French Food Guide: 25 Best Dishes and Where to Eat Them

Last verified: October 10, 2026. Prices, seasons and labels move here: I re-check the INSEE bread price, the Fiducial restaurant figures, the Mont d’Or and Beaujolais dates and the Michelin counts each month, and update the date above each time.

A baguette in France costs about €1.03. That’s INSEE’s August 2026 average of €4.11 a kilo, divided into the standard 250 g loaf (INSEE, average retail price of baguette bread, series 000442423, September 2026). The best food in France is often the cheapest, and it’s almost always local. This French food guide is built around that.

Most lists tell you what to eat and stop there. I’d rather tell you where each dish is an everyday thing, which months it’s at its best, and the label that proves you’re eating the real one. Twenty-five dishes, region by region, mapped onto the routes people actually travel. For why the meal itself matters so much, start with my French culture guide, the hub for this whole section.

Disclosure: Some links in this guide may earn us a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what we recommend.

Key Takeaways

• Eat each dish where it’s ordinary: galettes in Brittany, quenelles in one of Lyon’s 22 certified bouchons, bouillabaisse in Marseille.
• One cheese is seasonal by law. Mont d’Or is sold only from 10 September to 10 May; plenty of other dishes are seasonal by habit.
• Read the label. “Fait maison” means cooked on site from raw ingredients.
• Eat the big meal at lunch. A plat du jour averages €17.08 (Observatoire FIDUCIAL, 2026).

How Did I Pick These 25 Dishes?

I picked them with one rule: each dish has to be an everyday thing somewhere specific, on a route a visitor actually takes. The field is huge. In 2025, France’s dairy industry alone counted more than 1,200 cheeses, 46 of them under a protected AOP name (CNIEL and CNAOL, dairy industry press room, 2025), so any list of 25 is a choice.

That rule cuts out a lot. It drops the dishes you mostly meet in tourist-district brasseries far from where they come from. It keeps the ones you’ll find on a market stall or a lunch menu in their home town, cooked by people who grew up eating them. Each entry below tells you what the dish is, where to eat it, when it’s at its best and what to look for on the menu or the box.

Here’s the idea that holds the list together: labels beat lists. France certifies its own food more than most visitors realise. An AOP seal on a cheese, the plaque on a Lyon bouchon, a ring on a Bresse chicken’s leg and the words “fait maison” on a menu each tell you something no restaurant ranking can. Learn four labels and you can walk into a town you’ve never seen and eat well. For why each region cooks so differently in the first place, read my guide to French regional cultures.

#	Dish	Region	Where to eat it	Best season	Label or tell to look for
1	Croissant	Paris	Any neighbourhood bakery, early	All year, mornings	“Croissant au beurre”
2	Baguette de tradition	Paris	The bakery on your street	All year	“Tradition” on the price board
3	Onion soup	Paris	A Les Halles brasserie, late	Winter	A deep brown broth
4	Camembert de Normandie	Normandy	Pays d’Auge markets	All year	AOP, “lait cru”
5	Mussels in cream	Normandy	Honfleur and the Channel ports	Summer to autumn	“À la normande” on the menu
6	Galette complète	Brittany	Rennes or Quimper markets	All year	Dark, lacy, crisp edges
7	Kouign-amann	Brittany	Douarnenez bakeries	All year, warm	A caramelised base
8	Oysters	Brittany	Cancale, on the quay	Cold months	Opened while you wait
9	Choucroute garnie	Alsace	A Strasbourg winstub	Autumn and winter	Tastes of wine, not vinegar
10	Tarte flambée	Alsace	Strasbourg and wine villages, evening	All year	Wood-oven thin base
11	Quiche lorraine	Lorraine	Nancy and Metz bakeries	All year	Sold warm by the slice
12	Bœuf bourguignon	Burgundy	Dijon and Beaune	Autumn to early spring	Charolais on the menu
13	Escargots	Burgundy	Dijon and Beaune bistros	All year	Plenty of garlic butter
14	Quenelle de brochet	Lyon	A certified bouchon, at noon	All year	Bouchons Lyonnais plaque
15	Bresse chicken	Bresse	Bourg-en-Bresse	December	AOP ring on the leg
16	Tartiflette	Savoie	Ski villages	Winter	Reblochon AOP
17	Mont d’Or, baked	Jura	The Haut-Doubs	10 Sept to 10 May	AOP
18	Bouillabaisse	Provence	Marseille, ordered ahead	All year	The 1980 charter
19	Socca	Riviera	Cours Saleya market, Nice	All year	Straight from the tray
20	Ratatouille	Provence	Market towns of the Luberon and Alpilles	Summer	Soft, not watery
21	Cassoulet	Southwest	Castelnaudary	Autumn and winter	Served in a cassole
22	Confit de canard	Southwest	Sarlat and Gers markets	All year	Crisp skin
23	Canelé	Bordeaux	Bordeaux bakeries	All year, same day	Almost black crust
24	Gâteau basque	Basque Country	Cambo-les-Bains	All year	Cherry or cream: ask
25	Aligot	Aubrac	Laguiole	Autumn and winter	Stretched at the table

