Salut YouTube! Ohlala the French and
their food
okay so anyone who has lived in France
or has spent significant amount of time
in France knows that eating in France
and dining rituals in France are quite
particular to living in France for six
years and having different husband and
spending hours and hours and hours
eating in the South of France with his
family I've gathered a few tips around
the things that you should not do when
eating in France though to avoid making
any kind of French it occurred for
powers you know social faux pas things
that would definitely make you stick out
like a sore thumb and I'm really
speaking here from experience even
because I've done it and I felt like the
weird vibes or because I have had
friends or family members come over and
things that have since become so normal
to me I saw them doing things as at all
so I'm gonna go through a few kind of
things that you should not do when
dining in France when eating out in
France what not to do at the dinner
table kind of on a day-to-day basis
let's get into some of the things that
you absolutely should not do when dining
in France okay so the first two things
are going to be around the bread I
usually baguette that you have on your
table when you're eating out in France
so while you're eating out the bread
won't necessarily always get served
straight away but when the food starts
to come you'll almost always get a free
basket of bread if you don't get one you
can easily ask for it that's part of the
beauty of life in France a couple of
things that you really shouldn't do with
this bread
unless it's a very specific restaurant
and it's already been provided but don't
ask for butter to spread on your
baguette so French people don't actually
you know open the bread and put butter
on their baguette usually you sort of
open it and you tear pieces off to eat
the only exception to this is in the
mornings when French people make their
tatin and I had actually had a friend
who asked a waiter for some butter and
there
it's not breakfast time so it was
definitely something not to do
now speaking of red something that
really surprised me when I moved to
France you know even when you're eating
out at restaurants the baguette lives on
the table so it's very normal that the
baguette is there and while you're
eating it and everything you put it back
down on the table on the tablecloth not
on your plate I don't know why but it's
a really normal thing to have bread
crumbs on the tablecloth at the end of a
meal and so if you ask them for a bread
plate you're actually gonna be the one
that comes across as a little bit
straight now the next ones are really
really important so when you're saying
cheers and France and you're clinking
the glasses and you're saying Sante or
Oliver you always have to look people
directly in the eye and the reason you
have to look people in the eye is that
there's a superstition that if you don't
look people in the eye when you cheers
them you will have bad six for seven
years so it's pretty important now in
terms of drinking with your meal what I
noticed in France is that you hardly
ever drink soft drinks or fizzy drinks
while eating so it's very very rare and
it's not really done to order like a
Coke or a Fanta or a sprite with your
meal these are the kinds of drinks that
you'd have maybe if you were you know
before dinner you were sharing an apple
maybe some nuts a little bit of cheese
and charcuterie this kind of thing you'd
maybe have a fizzy drink but then once
you started eating have noticed that
French people switch to water almost
systematically or wine but yeah beers
soft drinks anything kind of fizzy
ciders you don't really see that being
consumed during a good meal
and speaking of drinks per scene some
French people in general they don't
usually add ice to their drink so ice
usually will not come automatically with
your drink and they don't really like
drinking drinks with a lot of ice in
them I think they find it too cold water
with ice in' as an earlier thing so I
won't say don't ask for eyes like if you
really want ice in your drink you know
maybe ask for it but definitely don't
assume that your drinks coming with us
now something that would really be not
done
and a French restaurant what these
things what I like to call the like
around the diet culture so you know
going to a restaurant and only ordering
an appetizer because you're not that
hungry or just ordering one meal and
splitting it with a friend it's not
really acceptable firstly the portion
sizes are usually smaller and well sized
and also I think it just kind of would
annoy the shifts I guess and the waiters
to have a table even up to people who
are just like sharing and plus because
of the whole eating culture here anyway
the fact that you don't really snack
between meals just you know those three
times per day rich people usually come
to the table with an appetite there's a
reason they say Bon Appetit good
appetite and they're usually hungry and
they usually will have a full meal
another thing that isn't really done and
that links back again to this kind of
like difference in the diet cultures and
everything is very much around doing the
whole replacement modification of your
meal thing so like oh I want to have
that meal but can you put my dressing on
the side and can you hold the pepper and
can you swap out the capsicum so
tomatoes and that kind of thing the
chef's here take a lot of pride in
putting their meals together they know
what they're doing and I guess they want
the people eating in the restaurant to
trust them now if you have really
serious dietary restrictions for example
good and free or allergies that kind of
thing either do your research beforehand
and find restaurants that will suit your
needs with menus that suit your needs or
have a word to the waiter before you
start ordering and that will just make
sure that there's no confusion or
anything but they're just not used to it
and usually modifications are really a
thing my next point is don't expect to
eat at 6 p.m. that's early in France
