#4 You Hate the Food
This one might sound almost illegal to say, but yes: you can come to Paris and be disappointed by the food.
French food has such an incredible reputation that if you’re even slightly interested in food, you probably arrive expecting marvelous things.
Finally, you’re going to eat real escargots, confit de canard, boeuf bourguignon, cassoulet, and all those famous French dishes you’ve heard about.
And then you try them and think…
Huh. That was it?
Part of the problem is that the French food tourists expect to eat isn’t necessarily what you’ll find in every French restaurant.
Take escargots. You’re much more likely to find them in restaurants catering specifically to visitors, especially around touristy areas such as Saint Michel.
And this is where things can get weird.
You’ll find restaurants offering escargots from Burgundy, cassoulet from southwest France, onion soup, crêpes, duck confit, and practically every other famous French dish on the same enormous menu.
My French husband cannot get over places like this.
To him, it makes no sense. If you want Burgundy cuisine, you go somewhere specializing in food from Burgundy. If you want cassoulet, you go somewhere serving food from southwest France.
A restaurant trying to fulfill every French food fantasy a tourist might have is usually doing exactly that: catering to tourists.
And then there’s the easiest mistake of all.
You’re hungry. You’ve just visited the Eiffel Tower. There’s a restaurant right there with photos outside and a huge menu translated into five languages.
Problem solved.
Well… maybe.
There is plenty of mediocre food in Paris, especially around the biggest tourist attractions. Being in Paris does not magically make every restaurant good.
Restaurant service can also catch visitors off guard.
Meals often move at a different pace, and servers generally won’t check on you every few minutes. If you’re expecting the style of customer service you’re used to at home, you might interpret the experience as bad service when it’s simply different.
