Like a Local - Paris - page 80

Pétanque players in place Dauphine
MATT MUNRO / LONELY PLANET ©
Dining Like a Local
Parisians are obsessed with talking about, shopping for, preparing and above all eating food.
Quality trumps quantity, which is reflected by small, specialist gourmet food shops that not
only survive but thrive.
Sunday lunch is traditionally France's main meal of the week, but Sunday (and often
Saturday) brunch has become a fixture on the weekend's social calendar from around noon
to about 4pm. Prebooking is recommended for popular venues.
For local dining tips, see How to Eat & Drink Like a Parisian .
Drinking Like a Local
Paris' high concentration of city dwellers is why most bars and cafes close around 2am, due
to noise restrictions, and why nightclubs in the inner city are few.
In Paris, meals are almost always washed down with wine but again it's quality not quant-
ity that counts. For Parisians, alcohol is invariably something to be savoured rather than a
means of intoxication. Parisians tend to go to bars with groups of friends, so you may find
there's less mingling than in British-style pubs.
Conversing Like a Local
Food aside, conversations between locals often revolve around philosophy, art and sports
such as rugby, football (soccer), cycling and tennis. Talking about money (salaries or spend-
ing outlays, for example) is generally taboo in public. For a witty - and very accurate - in-
sight into Parisian interaction, get hold of a copy of Olivier Magny's book Stuff Parisians
Like .
Debating Like a Local
Grappling with concepts such as existentialism is required for Parisians to pass the bacca-
lauréat (school certificate) - hence the popularity of philocafés (philosophy cafes), where
wide-ranging, brain-teasing discussions like 'what is a fact?' take place. The original is the
Café des Phares ( www.cafe-philo-des-phares.info ) on place de la Bastille. Most philocafé
sessions are in French, but there's a popular English-language version at Café de Flore in St-