Three new restaurants have opened in our village in the past year. Two are open all year round, the third only in the warmer months. We make a point of supporting them and are glad to see that they are popular in their diverse ways.
We usually go at lunchtime. This sparked off a train of thought about the two-hour lunch break, which was still current when we moved here in 1997. Is it still going strong, or is this one of the clichés about French life that is no longer a reality?
Two-hour trap
In 1997, all shops closed at lunchtime, including large supermarkets. Services like France Telecom operated strictly to working hours that meant you had to do business before midday or after 2 pm.
It took us a while to get used to this. For our summer visitors, coming from 24/7 cultures, it was even more perplexing. They would linger in bed until 10.00 or later and then suggest that we go sightseeing and shopping in Montauban or Cahors (a 50- and 60-minute drive respectively).
Once we were accustomed to it, we timed our shopping expeditions accordingly. Then things began to change. France Telecom stayed open all day, as did larger supermarkets and some other shops. Tourist attractions remained open en continu during the summer months.
Smaller shops remained closed over lunchtime and often still do. Many are owner-run, and they need time to have lunch and do their own errands. They open until 6.30 pm or so to make up for it. Many smaller mairies and administrative offices still close at lunchtime, although not always for as long as two hours.
So nowadays, it’s a mixture, and it still comes as a surprise to Brits that lunchtime opening is not the general rule. If you want to make a hospital appointment, for example, there’s no point bothering at lunchtime. However, there’s no doubt that changes in working practices and lunchtime eating habits have partially eroded the two-hour lunch break over 30 years.
From fast food to fast-food
If you read Simenon’s Maigret novels, set mostly in Paris in the 1950s, you might think that the celebrated copper spends most of his time in the fictitious Brasserie Dauphine or other Paris eateries. Or he goes home for lunch, where Mme Maigret has prepared a three-course meal. Food and drink do play an important part in the stories, but Maigret frequently has to skip lunch and order up sandwiches.
At that time, fast-food outlets were virtually unknown. You could opt to eat just le plat du jour if you were in a hurry. This is a daily special, separate from the dishes permanently on the menu.
Accustomed to the lunchtime rush, brasseries offered a limited menu of popular dishes that they could prepare in advance and/or serve quickly: blanquette de veau, coq au vin, steak-frites, brandade de morue (purée of salt cod and potato), petit salé aux lentilles (salt pork with lentils), fricandeau à l’oseille (a kind of meatloaf of pork or veal with sorrel), andouillette (offal sausage) or tripes.
Except for the ubiquitous steak-frites and perhaps la brandade de morue and occasionally blanquette de veau, you seldom see these dishes on lunchtime menus nowadays. I expect readers will now tell me they see them all the time. This is simply my experience here.
Fast-food joints appeared in the 1970s, but they took a while to make inroads into French eating habits. One global hamburger chain (which shall remain nameless) expanded more successfully in the 1990s and 2000s and now has more than 1500 outlets across France.
La malbouffe
The rapid expansion of these chains gave rise to a movement contre la malbouffe, against junk food and global standardisation and in favour of locally produced food. The term malbouffe emerged in the 1970s to refer to food that was high in refined ingredients, sugar and fat. As a protest against la malbouffe, a group of farmers famously demolished a chain restaurant in Millau in 1999, which became a cause célèbre.
Despite the opposition, the relentless march of the fast-food outlets continued. Now, the approach roads to many French towns, and even the high streets, are bristling with garish signs advertising them.
This seems paradoxical when you consider that UNESCO awarded French cuisine World Heritage status in 2010. However, the pace of modern life has favoured their growth. Few working people linger over a long lunch nowadays (and many never did). Fast-food outlets offer a rapid in-house and/or takeaway service, so people can get back to work fast.
From what I’ve written, you can probably guess in which direction I lean. Not all fast food can be labelled malbouffe, of course. And these eateries offer a cheaper alternative to people on a limited budget and additional choice and variety. They often spring up in out-of-town locations, so customers can park easily or remain on-site if they work there, although this is another facet of town centre decline.
