from bakery across the street, glass of house wine. Best meal ever. 14 francs; she kept the change from 20.
Kim writes:
First meal was a lovely light lunch in a charming French bistro. I left a 50 Euro note with my friends when I ran to the restroom. Thinking it was a 20, they gave it to the waiter and told him to keep the change…aaargh! The next night was at Daniel Rose’s Spring. A truly transcendent meal in every way. I’ll never forget the morel soup; if given the chance I’d eat it by the bathtub!
Chuck writes:
I was just 16, on a high-school trip. I figured that ordering “steak haché” and “frites” would bring me something like a hamburger patty with fries, but I neglected to translate the word “cru” that followed the words “steak haché.” Alas, I ended up with steak tartare — raw hamburger—cru means raw. At least I could eat the fries. I filled up on dessert.
Quick Impressions That Have Endured to This Day
“Not the absolute first but I strongly remember lunch at Le Baratin and amazing bahn mi at Saigon Sandwich in Belleville”
“Clams cooked in a buttery garlic sauce with a baguette to soak it up! Voila! Perfection!”
“Simple delicious green salad with smoked salmon & dijon vinegarette.”
“My first meal in Paris was in 1965. French onion soup at Les Halles! I have never forgotten that authentic experience.”
“A cheese and bread platter at a small boutique hotel in the 17th Arrondissement”
“My first meal was in a little cafe. I don’t remember my entree, but I had a chocolate mousse flight for dessert. My favorite meal in Paris was in an old wine cellar in a small restaurant. The entree was a casserole of sliced potatoes under shredded duck with the most delicious spices, all topped with a layer of melted cheese. It was heavenly. I wish I could recreate it at home”
“Les Bougresses in the Marais. So amazing we dined twice in one week. My mother had a creme brulee epiphany … We were dumbstruck. Like ohhhhhh THAT’S creme brulee! Nothing has ever come close.”
French bolognese sauce? Sounds good to me! (Photo from my upcoming cookbook.)
“Pasta with a Bolognese sauce. It wasn’t great (I was on a high school trip so they were keeping costs low), but it was memorable!”
It’s Not Her Memory That’s Flawed
I was 19. in Paris, 1965. About to spend some time at the Sorbonne with 2 friends in Feb-April. In Paris I remember the "self service" places being amazing to us, with wine or coke (same price). The people were friendly/helpful always. I specifically remember a school brilliant bus tour to the Loire to visit various chateaux. (and asking btw why there was nothing IN the bldgs? the English took it all away?) ALL the meals we had at very modest hotels (all three of us in one room) were amazing to me and my friends. ABSOLUTELY amazing. Fresh ingredients; freshly made. All salads made from scratch and the rest brilliantly presented. It still sticks with me today! I worry that so many of these local venues now have prepackaged/frozen meals? Tell me I'm wrong. Have been back in the 80s/90s not as good. But then I concede that my memories maybe flawed?
A Cat Named Beaujolais
Did someone mention Iles Flottantes? Why yes, they did!
Marcia writes:
We enjoyed a wonderful restaurant which we return to the first night in Paris each trip. At the time it was Rotisserie de Beaujolais as there was a resident cat named Beaujolais who curled up on the bench beside me during my first meal there. It is now Rotisserie de la Tour d’Argent as Beaujolais the cat passed away a few years ago. Everything that I have had there has been wonderful, but the first meal was half a rotisserie cooked chicken with garlic mashed potatoes and Isle Flotante for dessert. Yum.
Falling Hard off the Vegan Wagon in Paris
Amy writes:
We were at Chez Guy (now closed, sadly). I was trying to be vegan at the time, but I gave myself dispensation during our trip. My first meal? Seared foie gras on mashed potatoes. Amazing. Probably more so because of all the guilt I felt … I fell off the wagon and never got back on. So much sacrifice. I ate foie gras wherever I could - Bourgogne, Dijon, everywhere we went. The poor geese.
