Breakfast in a French Cafe
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Breakfast is Le Petit Déjeuner.
Lunch
is déjeuner, and dinner is diner.
To order breakfast in a French café page down to the
French Breakfast Lexicon
What do the French have for breakfast?
Weekday breakfasts in a French home and breakfast in a small hotel will usually be fairly similar. The singular difference may be the addition of croissants in the hotel. In most French homes croissants are kept for the weekend.
Café - Coffee –The coffee for breakfast in a private home will usually be a café au lait, a very milky coffee.
Thé - Tea – Tea is regular black tea, usually without
lemon or milk. Fruit or herb tea called an infusion, or a tisane will be among
the choices for breakfast in a French home.
Chocolat à Boire - Hot or cold drinking chocolate - and hot or cold milk, lait, may be served for children.
Pain – Bread, pronounced pan will not always be a
baguette. In the large cities, the bread of choice for visitors maybe a
baguette; however, that is not true for all of France. The baguette was always
considered a Parisian bread, and to many it still is, and so other local bread
may be on the table. Large round loaves
called a pain boule, or boule de pain was until about 100 years ago the only
bread seen at most breakfast tables, and they remain popular today. Thin
breads, like baguettes, go stale very quickly while a boule will stay fresh for
a day or two.
With the disappearance of the traditional
corner bakeries the purchase of fresh bread, every morning, is less and less an
option. So choosing a bread that will
last a day or two has become increasingly important. For more about the different types of French
bread see the post: French Bread.: The types of French Bread.
Pain beurré also called tartine beurré - Bread and butter. Pain beurré, pronounced pan ber-ray, will be on every French breakfast table. For pain beurré any fresh bread is acceptable.
Breakfast in a French home
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Confiture, jam or jelly, and or miel, honey, will be on the breakfast table.
Pain au chocolat and or pain au Nutella – Bread and chocolate spread and or bread and Nutella are often on the table for children.
Toast – Toast, also called pain grille may be on the table; at breakfast in a private home, toast is usually there when the bread is not really fresh.
Croissants
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A French family’s weekend breakfast.
Weekend breakfasts, in a French family, will
include croissants, eggs, juice and much more.
Families may also go out for a Buffet Dimanche, a Sunday buffet; a
French Sunday buffet is the French version of a Sunday brunch with French
favorites on the menus. It is an enjoyable, and a relatively inexpensive, way
of dining with the whole family
Breakfast in Small French Hotels and Cafes.
The weekday breakfasts served in France’s small hotels, B and B’s, and small cafés will be similar to the weekday breakfast of French families. Cafés will, of course, offer croissants every day.
French hotels from 3 stars and up will customarily have a
breakfast buffet with eggs, cereal, sliced sausages, meats, cheeses, yogurt
along with baguettes and other white and whole wheat breads, These offerings can be very limited or
overwhelming. As may be expected much
depends on how much you are paying.
Breakfast in the larger hotels and cafes.
Breakfast in the best hotels provides
everything needed for power breakfasts for their guests who will include
industrialists, famous actors and actresses and, also visiting politicians.
Five stars plus hotels also offer their customers from non-English speaking
countries their own breakfast specialties.
In the larger towns and cities, breakfast in a café is usually far less
expensive than a hotel breakfast.
However, in France, check first that certain credit cards are accepted
as American Express rarely is. Tippingin cafes and restaurants in France is not expected.
A French Breakfast Lexicon for Visitors to
France
The French breakfast menu, with all the French
you need to know.
When William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066 his cooks and kitchen staff along with those of his Barons brought many French words into the English kitchen. For more about that French connection see the post: The French Connection and The English Kitchen
Ordering coffee for breakfast in France.
Coffee with milk - Café au lait; pronounced café-o-lay; this is coffee with lots of milk, and it is the traditional French breakfast coffee. Café au lait is somewhat like a café latte, but with more milk. The size of a breakfast cafe au lait varies greatly and, in France, most cafes offer one size only; their own.
Cappuccino - Cappuccino. A French cappuccino is thirty percent espresso coffee, fifty percent milk, twenty percent froth, and no whipped cream.
Café Complet - This is not a type of coffee, it is French café shorthand used for a set breakfast. A Café Complet will include a coffee and a croissant or bread rolls, and or a baguette with butter and jam.
