Column: Breakfast in France, or lack thereof

In France, you simply cannot get full at breakfast.

The typical French breakfast is miniscule and it almost always leaves you hungry. The French really don’t take breakfast seriously as a meal.

But one trend is solving this problem — the American breakfast, or rather, brunch. Sunday morning brunch is becoming the newest food trend in Paris.

There are two good places to solve the brunch craving. Even better, they are open Sunday — one of the notorious days when all of Paris is closed.

Bailey Carraway, a sophomore from Wolford College studying abroad at the Institute of the International Education of Students, is a fan of Breakfast in America.

“It was really tasty,” she said. “It was comforting because they had American coffee.”

One of the key places to go to for Americans feeling homesick, Breakfast in America serves typical breakfast foods like pancakes and eggs. However, there were certain things Carraway said the restaurant missed.

“They don’t have hash browns,” she said. “They don’t have grits or oatmeal.”

My personal favorite is Le Loir dans la Théière, or the mouse in the teapot in English. It features basic brunch staples with a European influence.

Le Loir dans la Théière, a small poster-covered restaurant on the right bank in the Jewish district, had a line stretching out the door to the third storefront down the street.

When I was silent, I could hear more than one language being spoken.

There were many options — juice, tea, yogurt, applesauce, bread,

croissants and soft-boiled eggs in their shell. All were served with typical French salted butter and jellies.

It was the first time I ate a breakfast so filling in France.

The best part is these two restaurants are literally down the street from each other. Their lines could probably intersect on a good day.

Like I have said before, despite the stereotype that the French don’t like Americans, the U.S. is trendy here. Brunch is the newest installment.

“People like the novelty of brunch, because it’s American,” Carraway said. “They like the novelty of a big breakfast.”

audperki@indiana.edu
@AudreyNLP