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Travel bucket list ideas:

Last updated: 24 July, 2023

From frogs’ legs to escargots, croissants to camembert, we asked France specialist Dana Facaros to select the best French foods and flavours you must try while you’re in France.

Table of Contents
Beef Bourguignon in a pan. Stew with red wine ,carrots, onions, garlic, a bouquet garni, and garnished with pearl onions, mushrooms and bacon. French cuisine- regional recipe from Burgundy
Experience

Boeuf Bourguignon

France

Burgundy invented France’s favourite stew made with beef simmered in Burgundy wine, pearl onions, mushrooms and lardons. Julius Caesar’s chef (or so they say!) invented coq au vin, a similar dish made with chicken.

Best for ages: 18+ | Free

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Bouillabaisse soup with shrimps, mussels and fish in a white plate on a wooden table
Experience

Bouillabaisse

France

The celebrated fish soup from Marseille is made from scorpionfish, gurnard, conger eel, John Dory and shellfish (among others) along with saffron, leeks, onions, fennel, garlic and tomatoes. Traditionally the soup is served first, with garlic toast and rouille (a spicy garlicky sauce), with a platter of seafood to follow.

Best for ages: 18+ | Free

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Camembert cheese slices
Experience

Camembert

France

Softy white rounds of Camembert, wrapped in paper and sold in poplar wooden boxes are made from raw cow’s milk in Normandy; they are slightly stronger than their close cousin, Brie. Gooey-baked Camembert is a popular starter.

Best for ages: 18+ | Free

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French specialty: cassoulet, a meal with white beans, duck leg, sausage and bacon.
Experience

Cassoulet

France

This iconic country dish from Languedoc is a rich melt-in-your-mouth casserole of white beans (ideally the big white ones, from Tarbes) with baked with garlic, pork, Toulouse sausage, duck or goose confits and pork rinds, served bubbling hot.

Best for ages: 18+ | Free

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French choucroute garnie of sour cabbage with smoked bacon, pork loin, sausages potato and thyme stewed in white wine with onion, garlic served on a black baking dish on wooden background, top view
Experience

Choucroute Garnie

France

Alsace’s entry in the list of national favourites, often featured in urban brasseries: sauerkraut and potatoes with plenty of sausages and charcuterie. A seafood version – choucroute de la mer – is popular too.

Best for ages: 18+ | Free

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Baked scallops in shells with spicy breadcrumbs
Experience

Coquilles Saint-Jacques

France

Scallops are always a favourite in France. In the most popular recipe they are cooked with onions, butter and white wine, then put back in their shells and baked in the oven with cheese and bread crumbs on top.

Best for ages: 18+ | Free

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Fresh baked french crepes or Russians blinis on beautiful plate.
Experience

Crepes

France

These ultra-thin pancakes from Brittany are a symbol of the delicacy and lightness that France does so well. Wrap them around something sweet: sugar and lemon, jam, strawberries, or Nutella. Savoury ones made from buckwheat flour are called galettes.

Best for ages: 18+ | Free

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Freshly backed french croissant shiny in the rays of the morning sun.
Experience

Croissant

France

The perfect way to start a French day, golden flaky and buttery, croissants actually originated in Vienna (which is why the French count them as viennoiseries). Many bakeries bake frozen ones, but try to find one made from scratch: you can taste the difference.

Best for ages: 18+ | Free

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Close-up of eating the fried grape snails with garlic butter
Experience

Escargots

France

The French have eaten snails since prehistoric time, but the classic Burgundian recipe, stuffed with butter, garlic and parsley was invented in 1814 by the famous chef Marie-Antoine Careme to serve to the visiting Tzar Alexander I. You can even try snail eggs, caviar d’escargot.

Best for ages: 18+ | Free

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foie gras sprinkle with pepper
Experience

Foie Gras

France

The richest, beloved and most controversial of French delicacies is the liver of the fatted duck or goose; half of the annual consumption takes place at Christmas and New Year. It’s traditionally served with a fig compote and sweet white wine, ideally Sauternes.