Decaffeinated Coffee - Café Décaféiné. In the larger cafés, this should be available with grains de café décaféiné, decaffeinated coffee beans. In the smaller cafés, you may be offered Sanka, decaffeinated instant coffee. When ordering decaffeinated coffee, use the French colloquial term, café déca, pronounced de-ka.
American Coffee - Café Américain. This is the French and also the Italian idea of what Americans drink for breakfast; however, drip-brewed or filtered coffee has long been out of fashion in France. A café Américain is a single shot of espresso coffee served in a normal-sized cup with added hot water; milk will be added on request. A café Américain may also be on French menus as a café allongé.
Instant Coffee - Café déshydraté or safé soluble.
A short black espresso coffee – Un espresso or un café. Ordering either will bring you a single, short, black, espresso coffee.
Ordering
tea for breakfast in France.
Tea –
Thé, pronounced tay.
Tea – Thé. Black tea; the tea that is often referred to as English tea. Despite the name, the tea available in all French cafés will be similar to that in the USA, and that means not very strong. For diehard Brits and colonials, if you must have a specific tea every morning take some tea bags with you.
Tea with milk - Thé au lait, pronounced tay-o-lay. If you request milk on the side you may be served tea with warm milk if you did not ask for cold milk. For tea with cold milk request thé avec lait froid, s’il vou plais, pronounced: tey avec lay frawh sil vous play. Froid is pronounced frawh and means cold, and the s’il vous plais means please.
Lemon Tea - Thé au citron.
Tea without milk or lemon - Thé nature.
A herbal tea
prepared with fresh herbs
Fruit and Herbal Teas – They are called infusions or tisanes. Fruit and or herbal teas are not only a popular beverage but also an important part of France’s trusted homeopathic medicines. There will be a variety of fruit and herbal teas available in all cafés and restaurants
Sugar and sweeteners
Artificial sweeteners – Édulcorant. NB. Not every small French café will have artificial sweeteners, so take some with you. Sweet and Low, NutraSweet and similar local sweeteners are available in all supermarkets.
Sugar – Sucre.
Ordering
milk and drinking chocolate for breakfast in France.
Chocolat
à boire.
Hot chocolate - Chocolat Chaux, pronounced chocolat show.
Cold chocolate - Chocolat Froid,
pronounced chocolat frawh.
Milk- Lait, pronounced lay.
Hot milk - Lait chaux.
Cold milk – Lait froid.
Ordering water for the breakfast table in France.
Water - Eau, pronounced oh.
Bottled table water - Eau de table; that is water that has been filtered and treated.
Cold water – Eau froid.
Hot water - Eau chaude.
French
mineral water
France
has over 600 different mineral water brands,
more
brands of water than wines or cheese.
Mineral water – Eau minérale.
Tap water – Eau du robinet. Tap water in all the towns and cities of France is drinkable, chlorinated and mostly fluoridated. Tap water is free.
Bread - Pain, pronounced pan.
Baguette - Baguette or pain baguette; the most well-known of French breads. Baguettes were originally only a Parisian bread are now are generally available wherever there are tourists; other breads may also be on the breakfast menu.
Bread and butter - Pain beurrée or tartine beurré.
A fresh
baguette, butter, and jam.
and a
café au lait.
Can
a French breakfast get any better?
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Bread and butter and jam, that’s jelly in the USA.- Pain beurrée et confiture, or tartine beurrée et confiture.
Ordering toast for Breakfast in France
Toast - Pain Grille or Toast.
Toster was a French word that came to England with William the Conqueror and its meaning then was to grill. The word came back to France as toast with the English meaning including toasted bread.
Toast with butter - Pain grille au beurre or toast au beurre
Toast with apricot jam - Toast avec confiture d'abricot.
Toasted baguette - Baguette grille. N.B. The words toast and grille may be used interchangeably,
Butter, jam, (jam in the USA is jelly),
and honey on the French breakfast menu.
France has a number of very special butters, and in the top-rated hotels, cafes, and restaurants they may be on the menu. For more about French butter see the post:
Butter or sweet butter - Beurre or beurre doux; that is unsalted butter.
Salted butter - Beurre sale; pronounced sallay. French salted butter has between 3-5% salt; the label on the packet shows the exact percentage.
Jam,
Jelly, on the French Breakfast Menu
Jam -
Confiture.
Citrus marmalade - Marmelade d'agrumes.
