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setting, the larger one (or ones) will be for red wine (and water), the smaller one for white wine. In general it’s better to wait for the host to pour the wine rather than helping yourself, but this depends on your relationship and the tone of the evening. Tasting the wine in restaurants and pouring it at home have traditionally been male tasks, but these days many women will happily serve and more enlightened sommeliers (wine waiters) will ask which one of a mixed couple would like to try the wine.

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STAPLES & SPECIALITIES

Every nation or culture has its own staples dictated by climate, geography and tradition. French cuisine has long stood apart for its great use of a variety of foods – beef, lamb, pork, poultry, fish and shellfish, cereals, vegetables and legumes – but its three most important staples are bread, cheese and charcuterie (cured, smoked or processed meat – usually pork – products). And as for regional specialities, well, tout est possible (the sky’s the limit).

Staples

The complete list of French staples might include everything from cereals, grains and pulses to jams and honeys but we’ll restrict ourselves to the ‘holy trinity’ of the French kitchen.

BREAD

Nothing is more French than pain (bread). More than 80% of all French people eat it at every meal, and it comes in infinite varieties, some 80 at last count.

All bakeries have baguettes (and the somewhat similar flÛtes), which are long, thin and crusty loaves weighing 250g, and wider loaves of what are simply called pains. A pain, which weighs 400g, is softer on the inside and has a less crispy crust than a baguette. Both types are at their best if eaten within four hours of baking; if you’re not very hungry, ask for a half a loaf: a demi baguette or a demi pain. A ficelle is a thinner, crustier 200g version of a baguette – not unlike a very thick breadstick, really.

Bread has experienced a renaissance here in recent years, and most bakeries also carry heavier, more expensive breads made with all sorts of grains and cereals; you will also find loaves studded with nuts, raisins or herbs. These heavier breads keep much longer than baguettes and standard white-flour breads.

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top picks

BAKERIES

Au Levain du Marais (Map; 01 42 78 07 31; 32 rue de Turenne, 3e; 6.30am-1pm & 3.30-7.30pm Tue-Sat; Chemin Vert)

Arnaud Delmontel (Map; 01 48 78 29 33; www.arnaud-delmontel.com, in French; 39 rue des Martyrs, 9e; 7am-8.30pm Mon & Wed-Sat, to 2.30pm Sun; St-Georges)

Boulangerie Eric Kayser (Map; 01 44 07 01 42; www.maison-kayser.com, in French; 8 rue Monge, 5e; 7am-8.30pm Wed-Mon; Maubert Mutualité)

Boulangerie-Pâtisserie Stéphane Secco (Map; 01 43 17 35 20; 20 rue Jean Nicot, 7e; 8.30am-8.30pm Tue-Sat; La Tour Maubourg)

La Fournée d’Augustine (Map; 01 45 43 42 45; 96 rue Raymond-Losserand, 14e; 7.30am-8pm Mon-Sat; Pernety)

Poilâne (www.poilane.fr) 6e branch (Map; 01 45 48 42 59; 8 rue du Cherche Midi, 6e; 7.15am-8.15pm Mon-Sat; Sèvres Babylone); 15e branch (Map; 01 45 79 11 49; 49 blvd de Grenelle; Dupleix)

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Bread is baked at various times during the day, so it’s available fresh as early as 6am and also in the afternoon. Most bakeries close for one day a week but you’ll always find one open in the neighbourhood – even on Sunday morning

CHEESE

Charles de Gaulle, expostulating on the inability of anyone to unite the French on a single issue after WWII, famously grumbled: ‘You cannot easily unite a country that has 265 kinds of cheese.’ The general’s comments are well out of date; today France counts upwards of 500 varieties of fromage (cheese) made of cow’s, goat’s or ewe’s milk. Bear in mind, though, that there are just five basic types (boxed text), which can be raw, pasteurised or petit-lait (‘little milk’; the whey left over after the milk fats and solids have been curdled with rennet, an enzyme derived from the stomach of a calf or young goat).

When cutting cheese at the table, remember that a small circular cheese such as a Camembert is cut in wedges like a pie. If a larger cheese