For anyone who has ever lingered over a long and delicious lunch in France, gilded with summer sunshine and fuzzy with rosé, it’s a nice memory, but it’s a misleading cliché that French people do that all the time.
What’s your experience of the French lunch break?
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Hi Vanessa.
Interesting to get your perspective over all the years that you have lived in France. Things have certainly changed.
MaryJane
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It has changed a fair bit, partly depending on where you are. Even so, it still takes some tourists by surprise that anything closes at lunchtime. And most shops can’t open on a Sunday without a special dispensation, which I think is healthy.
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When we worked in France 2003/2010 the 2 hour mid day break was alive & well.I imagine it still is in the small medieval village of Kirwiller, Alsace. Like one of your commenters we at first found this hard to adjust to but did. Italy was the same, also Argentina.One city in Argentine,San Juan ( a wine region) is famous for its 3-4 hour break.The city shuts down completely till after 4 in the afternoon. It has a hot dry climate in summer & it makes perfect sense. They also chilled their red wine which I loved. Here in Oz we are well behind in this civilized behaviour…..
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It may have started to change even in the village where you were. It does depend on where you are, though. As I said to another commenter, the pace is still more relaxed in country areas.
Where there’s a hot climate, it makes sense to close at the hottest time of day and stay open into the evening. Most of France isn’t usually all that hot! But it takes a long time for traditions to break down.
I’m not a great fan of chilled red wine. Here, it’s often a sign of inferior wine, chilled to conceal it. However, I did once enjoy a kir made with chilled red wine in a Burgundian restaurant in Paris.
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Yes I agree that all things change in time & the rural pace is much slower thank goodness. we do not all have to live at a reckless speed.
Perhaps in France chilled wine is a sign of an inferior wine but not so in Argentina which produces the magnificent Malbec red wine. I have never tasted an inferior Malbec. & in a hot climate it is no different to drinking a nice chilled white or rose’.
xx
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We shall have to try Malbec chilled in that case. The Cahors vineyards are about an hour away, and their wine is largely Malbec. It’s readily available locally, whereas Argentinian Malbec, as you can probably imagine, isn’t. I shall report back.
We have had to put bottles of red in the fridge when it has been very hot, but that was to bring it down from bathwater temperature to normal room temperature!
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We love the 2 hour lunch break but then we are retired! It’s definitely disappearing slowly but surely from French working life.
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Yes, it’s fine if you don’t have to go back to work afterwards! It has definitely changed since we moved here. It’s also a question of where you live. Things are still more relaxed in rural areas.
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Understandable
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When we first began travelling to France back in 2006, lots of places were still closing over the lunch break. We often forgot we needed to buy a baguette before the boulangerie closed, or were hurried out of a supermarket at 12.30. On our trip last year, we still had some supermarkets which closed. Over the years we often arrived somewhere around 12 only to find the Tourist office closed, which was a nuisance, as on one occasion, that was where you bought tickets to walk around the ramparts. But this is one of the quirks that we enjoy about trips to France. We soon adjust.
Over the years, we have become fans of the menu du jour and enjoy them immensely. As we spend all our time in rural France, we call them the ‘white van’ places. But it is rarely two hours. I do not know how people can go back to work though, as we always feel as though we need a sleep!! These are my thoughts on a menu du jour we had last trip.
https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/ShowTopic-g187070-i12-k14395845-Le_menu_du_jour_s_il_vous_plait-France.html
Bon appetit
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It’s annoying when tourist offices and local attractions close over lunchtime, but that is beginning to change. Many places realise that they are losing out by not opening to tourists who are not accustomed to the French hours. It’s also a question of staffing and location.
The menu du jour is good value, and that’s what we usually have. Like you, I wonder how they work afterwards, but I guess they are used to it!
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P.S. Thanks for the link, which I will check out.
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Malbouffe, a wonderfully descriptive word. Like you, we have watched the rise of le fastfood and lunchtime opening in the years we have lived here. I read a little while ago that France eats more pizza than any other country after Italy. From the umpteen pizza places around here I can believe it!
