Oh, how I miss the cafe life in Paris! Seemingly on every corner there is a cute bistro with outside and inside seating serving affordable delicious food. Why would anyone cook when you can get your food here? The majority of cafes offer the standard fare including omelets, French onion soup, burgers, pomme frites aka fries and a wide variety of salads. Snails, charcuterie boards and crepes-sure, no problem!

We used the Google translator app on our phones to translate menus from French to English. Our apartment was in a local not tourist neighborhood and English menus weren’t a thing. This helped us avoid menu mistakes. Patti was going to order a salad with salmon until we saw it was smoked not cooked salmon. An older Parisian woman sitting next to us was smoking and drinking Chardonnay while enjoying a lunch of a small serving of smoked salmon. That’s it. No salad, no bread just raw protein. So Parisian!

The waiters were almost always male. Not sure why but just what I’ve observed over many trips all over Paris. Tipping is not a required thing, though if you get great service, some euros handed to the waiter won’t be refused. A basket of bread is usually served for free alongside your meal. You can ask for tap water, which is also free. The rude French service is really a myth. Now, if you present rude behavior then it may happen, but we had lovely service.

Travel tip: Don’t just sit down at a cafe. First, find a member of the wait staff and ask for a table and wait to be seated. They may ask if you want food or just drinks. Depending on time of day, they may not sit you if you aren’t ordering food. They will give you a menu or there will be a QR code to scan. TIP: Put down your menu and close it after you’ve made your food decision, and the waiter will then know to approach to take your order.

One night after a few missteps and lots of walking, we stumbled into a cafe with pizzas and when I spoke with the waiter to get a table and was told it would be a few minutes, I ordered a margherita pizza to get started baking for our very “hangry” group. He was the only waiter for the whole cafe, so the pizza came out before he took the rest of our order and before we had plates or drinks. Like hungry American animals who acted like we hadn’t eaten in days, we ripped into that pizza with our hands. Yum! Later we got our tableware and more food. This waiter was still nice to us despire our behavior, so he got a tip and a hearty Merci beaucoup!

Need to use the facilities? You can either buy a beverage at a cafe and then use the bathroom, usually found in the basement, or you can just march in like you are actually a customer and just don’t make eye contact. Facilities are just for customers, and I get that but there are times when you have to take charge and go.

Bon Appetit. Enjoy the journey!