15 Traditional French Foods and Drinks To Try on Your Next Trip

If you struggle to handle booze at a bottomless brunch, how about quaffing red wine at 9am and soaking it up with pig liver and tripe? Lyon’s silk-weavers regularly began work in the small hours, so the platters of offal and carafes of vin rouge which constitute mâchon were more of a lunchtime meal, but they still must have had iron constitutions. Now, mâchon is popular with the all-night party crowd and can be sampled on some of the city’s food tours.

Similar to a pizza, but skinnier, crispier, and covered with creme fraiche not tomato sauce, flammekueche translates as “pie baked in the flames.” It’s a misleading name since it’s, first of all, made from dough rather than pastry and, second of all, cooked in a woodfired oven. The longest flammekueche in the world used a whopping 12 kilograms of dough and was 34.6 meters long, but you can try a normal sized one on a Strasbourg food tour.

Originally, this Provençal fish stew was made using bony fish that couldn’t be sold in the markets, and included at least three different types. To eat it in the traditional Marseillais way, serve the broth separately in a bowl alongside bread and rouille—a sauce similar to a thick, spiced mayonnaise—with the fish dished up separately on a large platter.

Traditionally a celebration cake for Easter, baptisms, communions, and weddings, fiadone is made from brocchiu, a goat or sheep cheese made from whey. The result is a grainy, slightly acidic cheesecake, similar in flavor and texture to ricotta. Fiadone doesn’t have a biscuit base, but don’t let this fool you into thinking it’s a light dessert—brocchiu has to contain at least 40 percent fat to be classed as such.

A true quiche lorraine is nothing like the freezer meal kind. Originally the “pastry” was made from bread dough, and the addition of cheese is considered “inauthentic,” with purists making the filling from just cream, eggs, and lardons. The dish dates back to the 16th century in the Alsace-Lorraine region, and there’s even a festival dedicated to quiche lorraine these days—stop by Dombasle-sur-Meurthe in June to see it for yourself.

Nothing to do with marine mammals, dauphinoise potatoes are named after the Dauphiné family who ruled the region. The earliest record of dauphinoise potatoes dates back to 1788, when it was served up to municipal officers in the city of Gap, Eastern France. As with quiche lorraine, the traditional gratin recipe doesn’t use any cheese. (Can you believe we’re talking about French food here?)

The only happily married sandwiches in the world—and proof that everything sounds better in French—the Croque Monsieur came first. A gentleman’s sandwich (the name of which translates to “Mister Bite”), it’s made from white bread, ham, cheese, and sometimes bechamel sauce—essentially, it’s a fancy grilled cheese. A Croque Madame includes all of the above, except it’s topped with a fried egg that’s said to represent a lady’s hat. Sample them both in Paris.

A hearty, baked dessert which combines grandmotherly cooking with French sophistication, clafoutis has the consistency of a thick pancake. The name clafoutis comes from “clafir,” which means “to fill.” Traditionally the recipe uses cherries, but nowadays it can be made from any seasonal fruit, which is stacked up in a buttered dish between layers of batter before baking. Try it hot or cold.

Seven Papes, or Popes, have resided in Avignon, but papeton d’aubergines takes its name from the mold which the dip is made in rather than the religious heritage of the city. A flavorful eggplant paté served as a starter—and often featured on Avignon food tours—most recipes also include tomatoes, garlic, parsley, thyme, bay leaves, onion, and egg.

The name may conjure images of an animated rodent working in a Parisian restaurant, but ratatouille actually comes from Nice and was created by poor Provençal farmers as a way to use up leftover summer vegetables. A brightly-colored medley of peppers, zucchini, eggplant, and tomatoes, it typically accompanies meat or fish, although it’s increasingly eaten as a main. The flavor supposedly improves if consumed a day or two after cooking.

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Thanks to its status as a port town, Bordeaux saw the arrival of spices and goods from the Caribbean before other French cities. This rich blend inspired canelé, a fluted cake infused with rum and vanilla. The outside of a canelé is an almost burnt-looking rich, deep brown, while the inside is the color of custard. It’s slightly chewy in texture, and typically glazed with either butter or beeswax.

One of the most popular theories on the origin of French onion soup centers around King Louis XV. After a long day of hunting, the king was feeling peckish, so ransacked the cupboards to find them all but bare. (We’ve all been there). All he found were onions (relatable), butter (likely), and … Champagne. It’s lucky he wasn’t a student, or this simple but indulgent soup might have ended up infused with cheap vodka instead.

The galette des rois, or kings’ cake, was invented in the 13th century to celebrate the arrival of the Three Kings at Jesus’ manger. Made from puff pastry filled with frangipane, one of the slices contains a fève (small, porcelain figurine). The person who finds the fève is nominated king or queen for the day and wears a crown, although they also have the (dubious) honor of supplying the next cake.

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Crêpes are great, but Bretongalettes—dark, savory crêpes made from buckwheat—are something else. Traditionally they contain slices of emmental, ham, and a fried egg, and are folded in a square shape, but most crêperies offer up an extensive menu these days. Rather than being washed down with wine, or indeed Champagne, galettes are eaten accompanied with a bowl of Breton cider.

If rice pudding reminds you of school canteen slop, Normandy’s teurgoule will change your mind. Infused with cinnamon and slow-cooked for at least five hours, the resulting dish has a caramelized crust and grains of rice so tender that they melt in your mouth. It was invented in the late 18th century when French baron François-Jean Orceau sailed into Normandy with a cargo of rice and can be sampled on several Normandy food tours.