Breakfast and snacks
A croissant, pain au chocolat (a square-shaped chocolate-filled light pastry) or a sandwich in a bar or café, with hot chocolate or coffee, is generally the best way to eat breakfast - at a fraction of the cost charged by most hotels. (The days when hotels gave you mounds of croissants or brioches for breakfast seem to be long gone; now it's virtually always bread, jam and a jug of coffee or tea for about 30F/E.50.) Croissants and sometimes hard-boiled eggs are displayed on bar counters until around 9.30am or 10am. If you stand - cheaper than sitting down - you just help yourself to these with your coffee; the waiter keeps an eye on how many you've eaten and bills you accordingly.

At lunchtime , and sometimes in the evening, you may find cafés offering a plat du jour (chef's daily special) at between 40F/¬6.10 and 75F/¬11.44, or formules , a limited or no-choice menu. Croques-monsieur or croques-madame (variations on the toasted-cheese sandwich) are on sale at cafés, brasseries and many street stands, along with frites (potato fries), crêpes, galettes (wholewheat pancakes), gauffres (waffles), glaces (ice creams) and all kinds of fresh-filled baguettes (these very filling sandwiches usually cost between 18F/¬2.75 and 28F/¬4.27 to take away). For variety, there are Tunisian snacks like brik à l'Suf (a fried pastry with an egg inside), merguez (spicy North African sausage), Greek souvlaki (kebabs) and Middle Eastern falafel (deep-fried chickpea balls in flat bread with salad). Wine bars are good for regional sausages and cheese, usually served with brown bread ( pain de campagne ).

Crêpes , or pancakes with fillings, served up at ubiquitous crêperies, are popular lunchtime food. The savoury buckwheat variety (often called galettes ) provide the main course; the sweet white-flour ones are dessert. They taste nice enough, but are usually poor value in comparison with a restaurant meal; you need at least three, normally at over 30F/¬4.58 each, to feel full. Pizzerias , usually au feu du bois (wood-fire-baked), are also very common. They are somewhat better value than crêperies, but quality and quantity vary greatly - look before you leap into the nearest empty seats.

For picnics , the local outdoor market or supermarket will provide you with almost everything you need from tomatoes and avocados to cheese and pâté. Cooked meat, prepared snacks, ready-made dishes and assorted salads can be bought at charcuteries (delicatessens), which you'll find everywhere - even in small villages, though the same things are cheaper at supermarket counters. You purchase by weight, or you can ask for une tranche (a slice), une barquette (a carton) or une part (a portion).

Salons de thé , which open from mid-morning to late evening, serve brunches, salads, quiches, and the like, as well as gateaux, ice cream and a wide selection of teas. They tend to be a good deal pricier than cafés or brasseries - you're paying for the posh surroundings. As bars are to men in France, salons de thé are to women, and they generally have a more female ambience and clientele. For cakes and pastries to take away, you'll find impressive arrays at every boulangerie-pâtisserie.

Cheese
Charles de Gaulle once commented that "You can unite the French only through fear. You cannot simply bring together a country that has over 265 kinds of cheese." For serious cheese- lovers, France is the ultimate paradise. Other countries may produce individual cheeses which are as good as, or even better than, the best of the French, but no country offers a range that comes anywhere near them in terms of sheer inventiveness. In fact, there are officially over 400 types of French cheese (with new ones being created every year), whose recipes are jealously guarded secrets. Many cheese-makers have successfully protected their products by AOC ( appellation d'origine contrôlée ), laws similar to those for wines, which limit the amount of cheese that a particular area can produce, meaning that the subtle differences between French local cheeses have not been overwhelmed by the industrialized uniformity that has plagued other countries.

Most restaurants keep a well-stocked plateau de fromages (cheeseboard), kept at room temperature and served with bread, but not butter. Apart from the ubiquitous Brie, Camembert and numerous varieties of goat's cheese ( chèvre ), there will usually be one or two local cheeses on offer - these are the ones to go for. Your best bet for local produce is a fromagerie , which often has 200 varieties or more to choose from. We've indicated the best national and regionally available cheeses throughout the website.

