“Look: Charolais beef, fourme d’Ambert cheese on the top. “You know they use all-French ingredients?” she said, pointing at her tray.
Natalie Girardot, a sales assistant at a nearby jeweller’s store, was equally dismissive. Why should the French be any different from the rest of the world?”
They’re cheap, they’re fast, they use pretty OK ingredients. “I can’t believe you’re asking this,” said Stephane Loiseau, a 29-year-old account manager tapping his order – “ un CBO” (chicken, bacon, onion) with fries – into the touchscreen. So why, last week, did a new report suggest that 30 million people – nearly half the country’s population – could be obese by 2030? And how come, on a sunny lunchtime in early autumn, there is a queue outside McDonald’s – one of 1,440 in France, the chain’s second-biggest global market – on the Boulevard des Italiens in central Paris?
For years, France’s eating habits – and not just in restaurants – have been a model: portion control lots of basics (eggs, butter, bread, potatoes) little processed or fast foods plenty of fish, fruit, vegetable oils and (of course) full-fat dairy structured, convivial, family-centred meals.