What Should You Eat in Paris?

In Paris, eat a butter croissant, a tradition baguette and onion soup, and start at the bakery on your street. In August 2026 the average baguette in France cost €4.11 a kilo, up from €3.51 in 2019, so a 250 g loaf runs about €1.03 (INSEE, series 000442423, September 2026). Wheat is only 5 to 6% of that price; the rest is labour and energy (FranceAgriMer, price and margin observatory, 2026).

The trade behind it is shrinking: the bakers’ confederation counted about 55,000 artisan bakeries in 1970 and 35,000 in 2022 (CNBPF, baguette UNESCO press kit, 2022). Those are the profession’s own figures, and other counts use different definitions, so read the trend rather than the exact number.

1. Croissant

The croissant to order is the croissant au beurre, made with butter; when a board lists a plain “croissant” next to it, the plain one is usually made with other fats. Buy it in the morning. By 11:00 the good ones are gone and the rest have gone soft. Standing up, from the paper bag, on the way somewhere, is how Parisians eat it.

Ask which tray came out last and nobody minds. A pain au chocolat is the same dough rolled around two bars of chocolate, and in the southwest it’s called a chocolatine.

2. Baguette de tradition

“Tradition” is a legal word in France. Décret n° 93-1074 of 1993 reserves it for bread made from wheat flour, water, salt and yeast or leaven, with no additives and never frozen. Ask for “une tradition”, not “une baguette”, and you’ll pay a few cents more for a crust that shatters. It’s an all-day, every-day bread, best within a few hours of baking. The 2026 Grand Prix for the best tradition in Paris went to Fournil Didot, 103 rue Didot in the 14th, which now supplies the Élysée Palace for a year (Ville de Paris, 2026).

3. Soupe à l’oignon gratinée

Onion soup gratinée, under a lid of bread and melted cheese, belongs to Les Halles, the old central market, where it fed porters at the end of a night shift. Why order it late? Because it was built for the end of a night shift. I’d order it after a winter evening walk, never at lunch in July.

The broth is beef stock and onions cooked slowly until they turn deep brown, and the cheese on top is usually Comté or Gruyère. One bowl is a meal. If the broth arrives pale and thin, the onions were rushed, and you’ve found the tourist version.

On long stays I pick a bakery in the first week and stick with it. By the second week the person behind the counter knows I want a tradition, pas trop cuite, and the exchange takes four seconds. That’s the best food habit Paris offers, and it costs about a euro a day. For where to base yourself so a good bakery is on your street, see where to stay in Paris; for the rest of the city, my Paris travel guide.

Which Dishes Are Normandy and Brittany Known For?

Normandy is known for camembert, cider and mussels in cream; Brittany for galettes, kouign-amann and oysters. Camembert de Normandie is one of France’s 46 AOP cheeses (CNIEL and CNAOL, 2025). The two regions share a coast, butter and cider. They don’t share a cuisine, and the difference is worth two stops.

4. Camembert de Normandie AOP

The protected cheese is made from raw milk and ladled into its moulds by hand (UFC-Que Choisir), and the box tells you which one you’ve got.

Look for “AOP” and “au lait cru” (raw milk). Any month is camembert month. A box that just says “camembert” with a Norman cow on the lid is usually pasteurised and not the protected cheese. In January 2025 the Nantes administrative appeal court ruled that non-AOP labels must not suggest the AOP. Buy it at a market in the Pays d’Auge and ask for one à point pour ce soir, ripe for tonight.