basically I've seen to friends and
family members mimic their own culture
back home so have just like a small
salad or a small sandwich for lunch for
example and they'll be starving by 6:00
and they'll be completely frustrated
that there's no way that they can eat no
restaurants are open no on serving until
7:30 8:00 at the earliest when in France
adapt to the schedule and this may mean
having a
much hottia longer lunch to keep you
going all the way until dinnertime and
or having an apparel before you eat so
having yes and pretzels I'm not some
little nibbles basically before your
meal and a drink around six seven pm
kind of thing to kind of tide you over
until it's really dinnertime so again
when it comes to drinks when you've been
served you know York a half of wine or
water for example and this is true both
in restaurants and in people's homes
never serve yourself first never pour
your own glass of water first it's
always pouring for other people first
you are always the last one to fill your
own glass another thing that I wouldn't
really do in dining out in front well
Paris that's becoming a little bit more
common but asking for a doggie bag it's
just yeah again it's just not really
done the portion sizes are smaller
people you know they're not used to
overeating or being served overly huge
amounts of food so of course if you know
you're not feeling well or maybe you've
got a child who's only like picked up
that meal and you want to take it away
don't be too concerned about it but just
know that you may get some strange looks
if you ask for a doggie bag
another tip that I learned recently is
that if you're in a really nice French
restaurant and they don't have salt and
pepper on the table it's sort of like an
assumption that they believe that their
food is so well done and perfectly its
seasoned that you don't wouldn't even
need to have salt and pepper on your
table kind of thing so if you're dining
on a restaurant where that is indeed the
case just keep that in mind it depends
on the place obviously if it's a bit
more casual maybe they just don't have
them on every table and they bring them
around and just if I I if you ask a
waiter for ketchup they may kind of
slightly judge you because they
definitely like associate that with
tourism whatever um I don't really care
I'm not eating my burger and fries
without ketchup like obviously I'm
putting ketchup on my fries just know
that there's a little bit of a thing
going on there doesn't really matter so
if you are sharing some kind of
and appetizers before you get started 18
what I've noticed is that the French
always leave the last of everything so
even if there's just one or two nuts
left in the bowl a few chirps one little
piece of cheese on the platter
whatever it is they just leave it and
it's kind of like this unspoken rule
that no one touches it if you really do
want to have that the last one that you
have to sort of like offer everyone
anyone want the last not does anyone
want the nut are you sure are you sure
you don't want the last one before
having it otherwise I think people just
kind of leave it it's just the thing
when it comes to anything pretty so if
it has something on it it's like some
sort of spread and you know like an
olive spread or hummus or something like
that then you can like buy it straight
into it with your teeth but if it's just
plain bread usually they just as I said
before they kind of just break it apart
and eat it piece by piece and you don't
really like use the bread to wipe up
your sauce on the plates like there's
differing opinions on this but what I've
been taught is that you would actually
put a small piece of baguette on the end
of a fork and kind of use it to wipe up
the sauce on your plate and then eat the
bread like that you wouldn't use your
hands general and France you always try
and avoid using your hands at all costs
another thing with the bread is that
there is a superstition that if you put
the bread upside down a baguette or a
loaf of bread upside down on the table
it will bring bad luck so just keep in
mind also the placement of the bread
that you don't bring that upside down on
the bread when you're doing that always
wait for the host or the hostess to say
Bon Appetit or start eating first before
you start eating so even if everyone
served or anything you always wait
patiently until you usually the host or
the hostess or someone would say Bon
Appetit and make the first movement to
start eating
I've seen people start eating before
everyone's even been served it's really
really rude a few other lessons that I
kind of learnt the hard way definitely
eat slowly and take your time because
they can you know the tension can be to
be at the dinner table for hours and
hours and hours so if you inhale your
food and your
there was nothing to do it could be more
boring for you than anything I would
also always offer to serve people so
even the person sitting next to you the
person in front of you can I serve you
the salad etc before you serve yourself
and when you're receiving portions of
food and trying to fill your plate up to
like three quarters of what you think
you want to eat because it's always
better to completely finish your plate
and go back for a little bit of second
or no seconds at all but basically
always to finish your plate then it is
to take a lot of food and just kind of
waste it and leave a big chunk on your
plate so a nice sign to the host or
hostess of course if you eat everything
and have enjoyed your full meal Oh guys
so that's all I had for you today on
what not to do when dining in France now
this is a very complex world there are a
lot of rules out there if you like this
kind of stuff differently subscribe and
hit the notification bell because I'm
actually bringing out a video on what
not to do when around cheese and wine
and France there are so many rules that
I just had to make a completely new
video about it if I missed anything
major please let me know in the comments
down below and otherwise I'll see you
guys next video Wednesday a bientot
