From eating at the ‘bouillons’ and ‘bouchons’ to the reasons readers love life in France and the secret lives of French billionaires, this week’s La Belle Vie newsletter offers you an essential starting point for eating, talking, drinking and living like a local.
La Belle Vie is our regular look at the real culture of France – from language to cuisine, manners to films. This newsletter is published weekly and you can receive it directly to your inbox, by going to your newsletter preferences in “My account”.
When recommending French restaurants, I usually advise that people avoid eating in the main tourist areas, like around the Eiffel Tower.
I recently stumbled upon this video by French daily Le Parisien (here). Over the summer, their journalists went out into touristy areas, pretending to be Americans. They found that the ‘Americans’ consistently had a higher bill than the French control group, oftentimes because restaurants offered the ‘Americans’ unnecessary extras or failed to explain aspects of the bill, such as the fact that service is already included.
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I would be fascinated to see if this works with other nationalities too, or whether it is specific to Americans. Still, I felt vindicated in my warning to family and friends to walk at least 20 minutes away from the Eiffel Tower or Sacré Coeur before sitting down to eat.
However, I might eat my words when it comes to one new restaurant close to Paris’s Iron Lady: the Bouillon Champ-de-Mars.
The Paris dining trend that’s delicious, traditional and cheap
I am a huge fan of bouillon-style restaurants. Paris has several, and they are an affordable, convenient way to test out classic French food. Bouillons were originally more of a cafeteria for workers, and they still cling to the no-nonsense, no frills attitude.
In Lyon, there is a different style of restaurant starting with a ‘B’.
I find Lyon’s bouchons to be more intimate than Paris’s bouillons. Both offer an authentic experience of French cuisine, and both find their origins in a desire to offer hearty, affordable dishes to the working class.
Interestingly, many French delicacies of today started off as meals for the poor. Think of fondue and how it offers a way to keep eating up stale, old bread (okay, yes, maybe fondue is Swiss, there’s some debate).
The best French regions for experiencing top-notch gastronomy
It might be embarrassing to admit, but one of the first French films I watched without subtitles was Vanessa Paradis’ L’Arnacoeur. The film basically tells the story of this guy, Alex, who runs a ‘heartbreak’ business (he gets hired to break couples up).
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When Alex is hired to break up one couple, he goes searching for bad behaviour on behalf of the man, hoping to exploit it. He struggles to find any impropriety, but at one point, we see the man ask for a doggy bag.
As I watched with my French partner, I couldn’t help but laugh. The implication is apparently that getting a doggy bag is stingy? These days, I would argue that this connotation has changed in our post-Covid, takeout-friendly world.
Are ‘doggy bags’ taboo at French restaurants?
It’s always interesting to learn about the different cultural standards for demonstrating wealth. I can see how, at one point, asking for a doggy bag might have looked like penny-pinching to upper-class French sensibilities.
I’ve found that generally the French approach to wealth tends to be more understated. If you walk around the 7th arrondissement in Paris, you might see plenty of Haussmannian buildings that look the same, not realising what is hidden behind those doors.
And despite France’s reputation as a high-tax country, it still has dozens of billionaires. I learned all about their lives earlier this week, and I must say that plenty of these families have a distinctly, er, colourful history.
How many billionaires does France have and who are they?
For many foreigners seeking to move to France, particularly from North America, there is usually some mental negotiation over the idea of taking a lower salary.
France’s Observatoire des inégalités’ most recent data, from the summer of 2025, shows that as a single middle-class person earns between €1,608 and €2,941 per month, with the median being €2,028 (after tax). To be considered rich, you must earn twice the median salary, or €4,056, as a single person.
Aside from salaries, there is usually some concern about taxation. There are also rumours about foreigners paying more in tax than their French counterparts, but this is not exactly accurate.
Do foreigners pay more tax in France?
In my opinion, despite salaries being lower and taxes being higher, the quality of life makes up for the difference, with great healthcare, quality food, and work-life balance.
It seems many readers of The Local agreed, with over 100 people responding to our survey in 2022 about ‘quality of life’ in France.
Readers reveal: What makes the quality of life in France so high
Dining and Cooking