5. Moules à la normande

Moules à la normande are mussels cooked with cider and finished with cream, the Channel coast’s answer to moules-frites. Order them in Honfleur or another Channel port between summer and autumn, with a bottle of dry cider. Ask for them à la normande or à la crème; moules marinières, with white wine and shallots, is the plainer version on the same menu. My Normandy itinerary passes through the right harbours.

6. Galette complète

The galette is Brittany’s everyday lunch, all year round, and the market stalls of Rennes and Quimper make them to order. In Brittany the savoury pancake is a galette, made with buckwheat, and the sweet one is a crêpe, made with wheat. A complète is ham, cheese and an egg in the middle. Order a bowl of cider with it, then a butter-and-sugar crêpe for dessert.

The batter is darker than a crêpe, and the edges should be lacy and crisp. Fillings go far past the complète: andouille sausage, scallops, goat’s cheese with honey. In a Breton crêperie the cider comes in a ceramic bowl rather than a glass.

7. Kouign-amann

The name is Breton for “butter cake”. It was created in Douarnenez around 1860 and is credited to the baker Yves-René Scordia (Brittany Tourism). Inside, you’ll find layered bread dough, butter and sugar, caramelised on the bottom. Buy it warm, mid-morning, in Douarnenez and eat half. You won’t manage more.

8. Oysters at Cancale

Cancale sells oysters by the dozen on the quay, opened while you wait, with lemon and nothing else. They’re at their best in the cold months. Eat them standing up, facing the oyster beds they came from. My Brittany travel guide covers Cancale and the Saint-Malo coast.

The first galette I ate in Brittany came off a market stall, folded into paper, and it was better than any I’d had at a sit-down crêperie in Paris. Brittany’s food is at its best in its plainest form.

What Do You Eat in Alsace and Lorraine?

In Alsace, eat choucroute and tarte flambée; in Lorraine, quiche. French law even names choucroute. Raw choucroute is one of the few bought-in ingredients a restaurant may use and still call a dish fait maison, alongside items like blanched offal and stocks (economie.gouv.fr, the fait maison mention, August 2026). Alsace’s cooking shares a border with Germany’s; its wine is its own.

9. Choucroute garnie

Choucroute garnie is fermented cabbage braised with Riesling and piled with sausages, smoked pork and potatoes. The place to eat it is a winstub, Strasbourg’s wood-panelled wine tavern. Choucroute is a cold-weather plate, and in December it’s the dinner that follows the Alsace Christmas markets. The cabbage should taste of wine and juniper, not vinegar. Portions are generous, and I’ve never finished one alone.

10. Tarte flambée (flammekueche)

Tarte flambée is a thin bread base covered in fromage blanc, onions and lardons, baked hot and fast in a wood oven and cut into squares for the table. In Strasbourg and the wine villages it’s the cheap, shared evening meal, all year round.

I’ve watched a table of four order one, then a second, then a third, each arriving as the last square went. That’s the right way to eat it: never all at once. Pair it with a glass from the Alsace wine route.

11. Quiche lorraine

Quiche lorraine, in its home region, is eggs, cream and smoked lardons in pastry. Across France it’s a lunch and picnic dish, but it tastes most like itself in Nancy or Metz, from a bakery rather than a restaurant. Bakeries sell it warm by the slice at lunchtime, and a slice with a green salad makes a cheap sit-down lunch. It also travels well for a picnic on the train east.

Why Are Burgundy and Lyon France’s Kitchen?

Burgundy supplies the wine and the beef, and Lyon turns them into lunch: eat bœuf bourguignon and snails in Burgundy, a quenelle in a certified bouchon in Lyon, and the chicken in Bresse. In 2026, Lyon’s official label certifies exactly 22 bouchons, the small traditional restaurants the city is known for (Office du tourisme de Lyon, 2026). These two are the strongest food stops on the Paris to Provence rail line.

12. Bœuf bourguignon

Bœuf bourguignon is beef braised for hours in red Burgundy with onions, mushrooms and lardons. In Dijon and Beaune it’s a bistro lunch, not a special occasion. From autumn to early spring is its season. A good one has been cooked the day before and reheated, which is when the sauce turns glossy. Look for Charolais on the menu, the white beef cattle of southern Burgundy. It pairs, obviously, with the wine it’s cooked in, and my wine tasting guide covers the Burgundy cellars.