Honey – Miel.
Lavender honey - Miel de lavande, honey from lavender flowers.
Honey, on
sale, in a French market
Ordering cereals for
breakfast in France.
Cereals
– Céréales.
Cornflakes and other cereals are popular
in France. Outside of the smallest cafés and small hotel breakfasts, cereals
are usually offered; they may include Rice Crispies, Coco pops, All Bran,
Oatmeal, Muesli, etc.,
Breakfast
cereals in France.
Ordering cheese and yogurts for breakfast in France
Hotel breakfast menus may include cheese plates, and most cafés serving breakfast will offer cheeses and yogurts. Remember this is the country with over 400 different types of cheese and so cheese may be offered with every meal.
A selection of soft and matured cheeses - Fromages frais et affinés.
Soft white cheese - Fromage blanc.
Cottage cheese – Cottage cheese is a relatively recent arrival, and Danone is, I believe, the leader. In supermarkets, cottage
cheese is sold alongside the yogurts, not the cheeses.
Cheese
plate
N.B.
Most prepared cheese plates offer three, sometimes four cheeses.
Ordering croissants and other pastries for breakfast in France.
Croissants et pâtisseries.
Croissants will be on café and hotel
breakfast menus every day. On your walks around town tens, if not hundreds, of
different croissants will be available.
Despite that, at breakfast time, outside of hotels and cafés that make
their own croissants, you will usually just see the traditional, and most
popular, croissant au beurre, the plain butter croissant, and the croissant aux
chocolat, the chocolate croissant. Later in the day, the choice will be much
larger.
Viennoiseries look somewhat similar to small American Danishes though they are made with a pastry similar to that used for croissants. Two hundred years ago the French had recognized Viennese pastry chefs as the best in the world. Still today these small pastries carry the name of Vienna. Many patisseries, cake shops, and boulangeries, bakeries, still make these popular pastries and a few have the word Viennoiserie on the shop’s sign.
A
Boulangerie/Viennoiserie in Paris today.
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American doughnuts – Beignets Américain pronounced: pan bay-nets Amerikain are available in France in the cities but they are not very popular and so unless you are prepared to invest time, and travel to find them you will have to wait until you get home.
French Toast on the French breakfast menu - Pain perdu, (pronounced pan perdu). Pain perdu translates as lost bread; that is bread that is considered too dry for normal use. Nevertheless, one of the few things that you can do with stale bread is to make French toast. As the English name acknowledges the French created French toast. The original French version still used today is bread soaked in milk with added sugar along with vanilla or other flavorings. The bread will then be dipped in eggs and fried in butter until golden brown. It may then be served with a jam, jelly or syrup.
French toast with honey or maple syrup - Pain perdu au miel ou au sirop d’érable.
Ordering eggs for breakfast
in France
Eggs are – Œuf or Œufs, pronounced eouf or eoufs.
One egg – Une œuf.
Two eggs – Deux œufs.
Egg white - Blanc d'oeuf.
An egg yolk - Jaune d'oeuf.
Ordering Fried Eggs for Breakfast in France.
Œufs au (sur le) plat or Œufs sauté à la poêle.
One fried egg – Un œuf au plat or un œuf sauté à la poêle.
Two fried eggs, sunny side up - Œufs au (sur le) plat.
Two fried eggs, over easy - Œufs sur le plat tourné. NB The French do not usually make fried eggs over easy, but they will understand the request; though the eggs may be served well done. I suggested a solution for a friend, and in one particular café, it worked. Try: œufs sur le plat tournés pour une minute, fried eggs over easy for just one minute, pronounced eoufs oh plat tournei por une minoot.
Two fried eggs with a slice of ham, and buttered bread on the side - Œufs au plat avec jambon avec pain beurré.
Œuf or Œufs Cocotte – Eggs baked in a casserole. The word cocotte will be part of the title of a dish on the menu when the egg or eggs are cooked in the oven and served in a casserole. For breakfast, you may be offered bacon and eggs, and for a light lunch, the eggs may be baked on top of a vegetable like asparagus. Despite being baked œufs cocotte should arrive with a semi-liquid yolk.
Œufs au plat
Two
fried eggs
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If you have the time and want to see how my own order for eggs for breakfast went very wrong read the post: What happened when I ordered eggs for breakfast in France.