A Taste of Eccentricity in Paris (C’est Normale)
Bri writes:
On the first day of our honeymoon, we got lost looking for our hotel. We found a cute bistro tucked on a side street somewhere. As we were getting seated the waitress came over to take our orders with mascara running down her face, she proceeded to take our order while her boyfriend ran inside yelling something (we didn't understand French very well at the time) and the waitress pausing our order to yell something at him. The whole bistro was quiet watching this fight unfold. He ran out of them restaurant and she proceeded to take our order. We sat there enjoying our wine and cheese trying to guess what just happened. Welcome to Paris!
The Best Meals Give You a Sense of Well-Being
And suddenly, all was right again in the world.
Eileen writes:
I remember taking an all-night train from Cologne, Germany. It let us off at the Gare du Nord at about 5 a.m.; the cold dawn was just starting to break, and it cast an eerie glow on the surrounding buildings that looked so desolate. It was early March and quite chilly. We wandered in to a cafe and had two croissants and two big hot cups of strong and fortifying cafe au lait. There was a warmth to the glowing lights in the cafe, and a warmth to the coffee, a warmth to the whole bustling and alive experience that I needed. My apprehension of being in an unfamiliar city started to melt away.
So Simple, but So Memorable: Those Lightly
Dressed Greens
Deb writes:
I honestly don't remember my first meal in Paris (nearly 50 years ago!) but I would like to share about a meal in Strasbourg a few years ago that was completely simple yet memorable and unexpected, one that stays with me. We had taken a 3 a.m. flight from Egypt, landed, explored the city (it was February so it was chilly), and then took a late afternoon nap, waking up about 9 p.m. We wandered a few blocks from our hotel to find what looked like a very basic bistrot. I ordered a slice of quiche and a glass of wine. The quiche! The lightly dressed greens! I don't know why it was so good, but every time I make quiche now, I can only serve it with lightly dressed greens. And I toast the memory of that oh-so-good simple meal.
Steak-Frites at Lasserre? Sacré Bleu
Lasserre, with its roof that opens up to the Paris sky, is not the place to order steak-frites. Alas, that what Gary’s future father-in-law ordered for everyone at the table, making Gary often wonder, “what could have been.”
Gary writes:
I spent the summer of 1967 as a poor student in Paris. I lived in a dorm and so my first and many meals in Paris where dorm food. Nothing awful (except I did not care for their preparation of tripe!) but nothing memorable except coming from the U.S. we were surprised that wine was served with every lunch and dinner in a student dorm.
My first restaurant meal in Paris was quite a different story. A family friend of my girlfriend (we married two years later) brought his family through Paris as part of a grand tour of the Continent. He invited us to join them for dinner at Lasserre, on the Champs-Élysées, and at that time the 2nd-rated restaurant in Paris! I was excited at the prospect of eating gourmet food. Alas, our midwestern host had more money than taste and no one in the group except me and my girlfriend spoke a word of French. I was so uncomfortable that I apologized to the elevator operator as we rode up to the top.
The dining room with its ceiling open to the July sky was stunning, unlike anything I had every experienced or imagined growing up in Kansas. Our host, thinking probably correctly that ordering from a gourmet French menu would be complicated for most everyone in our group, thought he was doing a kindly thing by ordering steak and French fries for all of us. I was crushed! I never even got to look at the menu! It was very good, of course, and the service was impeccable. But I kept thinking of what might have been. Then came dessert, or one of several desserts: a beautiful spun sugar "bird cage" filled with strawberries, sauce, and Chantilly.
To this day, my wife and I talk about that dessert now and then. I thought I would never forgive our host, but many years later he married by mother-in-law. After that we had many fine meals together and I quickly forgave him. After all, as a poor student I did get to experience a meal in an incomparable setting in Paris.
Thank you to all who shared their memories. Remember—there’s still time to add your memory of your first meal in France … for a chance to win the new book, A Table in Paris. I’ll chose a winner on December 9.