13. Escargots de Bourgogne

Escargots are snails baked in their shells with garlic, parsley and butter, served all year in the bistros of Dijon and Beaune. One honest note: “Bourgogne” names the species, Helix pomatia, not where the snail lived. Wild gathering in France has been regulated since 1979, the species isn’t farmed in France, and most now come from central and eastern Europe (French National Assembly, written question 20692).

Order them anyway. The garlic butter is the point. They arrive in a dimpled dish, by the half dozen or the dozen, with tongs and a narrow fork. Mop up what’s left with bread; that’s what the bread is for.

14. Quenelle de brochet

Quenelle de brochet is a soft pike dumpling baked in a crayfish sauce until it puffs. Every bouchon serves it, and the plaque is the filter. If a place calls itself a bouchon and can’t show the label, it’s a restaurant with a theme. Go at noon, when the bouchons fill with people who work nearby.

I’ve eaten in a Lyon bouchon at noon and at the second sitting, and the difference isn’t subtle. At noon the room has an argument going and the kitchen sets the pace. Later, it’s a quieter meal in the same chairs. My Lyon vs Bordeaux comparison makes the full case for Lyon as a food city.

15. Poulet de Bresse AOP

Bresse chicken is protected by an AOP, and you can spot it: blue feet, white feathers, a red crest, and a ring on the leg. In December the Bresse towns hold their Glorieuses poultry contests; the Pont-de-Vaux contest is on Sunday 13 December 2026 (Ain Tourisme). Eat it roasted, in Bourg-en-Bresse, or cooked in cream with morels, the way restaurants around the town like to serve it. Expect to pay special-dish prices; it tastes like one.

Which Cheese Dishes Are Worth the Alps and the Jura?

The two dishes worth the trip are tartiflette in Savoie and Mont d’Or in the Jura. The French eat about 27.7 kg of cheese per person a year, the most in Europe (FranceAgriMer, dairy sector sheet, 2023 data). Both are winter food, and that’s exactly when to eat them.

16. Tartiflette

Tartiflette is potatoes, onions and lardons baked under a whole Reblochon, and the label to look for is Reblochon AOP. Is it an old mountain recipe? Not really: it’s younger than it looks. The dish as you’ll meet it took shape in the 1980s, built on an older Savoyard pan dish called the péla, and Reblochon sales benefited. Eat it in a ski village after a cold day; my skiing guide covers the resorts where it makes sense.

17. Mont d’Or AOP, baked in its box

This is the one dish on the list with a legal season. Mont d’Or is made only from 15 August to 15 March and sold only from 10 September to 10 May (DRAAF Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Mont d’Or AOP sheet). The dates carried over unchanged into the specification revised in 2025 (macommune.info, August 2026).

The Haut-Doubs, along the Swiss border, is where it’s made and where it’s served. Pierce the top, add a splash of Jura white wine, bake it in its spruce box and spoon it over potatoes. Don’t confuse it with Switzerland’s Vacherin Mont-d’Or, a separate protected cheese with its own dates.

The first time I bought a Mont d’Or, the cheesemonger asked when I planned to eat it before she’d sell me one. That question is the whole French cheese counter in miniature. Tell them the day, and they’ll pick the cheese.

What Should You Eat in Provence and on the Riviera?

In Provence, eat bouillabaisse in Marseille, socca in Nice and ratatouille at a summer market. Marseille’s bouillabaisse has a charter, written in 1980 by restaurateurs to fix its ingredients and the way it’s served, because the name was being used for any fish soup (Marseille Tourist Office). The tourist office adds that some kitchens cook it properly without signing.

18. Bouillabaisse in Marseille

Bouillabaisse is rockfish cooked in a saffron broth and served in two parts: the broth with toasted bread and rouille first, then the fish. In my experience a proper one starts around €70 a head, and the places that make it well want a day’s notice. A €20 “bouillabaisse” on a harbour board is fish soup with a borrowed name. My Marseille travel guide has the rest of the city’s food, which is cheaper than this.

19. Socca in Nice

Socca is a thin chickpea pancake baked on a huge round tray in a wood oven, cut into rough pieces and eaten hot with black pepper. Buy it from the old town market at Cours Saleya and eat it with your fingers. On the Riviera, no good lunch costs less. Order a portion and wait while it’s scraped off the tray. Socca is at its best in the first five minutes, crisp at the edges and soft in the middle, so don’t carry it back to the hotel. See my Nice travel guide for the market hours.