Ordering Bacon with Your Eggs:
The words bacon and lard in French have
created more than a few problems when encountered by English speakers in
France. The French words bacon and lard have the same meaning. Unless clearly noted
expect European style bacon, not the crispy American version.
Two fried eggs, toast, grilled bacon - Oeufs au Plat, Toasts, Lard Grillé.
Two fried eggs, grilled bacon, toast, coffee and orange juice - Oeufs au Plat, Bacon, Pain Grillé, Café et Jus d'Orange.
Ordering
Scrambled Eggs for Breakfast in France
Scrambled
eggs - Œufs Brouillés.
The French prefer their scrambled eggs, very slightly runny If you want your scrambled eggs well done then request them bein cuit, pronounced bien kui.
Plain scrambled eggs - Œufs brouillés nature.
Scrambled eggs with tomatoes - Œufs brouillés à la tomate.
Two scrambled eggs and two rashers of grilled bacon – Deux œufs brouillés et deux tranches de bacon grille.
Lightly
Scrambled Eggs
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Brouillade - Brouillade is a light version of scrambled eggs that originated in Provence, France. The eggs whites are beaten separately and only then mixed with the yolks; that provides a light and delicate form of scrambled eggs.
Ordering Boiled Eggs for Breakfast in France.
A lightly boiled egg - Œuf à la coque, pronounced: eouf a la cok, with coque meaning a shell. In France, as elsewhere, there is no binding definition of a lightly boiled egg.
A medium boiled egg - Un œuf mollet; a boiled egg where the white is firm and the yolk still liquid. Œuf mollet began as a medium-boiled egg taken from the shell and served as part of a salad or another dish; now in most cafes, at breakfast only, it will be served in its shell.
A hard-boiled egg - Un œuf dur.
Œuf mollet à la Coque, a
Medium Boiled Egg.
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Ordering
Poached Eggs for breakfast in France
Poached
eggs - Œufs pochés.
Two poached eggs - Deux œufs pochés.
Two poached eggs and bacon - Œufs pochés au bacon.
Ordering
omelets for breakfast in France.
An
omelet - Un omelette.
The French prefer their omelets slightly runny on the inside, baveux, and I have learned to prefer them cooked that way. However, if you want your omelet well-done ask for your omelet: non-baveuse or bien cuit, pronounced bien kui.
A plain omelet – Une omelette nature.
Omelette
aux fine herbes
Photograph
by yay micro
Mushroom omelet - Omelette aux champignons.
Cheese omelet - Omelette au fromage.
An egg white omelet - Une omelette de blancs d'œufs.
Other egg dishes on French breakfast menus.
Œufs à la Bénédictine or Œufs Benedict – Eggs Benedict. Eggs Benedict are poached eggs served over an English muffin and Canadian bacon all covered with Sauce Hollandaise. Most award the creation of Eggs Benedict to the legendary New York French restaurant Delmonico’s. There is no connection between Eggs Benedict and the Bénédictine D.O.M. liquor. Sauce Hollandaise the only real French connection.
Œufs Mornay – Hard-boiled eggs prepared with a Mornay cheese sauce served on top and then baked in the oven. A Mornay sauce is a Sauce Béchamel with added egg yolks and Comte cheese. A Sauce Béchamel is a white sauce flavored with nutmeg and one of France's "mother" sauces. A mother sauce is a sauce that will have been added to and changed and so has many children and grandchildren like Sauce Hollandaise. For more about Comte cheese see the post: Comte AOP (AOC), the premiere cheese of France
Ordering mushrooms for breakfast in France.
Wild mushrooms - Champignons des bois, champignons sauvage.
The Wild
Chanterelle Mushrooms on sale in the market
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Grilled tomatoes – Tomates grillée.
Ordering
bacon for breakfast in France.
Bacon –
Bacon or lard
Bacon and lard are two of the many French words that arrived in England with William the Conqueror in 1066. Since then, those same words have traveled back to France; however, one word, lard, in French now also means bacon and so it has a decidedly different meaning to its modern English usage
In English, the word lard means pig fat, while in French pig fat is saindoux. In French, both words, bacon, and lard, are used for bacon in English.
Grilled Bacon - Bacon grillé or lard grille.
Grilled
bacon.
Ordering
ham for breakfast in France.
Ham
- Jambon.
