Things to do in the Languedoc: Eating: French Table Etiquette
Just for fun, here are a few tips about etiquette. You will be regarded as
an unutterable barbarian (ie typical "Anglo Saxon")
if you do any of the following during meals:
- Insist on turning your fork over so that it sits
on the table tines up.
- Use the outdated "garçon" rather than "s'il
vous plait" when calling a waiter
- Ask for a "menu" when you mean "carte"
- Turn your nose up at rosé wine (because you
have only ever come across cheap rubbish at home)
- Turn your nose up at sweet white wine (because in
your experience it is drunk only by vulgarians)
- Demand butter for your bread or complain because
the butter is tastless, ie unsalted.
- Fill wine glasses to the brim, or indeed any more
than half way up the bowl.
- Fail to wish your fellow diners "bon appetit" before
starting to eat.
- Cut the fat off your charcuterie and leave it at
the side of your plate.
- Expect your pudding (US desert) before the cheese
course.
- Fail to take your fair share of the rind when you
help yourself to cheese.
- Demand bread (and butter) to go with your cheese.
- Ask for a café, and then complain when you
get a small cup of strong black coffee rather than
a café au lait.
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In many restaurants in the Languedoc-Roussillon (but not
those with fancy pretensions) you will be expected to keep
your knife and fork from one course to the next. In private
houses (but not those with pretensions) you may be expected
to keep your plates from one course to the next as well. It is perfectly acceptable to produce your own pocket knife at tables in homes
and restaurants (but not those with pretensions) - a vestige
of what was normal practice in the Middle Ages throughout
Europe .
Click on the following link for recommended
books on Languedoc food, eating and regional specialities
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 Back to: Regional Food Specialities.
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