20. Ratatouille

Ratatouille is summer vegetables, aubergine, courgette, peppers and tomato, cooked slowly in olive oil until they collapse together. In July and August it’s a market-day lunch in the Luberon and Alpilles towns, served warm or cold.

The best version I’ve eaten came from a market traiteur in a plastic tub, eaten on a bench at noon. Restaurant ratatouille is often an afterthought; market ratatouille is somebody’s pride. On Fridays, look for aïoli instead: salt cod, vegetables and a garlic mayonnaise, eaten as a shared plate. My Provence itinerary builds the market days into the route.

Which Southwest Dishes Are Worth the Detour?

In the southwest, eat cassoulet, duck confit, canelés and gâteau basque, and drive up to the Aubrac for aligot. Bordeaux’s canelé is worth a whole class: in 2026, The Gastronome’s canelé atelier costs €96 (The Gastronome, 2026). Castelnaudary even has a brotherhood, the Grande Confrérie du cassoulet, to defend its stew.

21. Cassoulet

Cassoulet is white beans baked slowly with duck confit, sausage and pork until a crust forms. Castelnaudary, Carcassonne and Toulouse each claim the real version, and each makes it slightly differently. Cassoulet takes its name from the earthenware dish it’s served in, the cassole. Cooks argue about how many times the crust should be broken and pushed back in as it bakes. Every version agrees on one thing: it isn’t a summer lunch. Eat it in Castelnaudary in autumn or winter, and plan nothing for the afternoon.

22. Confit de canard

Confit de canard is a duck leg salted, cooked slowly in its own fat, then crisped in a pan and served with potatoes fried in the same fat.

You’ll find it in jars all year at Sarlat’s Saturday market and across the Dordogne and Gers, and foie gras sits on the same stalls. A sealed jar of confit is also one of the most practical food souvenirs in France, because it keeps unopened and survives a suitcase. Check your home country’s rules on bringing in meat before you pack one. The Dordogne travel guide has the market towns.

23. Canelé de Bordeaux

The canelé is a small fluted cake with a dark caramelised crust and a soft, rum-and-vanilla custard inside. Buy it in Bordeaux, one at a time, the same day it’s baked. A good one is almost black on the outside, and the crust should crack when you bite it. Small and dark beats large and pale. They don’t keep, so a box bought at the station is a box eaten on the train. If you’d rather make one, my cooking class guide prices the canelé atelier.

24. Gâteau basque

Gâteau basque is a dense butter cake filled with either black cherry jam or pastry cream, sold all year. Which one is correct? The Basque Country is still arguing. Cambo-les-Bains is the town most tied to it. Ask which filling they make, then try the other one too. Unlike the canelé, it keeps for days, which makes it the best edible gift to carry home from the southwest.

25. Aligot

Aligot is potatoes beaten with butter, garlic and young tomme cheese until they pull into long elastic ribbons, served at the table from the pot. It belongs to the Aubrac plateau around Laguiole, it’s at its best in autumn and winter, and it’s the dish on this list where a car matters most.

I drove up to the Aubrac on a cold autumn day for aligot alone, and I’d do it again. The plateau is empty, the wind is serious, and a pot of stretched potato makes complete sense up there. Getting around France explains when a rental car pays off.

When Is Each Dish in Season?

Mont d’Or goes on sale on 10 September and comes off on 10 May. In 2026, the Beaujolais nouveau is released on Thursday 19 November, the third Thursday of November as set by decree in 1985 (Lyon Mag, 2026). Several French food dates are fixed by rule or ritual, and nobody prints them in one place.

I’ve put them in one table. It’s built from rules, official dates and long-standing rituals, not from opinion, so it’s the part of this guide worth keeping on your phone.

Month	What’s in season	Why that month
January	Galette des rois	Epiphany cake, sold through the month
February	Crêpes (2 Feb)	Chandeleur, the crêpe holiday
March	Last black truffles	Richerenches market ends mid-March
May	Last Mont d’Or (10 May)	AOP sale window closes
July and August	Ratatouille and aïoli	Provence’s market season peaks
September	Mont d’Or returns (10 Sept)	AOP sale window opens
October	Choucroute, bourguignon, cassoulet	Cold-weather dishes return
November	Beaujolais nouveau (third Thursday); truffles from mid-month	Release decree; Richerenches opens
December	Bresse chicken, oysters, Mont d’Or	Glorieuses contests; holiday tables

The black truffle market at Richerenches runs on Saturday mornings from mid-November to mid-March (Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur tourism). Oysters have no legal season, and the old “only in months with an R” rule is folklore from the days before refrigeration; they’re simply at their firmest in the cold months. If you’re choosing when to travel, my month-by-month guide weighs food against weather and crowds.