Meals
There's no difference between restaurants (or auberges or relais as they sometimes call themselves) and brasseries in terms of quality or price range. The distinction is that brasseries, which resemble cafés, serve quicker meals at most hours of the day, while restaurants tend to stick to the traditional meal times of noon to 2pm, and 7pm to 9.30pm or 10.30pm. After 9pm or so, restaurants often serve only à la carte meals (single dishes chosen from the menu) - invariably more expensive than eating the set menu fixe . In touristy areas in high season, and for all the more upmarket places, it's wise to make reservations - easily done on the same day. In small towns it may be impossible to get anything other than a bar sandwich after 10pm or even earlier; in major cities, town-centre brasseries will serve until 11pm or midnight and one or two may stay open all night.

When hunting for places to eat, avoid places that are half empty at peak time, use your nose and regard long menus with suspicion. Don't forget that hotel restaurants are open to non-residents, and are often very good value. In many small towns and villages, you'll find the only restaurants are in hotels. Since restaurants change hands frequently and have their ups and downs, it's also worth asking people you meet (locals, not fellow tourists) for recommendations. This is the conversational equivalent of commenting on the weather in Britain and will usually elicit strong views and sound advice.

Prices , and what you get for them, are posted outside. Normally there's a choice between one or more menus fixes , where the number of courses has already been determined and the choice is limited, and choosing individually from the carte (menu). Menus fixes are normally the cheapest option. At the bottom end of the price range, they revolve around standard dishes such as steak and chips ( steak frites ), chicken and chips ( poulet frites ) and various concoctions involving innards. But further up the scale they can be much the best-value way of sampling regional specialities, sometimes running to five or more courses. If you're simply not that hungry, just go for the plat du jour .

Going à la carte offers greater choice and, in the better restaurants, unlimited access to the chef's specialities - though you'll pay for the privilege. A simple and perfectly legitimate tactic is to have just one course instead of the expected three or four. You can share dishes or go for several starters - a useful strategy for vegetarians. There's no minimum charge.

In the French sequence of courses , any salad (sometimes vegetables, too) comes separate from the main dish, and cheese precedes a dessert. You will be offered coffee, which is always extra, to finish off the meal.

Service compris or s.c. means the service charge is included. Service non compris, s.n.c. or servis en sus means that it isn't and you need to calculate an additional 15 percent. Wine ( vin ) or a drink ( boisson ) is occasionally included in the cost of a menu fixe . When ordering house wine, the cheapest option, ask for un quart (0.25 litre), un demi-litre (0.5 litre) or une carafe (1 litre). If you're worried about the cost ask for vin ordinaire or the vin de table . On this website the lowest price menu or the range of menus is given; where average à la carte prices are given it assumes you'll have three courses and half a bottle of wine. The French are much better disposed towards children in restaurants than other nationalities, not simply by offering reduced-price children's menus but in creating an atmosphere - even in otherwise fairly snooty establishments - that positively welcomes kids; some even have in-house games and toys for them to occupy themselves with. It is regarded as self-evident that large family groups should be able to eat out together. A rather murkier area is that of dogs in the dining room; it can be quite a shock in a provincial hotel to realize that the majority of your fellow diners are attempting to keep dogs concealed beneath their tables. One final note is that you should always call the waiter or waitress Monsieur or Madame ( Mademoiselle if a young woman), never Garçon , no matter what you've been taught in school.