On French breakfast menus, the ham served will be boiled ham, the same type of ham called city ham in the USA and boiled or traditional ham in the UK; in France, it is called jambon de Paris or jambon blanc. Cured ham, called jambon cru, or jambon sec, a ham that has been smoked and or salted and then air-dried for many months will only rarely be seen on a breakfast menu.
Two fried eggs and two slices of grilled ham - Deux œufs au plat au deux tranches de jambon grille.
Braised ham - Jambon braisé.
Ordering
sausages for breakfast in France.
The French word saucisse, from which the English word sausage came, is still another word that arrived in England with William the Conqueror. A few hundred years later the French began using, on their side of the channel, the word boudin to mean an uncooked sausage. A sausage, grilled or fried, for breakfast may be on the menu as a boudin blanc, a pork sausage, or a boudin de bœuf, a beef sausage. The word saucisse may also be used on breakfast menus, and when either a boudin or a saucisse is on the menu without any qualification, then it is a pork sausage. A saucisson sec is a salami-style sausage. French menus are rarely clear about the exact differences between boudins, saucisses, and saucissons;.
A grilled pork sausage served with two fried eggs - Boudin blanc grillée au œufs au plat.
Grilled sausages served with two poached eggs - Saucisses grillée avec deux œufs pochés.
Sauces and condiments on the French breakfast table.
Maple syrup – Syrup d’arable.
French
Heinz Ketchup bottle.
Photograph
courtesy of Heinz, France.
Salt – Sel.
Tabasco – Tabasco.
Tomato ketchup – Ketchup.
Worcestershire Sauce - Worcester Sauce.
Fresh orange juice - Jus d'orange pressé.
Freshly squeezed fruit juices - Jus de fruits presses.
Lemon juice - Jus de citron.
Orange juice - Jus d'orange. If your menu just reads jus d'orange without the word pressé, squeezed, that indicates that the juice is bottled, canned or frozen.
Ordering
Fruit for Breakfast in France.
Fruit –
Fruit, pronounced fru-it.
Apple – Pomme.
Banana – Banana.
Citrus fruit salad - Salade d’agrumes.
Fresh fruit - Fruits frais.
Fresh fruit salad - Coupe de fruits frais.
Orange – Orange.
Pear – Poire.
Pineapple – Ananas.
Prunes – Pruneaux.
Stewed prunes - Compote de pruneaux.
What to
check before sitting down to order breakfast in France!
Credit
cards - Cartes de Crédit.
If you intend to use a credit card in a
café or restaurant, check beforehand that credit cards are accepted. While most cafés and restaurants accept Visa
cards locally called Carte Bleu, and Master Card locally called the Eurocard
there are always a few cafés and restaurants that do not accept any cards, and
there are many that do not accept American Express or Diners Cards, so always
check.
Paying the bill:
The bill, the check – L’Addition. Just say l'addition, s'il vous plais, that means the bill please, pronounced: le add-icion sil vous play.
Thank you – Merci.
Thank you very much – Merci beaucoup, pronounced: merci bow-coo.
Tipping
Tips -
Pourboire.
Tips are not expected in French cafés and restaurants. However, If you are paying the bill in cash, and the service was acceptable, then just round the sum up to the nearest Euro. For more about tipping and service charges in French restaurants see the post: Tipping
in French Restaurants.
Omissions
Omitted from this post are those breakfast dishes that having crossed the Channel or the Pond, and are on French café and restaurant menus with their English names. Those dishes include American pancakes and more.
Also, omitted are some items that may be on a few café menus such as crêpes, those, mostly thin, French pancakes. Crepes are not a traditional French breakfast dish; however, many crêperies, French pancake houses also serve breakfast. For more about French crepes see the post: Crepes, Pancakes, and Waffles.
--------------------------------
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
Copyright 2010, 2014, 2016, 2019.
--------------------------------
Searching for the meaning of words, names or phrases
on
French menus?
Just add the word, words, or phrase that
you are searching for to the words "Behind the French Menu" (best
when including the inverted commas), and search with Google, Bing, or another
browser. Behind the French Menu’s links, include hundreds of words,
names, and phrases that are seen on French menus. There are over 450 articles
that include over 4,000 French dishes with English translations and
explanations.
Boudins and Black Puddings on French Menus. The Sausages of France II.
Champignons on French Menus. The Champignon de Paris, the Button Mushroom in French Cuisine. The Mushrooms of France I.