What Does Eating in France Actually Cost?

The average plat du jour costs €17.08, down from €17.28 a year earlier, across 400 restaurants whose 2025 accounts Fiducial analysed (Observatoire FIDUCIAL de la restauration, 2026). The average bill was €38 in a traditional restaurant and €19 in fast food. Lunch is where France’s food is good value.

That chart is the case for eating your big meal at lunch. A single plat du jour averages about €17, less than half the €38 average bill in a traditional restaurant. In my experience a weekday lunch is where a kitchen gives the most for the least. Fiducial’s sample is weighted towards towns under 100,000 people, so expect Paris and the Riviera to cost more. Kitchens keep set hours, and my first-trip tips explain when lunch service starts and stops. For the whole trip budget, see what a France trip actually costs.

How Do You Tell the Real Thing From the Tourist Version?

A restaurant may only write “fait maison” next to a dish made on site from raw ingredients. If it makes no dish that way, it can’t use the word “maison” at all, and on a mixed menu the mention must sit beside each homemade dish (economie.gouv.fr, August 2026). That’s the most useful phrase on a French menu.

Is it a guarantee? No. Restaurants declare it themselves, with no certification and no inspection beforehand. The consumer fraud authority, the DGCCRF, checks afterwards. The ministry also points out that “fait maison” isn’t the same as artisanal: a chain can qualify. Treat it as the best signal you’ll get on a menu, not proof.

The other labels work the same way:

• AOP on a cheese, a chicken or a butter means a protected recipe and place of origin. On camembert, look for “lait cru” next to it.
• The Bouchons Lyonnais plaque marks one of Lyon’s 22 certified bouchons.
• The 1980 bouillabaisse charter was signed by some Marseille restaurants. Ask whether they follow it, and expect to order a day ahead.
• A ring on the leg marks a Bresse chicken.

The reverse signal is mine, not a rule. A laminated menu in six languages with photos of every dish usually means the kitchen cooks for people who won’t come back.

None of the 25 dishes above needs a star. The 2026 Michelin guide lists 668 starred restaurants across France and Monaco (Guide MICHELIN, 2026), and they’re a different trip. For a €17 lunch, the labels above are the ones that matter. Once you’ve found the right place, my French dining etiquette guide covers how to order, the courses and the bill.

How to Use This French Food Guide on Your Route

Don’t try to eat all 25. Pick the region you’re already passing through and eat its handful of dishes properly. The table near the top of this French food guide works as a checklist for that.

If you’re on the classic France itinerary, Paris, Burgundy and Lyon cover six of these dishes without a detour, seven with a side trip to Bresse. Going south by train, the Paris to Provence route adds Lyon’s bouchons and Provence’s markets in one line. A winter trip to the Alps puts tartiflette and Mont d’Or on the same week. Brittany and Normandy pair well on the coast, and the southwest rewards a car.

Markets are the shortcut. Many of the dishes on this list are sold at a weekly market, ready to eat or ready to cook: galettes, socca, confit, cheese, quiche by the slice. Go in the morning, say bonjour at every stall, and buy lunch rather than booking it. On a long stay, I’d rather eat four market lunches and one great dinner than five average restaurant meals.

If food is the reason for the trip, the experiences around it are in my guide to the best things to do in France: cooking classes, wine tastings and the market mornings that go with them.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Bottom Line

The best food in France isn’t hidden. It’s ordinary, local and labelled, and three habits from this French food guide get you most of the way:

• Eat it where it’s from. Quenelles in a Lyon bouchon, galettes in Brittany, bouillabaisse in Marseille with a day’s notice.
• Eat it in season. Mont d’Or from 10 September, truffles from mid-November, ratatouille in summer.
• Read the label. Fait maison, AOP, the bouchon plaque, the ring on the leg.

Then do something with what you’ve learned: book a cooking class to cook one of these dishes yourself, or a wine tasting to go with them. For why the French meal matters as much as it does, go back to my French culture guide.