So, naturally, eating is one of my favorite pastimes whenever I travel. When we first got to France this trip, I was crazily stuffing every one of these items in my face, desperate to get as much of them as I could. Eventually I settled down! Here’s my list of my favorite foods in France, in no particular order.

1. Smoked Salmon

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I don’t know why I eat more smoked salmon in France than here. It’s just so fresh and plentiful, not to mention cheap. When we went to Paris, I woke up at 2 am a week straight, and for some reason, just had to get out of bed and eat salmon! I bought some as soon as we got to Provence, thinking I’d repeat the pattern, but alas, I slept much better.

2. Coffee

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French coffee in cafes is surprisingly bad. But their home coffee is fab. In fact, as a result of using a Nespresso machine on our Paris trip, we bought one when we returned, and love it dearly. This time we had a Senseo maker. It just makes damn good thick coffee.

3. Chocolate


Cheap. No preservatives. No corn syrup. Nuff said.

4. Beer


Since I only recently started drinking beer, this is a new phenomenon. There aren’t that many great beers in France, but what they do have is about 1/10 the price of what expensive imported brews are in the US. Therefore, you can afford to drink 10x more!

5. Butter

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Mmmmm. Butter. It’s better in France. We bought a ginormous block of it, and no, it didn’t last the entire 5 weeks. I really like Le President butter, and can get it in the US if I’m willing to pay for the privilege.

6. Cheese


I bought a book of all the 300+ cheeses in France on our last trip and have dedicated each trip to trying as many as possible and taking notes. I have my work cut out for me. On this trip, I had amazing brebis and chevre.

7. Cider

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Before I drank beer, I drank cider. And it’s never better than in France, where a 2-liter costs $1.50.

8. Aioli

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We ate a lot of grocery store aioli this trip, putting it on bread, meat, vegetables. I even made my own when we got back. Not as good.

9. Waffles

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Max and I adore gaufres as snacks. I like the little sugar crystal nuggets that crunch in each bite.

10. Wine

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What trip to France would be complete without wine? Provence is known for its rose, and you’ll taste the gamut from thick and syrupy sweet to a drier and lighter version. Love it all.

Bonus Fave

Fresh eggs. They don’t refrigerate them, and they’re perfectly safe. I think they taste like a beautiful golden meadow. You can taste that the chicken was relaxed when she laid it. Best scrambled eggs: put chevre and shallots in. To die for!

Oh, and: shelf-stable milk. Europeans do something different in the homogenization process, and where American milk makes me congested, I can drink this wonderful thick stuff all day long.