Best for ages: 18+ | Free

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Baked frog legs on black platter
Experience

Frogs’ Legs

France

Yes, the French really do eat frogs’ legs, especially in the east, where they were an important food during Lent in the Middle Ages. Often compared to chicken wings, they are usually lightly battered and fried.

Best for ages: 18+ | Free

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Close-up of macarons cakes of different colors in blue background.
Experience

Macaron

France

Introduced to Paris by Catherine de Medici’s Italian chefs, these pretty meringue mouthfuls are made of powdered almonds, confectioner’s sugar and egg whites and come in every colour and flavour imaginable – including foie gras.

Best for ages: 18+ | Free

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Mussels cooked with white wine sauce in a bowl with herbs
Experience

Moules Marinieres

France

Sometimes the simplest recipe is the best. This one is from Normandy: mussels in white wine, with a little cream and butter, thyme, onion, garlic and parsley. And fresh, crusty baguettes to sop up the juice.

Best for ages: 18+ | Free

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black pot filled with meat and vegetables
Experience

Pot au Feu

France

A mix of inexpensive beef cuts and oxtail, simmered for hours, with a bouquet garni, carrots, potatoes, turnips and leeks or onions. You can serve the soup separately or everything at once, with mustard on the side.

Best for ages: 18+ | Free

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Delicious traditional Swiss melted raclette cheese on diced boiled or baked potato served in individual skillets with salami.
Experience

Raclette

France

A Savoy treat now popular everywhere in France, done at table with a special electric grill. Melt your raclette cheese on your little paddle, scoop it over boiled potatoes with slices of ham and charcuterie and pickles on the side.

Best for ages: 18+ | Free

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Ratatouille made of zucchini, eggplants, peppers, onions, garlic and tomatoes slices with aromatic herbs. Rustic wooden table.
Experience

Ratatouille

France

This vegan classic from the south of combines tomatoes, aubergines, courgettes, bell peppers, garlic and herbs sauteed in olive oil; properly, each ingredient should be cooked on its own first to preserve its flavour.

Best for ages: 18+ | Free

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Piece of French blue cheese Roquefort, made from sheep milk in caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzonwith grapes on grey stone
Experience

Roquefort

France

Crumbly, tangy and salty, the world’s most famous blue cheese comes from the Massif Central, invented when a young shepherd left his ewe’s milk cheese sandwich in a cave to chase a pretty girl. To be called Roquefort it must be made from the milk of Lacaune sheep and aged in the caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon.

Best for ages: 18+ | Free

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Nicoise salad with tuna, tomatoes, olives, green beans, cucumber, soft boiled eggs and potato in a wooden bowl. wooden background. top view.
Experience

Salade Nicoise

France

Nice contributed the classic salad of the Cote d’Azur. Tomatoes, tinned tuna (or anchovies), spring onions and black olives are essential, with hard-boiled eggs, basil, green beans and baby potatoes frequently added, all dressed in olive oil, lemon, garlic and Dijon mustard.

Best for ages: 18+ | Free

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tarte tatin on board. sliced caramelised apples in top of sponge
Experience

Tarte Tatin

France

In the 1880s the Tatin sisters, who ran a hotel outside Paris, were making a tart but forgot the apples simmering in sugar and butter on the stove. The apples caramelised, a sister slapped some pastry on top, baked it, then served it upside-down – accidentally creating one of France’s best-loved desserts.

Best for ages: 18+ | Free

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a bowl of soup with friend onion on top
Experience

Tourin

France

Everyone knows Parisian onion soup; but do try its southwestern counterpart – garlic soup. That’s at least two heads of garlic, sautéed in duck fat then boiled forever in good chicken stock, with onion, tomato, egg and vinegar and serve over slices of stale bread with grated cheese.

Best for ages: 18+ | Free

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Black truffles on the old wooden table.
Experience

Truffles

France

The aromatic luxury fungus comes from Provence, Perigord and Quercy. Expensive, but a little goes a long way. The French like truffles grated into omelettes, with foie gras, in meat sauces, in risottos, Brie and even in desserts.

Best for ages: 18+ | Free

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