Restaurants
The French keep fairly strict dining hours: lunch from noon to 2pm and dinner from 7:30 or 8pm to 10 or 11pm. French children are used to eating out with adults and are generally very well behaved and nicely turned out. As a result, all ages are welcome, even in the city’s finest restaurants. You will see whole families gathered round a table at 11pm, with no tears or tantrums going on. However, if you think your brood would not follow suit, there are plenty of places all over the city where a noisy table and spilt drinks will go totally unnoticed, or at least unremarked upon. Many visiting, non-French families find it best to eat their main meal out at lunchtime. Not only are prices lower, but Parisian dinner hours are simply too late for their young children. Most restaurants have at least one prix fixe, or fixed price, menu of two, three or four courses: an entrée (first course), usually salads, vegetable or fish dishes, tarts and pâtés; a plat (main course), principally a meat, chicken or fish dish; and a dessert. A cheese course will be served before (or optionally instead of) dessert. On weekday lunchtimes a simpler menu, called a formule, is usually just two courses with a more limited choice. The plat du jour is the special of the day, often chalked up on a board.
Many restaurants offer a menu enfant, or children’s menu – two or three small courses, often specifically for under 10s. Classic menu options include steak haché (a good-quality burger without the bun), beignets de poulet (chicken nuggets), jambon-frîtes (ham and chips) and omelette. Ice cream is the usual dessert, sometimes called an eskimo.
A bistrot is a bit less formal than a restaurant, and often smaller and more moderately priced, while a brasserie is a larger, more bustling eatery, which tends to specialize in classics such as fruits de mer (sea-food platters), French onion soup and steak and chips. They are often atmospheric, historic places and a bonus is that they are open all day.
A great option with kids is one of the city’s many crêperies, which serve Breton pancakes with a choice of fillings, savoury on buckwheat galettes and sweet ones on crêpes.
Many cafés and bistrots have outdoor seating, ideal for a family with fidgety children.
It is acceptable everywhere to ask for a carafe d’eau, a free jug of tap water, to accompany your meal. Tax and service are included in the bill by law, so tipping is optional, but it is customary to leave a little extra.
Façade of restaurant, Rue du Faubourg Montmartre
Ethnic flavours
France’s colonial history means Paris is well served with North African restaurants, serving tasty
couscous and
tajines. There are Japanese, Cambodian and Vietnamese restaurants just off Avenue de l’Opéra; these can be a good option with children. Paris’s Chinatown is in the 13th
arrondissement, but there is also a gourmet Chinese restaurant, Shang Palace, in
Hôtel Shangri-La. There are several good Indian restaurants in and around Passage Brady in the 10th
arrondissement. Jewish restaurants are to be found in the Marais. When all else fails, there are cheery, welcoming and eternally-popular pizzerias all over Paris.
Special diets
There is a rather cavalier attitude to vegetarians and special diets in France. The pizza on the kids’ menu often comes with ham, salads are sprinkled with bacon, vegetable soups are made with meat stock, and vegetables cooked with meat may be offered as a vegetarian alternative. Always ask the waiter what is in the dishes on the menu before ordering. Brasseries usually have salads and omelettes on the menu and ethnic restaurants are also a good option for vegetarians. Chestnuts, used in French cooking and in Corsican biscuits and cakes, may cause nut allergies.
Drinks
For adults, there is a fantastic range of French wines to sample. In cafés, bars, brasseries and bistrots, and some restaurants, it is possible, and cheapest, to order wine by the carafe, usually referred to by size: the most common are 25 cl and 50 cl.
Just ask for a “café” and you will get a strong, black espresso coffee; a café au lait is a large white coffee. Herbal teas (tisanes) are also popular, and North African tea rooms serve delicious, sweet Moroccan mint tea.
The brightly coloured drinks that are served up in cafés and restaurants are mixes of syrup and water, called sirops à l’eau. The emerald green is mint-flavoured and the red is grenadine.
On a hot day, there is nothing more refreshing than a citron pressé. This do-it-yourself drink is simply freshly squeezed lemon juice, a jug of water and sugar. Kids have fun mixing it up – it needs a lot of sugar not to be mouth-puckeringly sour.
Markets
Paris has totally unmissable street markets selling some of the best food available in the capital. Most Parisians have their favourite market, so opinions on which is the best vary considerably. Rue Cler and Rue Montorgueil are always lively, while Rue du Mouffetard is a Paris icon, but among the best markets are the Marché Président Wilson (Wed & Sat mornings), Marché Raspail (Tue, Fri & Sun) and Marché Edgar Quinet (Wed & Sat mornings).
In season, look out for regional produce, such as asparagus from Argenteuil, carrots from Crécy, cherries from Montmorency, strawberries from Palaiseau and tomatoes from Montlhéry.
Bread and cakes
There are many great French breads to try and, thanks to state protection, there are lots of local
boulangeries. The French buy bread daily or even twice a day since it tends to go stale quickly as it contains no fat.
Poilâne is famed for its tasty sourdough bread, which makes great
tartines (open sandwiches).
Sacha Finkelsztajn sells Jewish breads, cheesecakes and strudels.
Pâtisseries sell an array of cakes and savoury snacks, perfect as picnic provisions. Start the day with a brioche, a croissant or a
pain au chocolat (a chocolate-filled pastry). For a mid-morning snack most French kids are given a piece of chocolate tucked in a baguette. The place to buy macaroons is Ladurée. There is a particularly cosy branch, frequented by Parisians, in
St-Germain-des-Près.
Chocolates and sweets
Forget the museums and galleries, it is the chocolate shops the kids will want to see. Try a marzipan animal from
À la Mère de Famille, which opened its first branch in 1761 and has changed little since then.
Debauve & Gallais created special chocolates for both Marie Antoinette and Napoleon III; their most famous shop, which dates from 1818, is a registered historic monument. Kids can select sweets from the spectacular displays in two branches of
La Cure Gourmande.
Jadis et Gourmande in the Marais makes chocolate mobile phones, CDs, and even mini-Eiffel Towers. Look out for
bêtises de Cambrai (“Cambrai naughties”), minty boiled sweets, the favourite of Astérix the Gaul.