Regional cuisine
The geography of France explains much of the pride of place the country holds in European cuisines. The French can fish and breed seafood in the Channel waters, the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean as well as catch freshwater fish in a thousand lakes and rivers. Mountains, forests, deltas and plains with climates ranging from the aridly sun-soaked to northern cold and wetness allow an extraordinary variety of produce. Added to this is the historical and social factor of a class of paysans - smallholders - who have passed down traditional methods from generation to generation. Though it is true that in recent years industrialization has standardized and sanitized production methods, food imports have greatly increased and pollution has taken its toll, there remains a strong connection between the countryside and the table, reflected in the different regional cuisines. The gastronomic map of France features certain regions - Alsace, Provence, Brittany and the Pays Basque - in which the preservation of a distinctive cuisine owes much to historical separation. Burgundy, the Auvergne, Normandy and the Dordogne have absorbed classic French cooking from different corners of the country.

Dishes from Alsace and Lorraine are based on game, pork, beef and lamb, pickled cabbage, and flans with pizza-like pastries. Mussels and chips, accompanied by beer, are a staple of northern France . Butter and cream are the rich basis of many Normandy specialities, which include famous cheeses, apple and pear dishes and seafood. Brittany has oysters, lobsters and other produce from the sea; crêpes and galettes with sweet and savoury fillings; and buttery cakes and flans. Seafood again features prominently on menus all along the Atlantic Coast . The famous Charolais beef of Burgundy , combined with the local wines and mustard, produces mouthwatering variations; snails too are a speciality. Duck and goose in their myriad forms belong to the Dordogne , marinated and served with prunes, preserves and truffles. In the Auvergne , cabbage, pork and bean stew is a favourite, along with cheeses, sausages and garlic soups. Languedoc has the celebrated Rocquefort cheese as a basis for many dishes, and serves snails in appetizing ways, along with the rum-flambéed crêpes languedociennes . Lyon has a special position as the meeting place of north and south, combining sausages and smoked meats with the famous Bresse chicken, dumplings, southern salads and the tasty tarte Lyonnaise . The Pays Basque specializes in wild pigeon and Bayonne ham, white tuna and the delicious ewe's milk cheese, brébis , as well as the rich cherry and chocolate gâteau Basque . Provence , with its Mediterranean climate, yields olives, garlic, lavender honey and delicious fruit and vegetables, all used to perfection in pasta dishes, fish soups, stews and grills, mixed salads and flans. In Corsica wild herbs give the cuisine its unique flavour, with specialities like smoked pork, game, shellfish, eel and trout, and a range of dishes made from the local chestnuts.

Glossary of food and dishes
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Drinking
Wherever you can eat you can invariably drink, and vice versa. Drinking is done at a leisurely pace whether it's a prelude to food ( apéritif ), a sequel ( digestif ), or the accompaniment, and cafés are the standard places to do it. Every bar or café has to display its full price list, usually without the fifteen percent service charge added, with the cheapest drinks at the bar ( au comptoir ), and progressively increasing prices for sitting at a table inside ( la salle ), or outside ( la terrasse ). You pay when you leave, and it's perfectly acceptable to sit for hours over just one cup of coffee.

Wine ( vin ) is drunk at just about every meal or social occasion. Red is rouge , white blanc and rosé rosé. Vin de table or vin ordinaire - table wine - is generally drinkable and always cheap, although it may be disguised and priced-up as the house wine, or cuvée . The price of AOC ( appellation d'origine contrôlée ) wines can vary from 10F/¬1.53 to 100F/¬15.25 and over, and that's the vineyard price. You can buy a very decent bottle of wine for 20F/¬3.05 or 30F/¬4.58, and 60F/¬9.15 and over will buy you something really nice. By the time restaurants have added their considerable mark-up, wine can constitute an alarming proportion of the bill.

The basic wine terms are: brut , very dry; sec , dry; demi-sec , sweet; doux , very sweet; mousseux , sparkling; méthode champenoise , mature and sparkling. There are grape varieties as well, but the complexities of the subject take up volumes. A glass of wine is simply un rouge, un rosé or un blanc . You may have the choice of un ballon (round glass) or a smaller glass ( un verre ). Un pichet (a pitcher) is normally a quarter-litre. A glass of wine in a bar will cost around 30F/¬5.58.