As for lunch, most of our local restaurant/cafes still serve a three course menu du jour that are very popular with workers from plumbers to office personnel. I belong to a Franglais group of ladies what lunch and we always go somewhere that serves an ‘ouvrier’ choice. One of our favourites does the whole five courses; soup, entree, plat, fromage and dessert with wine included. Coffee is extra! We take time over ours but the workers are served quickly. How they are able to crack on the afternoon after all that amazes me. I believe several firms have subsidy agreements with local restaurants.
Our visitors love going out for an ouvrier and there seems to be no sign that they are going out of favour. Some places closed down during COVID but there are still a good range within half an hour’s drive. The dreaded M opened in our nearby bastide town to our horror. It doesn’t seem to have affected business locally, the foodtrucks are still plying their burger and fries trade on the town carpark. I have to admit we took ‘petit fils’ for a happy meal. A UK child and picky eater! 😊
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I didn’t know about the pizza consumption, but I can believe it. The nearest McD to us is about 25 km away, and doesn’t seem to have damaged the other restaurants, but I guess they cater for different clienteles.
Most of our local restaurants also offer a three-course meal at lunchtime, which is reasonably good value. You often see ouvriers having lunch, which as you say is served to them quickly. One thing that has changed is that fewer people drink wine with their lunch. The ouvriers might have a beer, but frequently they stick to water. Having said that, last week we sat at the next table to a man who downed half a litre of red on his own, while his female companion had only soft drinks!
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Oh, in all my 12+ yrs in France I never once experienced a 2h lunch, except maybe on Sundays, being with friends, and simply trying to eat something from all their choices, often sharing amongst us (under the very disapproving eye of the waiter), but what I observed, were the growing numbers of pique-nique on the grass, along canals, and seldom less than ‘high brow’ with real glasses etc. I did that already umpteen years earlier when I travelled in a rental car, bought cheap glasses, a cork screw and local delicatessen in a shop, took it all on a rock at the sea or on a towel in the grass – wonderful occasions in dreamy landscapes and a heart full of thankfulness. I can say that in all my life, I’ve only ONE thing I eat from that Mc chain, and that’s their fries which are second to none.
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Hello, Kiki. I do agree. I’ve rarely encountered a two-hour lunch in France, except perhaps on a social occasion. But it’s an idée fixe among many Brits that all French people sit down to a two-hour lunch every day, because some shops and other businesses close for two hours at lunchtime. When we arrived 27 years ago, everything closed, but that’s changed. The French are very good at organising impromptu but elegant picnics, like le Dîner en blanc in Paris every year. .
I also agree about the McD fries, although it pains me to say it!
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I know…. but the truth is the truth! 😉
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We’ll keep it as our secret! 🤫
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Another interesting post, Vanessa…thank you for brightening up a winter’s day in grey England. I certainly share your preference for a leisurely lunch à la française.
In my former life as a French teacher I would often dip into French Express (Channel 4) videos to bring a little more genuine French culture into the classroom. One of my favourites was on the topic of fast/slow food. It included shots of an anti-fast food “manif” on the Champs Elysées where the protesters stopped all the traffic, sat in the middle of the road and enjoyed a leisurely “slow food” picnic. In the same programme, some “urban terrorists” kidnapped two Ronald MacDonald clown statues, held them hostage, then chained them to the entrance of La Tour d’Argent where they welcomed diners with their fixed smile and outstretched arms…but probably not for long!
(Apologies if this is a duplicate comment…I wasn’t sure if my first effort sent successfully!)
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The French are good at creative manifs. I love the idea of McD meets La Tour d’Argent!
Speaking of manifs, you were lucky to leave when you did this time, since the farmers’ protest is spreading by the day, blocking autoroutes etc. and becoming more entrenched. Food imported from elsewhere and sold more cheaply than they are allowed to charge is just one of their grievances.
No problem with the comment, which registered first time.
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