The best way to buy bottles of wine is directly from the producers ( vignerons ), either at vineyards, at Maisons or Syndicats du Vin (representing a group of wine-producers), or at Coopératifs Vinicoles (wine-producer co-ops). At all these places you can sample the wines first. It's best to make clear at the start how much you want to buy (if it's only one or two bottles) and you will not be popular if you drink several glasses and then leave without making a purchase. The most economical option is to buy en vrac , which you can also do at some wine shops ( caves ), taking an easily obtainable plastic five- or ten-litre container (usually sold on the premises) and getting it filled straight from the barrel. In cities supermarkets are the best places to buy your wine, and their prices often beat those of the vignerons .

Familiar light Belgian and German brands, plus French brands from Alsace, account for most of the beer you'll find. Draught beer ( à la pression ) - usually Kronenbourg - is the cheapest drink you can have next to coffee and wine; ask for un pression or un demi (0.33 litre). A demi costs around 17F/¬2.59. For a wider choice of draught and bottled beer you need to go to the special beer-drinking establishments or English-style pubs found in most city centres and resorts. A small bottle at one of these places will cost at least twice as much as a demi in a café. In supermarkets, however, bottled or canned beer is exceptionally cheap.

Strong alcohol is consumed from as early as 5am as a pre-work fortifier, and then at any time through the day according to circumstance, though the national reputation for drunkenness has lost much of its truth. Brandies and the dozens of eaux de vie (spirits) and liqueurs are always available. Pastis - the generic name of aniseed drinks such as Pernod or Ricard and a favourite throughout Languedoc - is served diluted with water and ice ( glaçons ). It's very refreshing and not expensive. Among less familiar names, try Poire William (pear brandy), or Marc (a spirit distilled from grape pulp). Measures are generous, but they don't come cheap: the same applies for imported spirits like whisky ( Scotch ). Two drinks designed to stimulate the appetite - un apéritif - are Pineau (cognac and grape juice) and Kir (white wine with a dash of Cassis - blackcurrant liquor, or with champagne instead of wine for a Kir Royal). Cocktails are served at most late-night bars, discos and music places, as well as at upmarket hotel bars and at every seaside promenade café; they usually cost at least 45F/¬6.86.

On the soft drink front, you can buy cartons of unsweetened fruit juice in supermarkets, although in the cafés the bottled (sweetened) nectars such as apricot ( jus d'abricot ) and blackcurrant ( cassis ) still hold sway. You can also get fresh orange or lemon juice ( orange/citron pressé ), at a price. A citron pressé is a refreshing choice for the extremely thirsty on a hot day - the lemon juice is served in the bottom of a long ice-filled glass, with a jug of water and a sugar bowl to sweeten it to your taste. Other drinks to try are syrups ( sirops ) of mint, grenadine or other flavours mixed with water. The standard fizzy drinks of lemonade ( limonade ), Coke ( coca ) and so forth are all available. Bottles of mineral water ( eau minérale ) and spring water ( eau de source ) - either sparkling (gazeuse) or still (eau plate) - abound, from the big brand names to the most obscure spa product. But there's not much wrong with the tap water ( l'eau de robinet ) which will always be brought free to your table if you ask for it.

Coffee is invariably espresso - small, black and very strong. Un café or un express is the regular; un crème is with milk; un grand café or un grand crème are large cups. In the morning you could also ask for un café au lait - espresso in a large cup or bowl filled up with hot milk. Un déca is decaffeinated, now widely available. Ordinary tea ( thé ) is Lipton's nine times out of ten and is normally served black, and you can usually have a slice of lemon ( limon ) with it if you want; to have milk with it, ask for un peu de lait frais (some fresh milk). Chocolat chaud - hot chocolate - unlike tea, lives up to the high standards of French food and drink and can be had in any café. After eating, herb teas ( infusions or tisanes ), served in every salon de thé , can be soothing. The more common ones are verveine (verbena), tilleul (lime blossom), menthe (mint) and camomille (camomile).