All About French Brunch: What You Need to Know About the Paris Brunch Scene

Brunch, a delicious late-morning meal often enjoyed on the weekends and associated with American culture, has made its way across the Atlantic to France. All over Paris, you’ll find phrases like formule brunch (set brunch menu), brunch pas cher (affordable brunch), and brunch à volonté (all-you-can-eat brunch) adorning restaurant windows and sandwich boards. Jalen and I dove head-first into the Parisian brunch scene, and, after trying out a handful of different French brunches, we’ve become proficient in brunching à la française. To find out what makes French brunch special and the brunch spots in Paris you just can’t skip, keep reading!

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Traditionally, the French don’t eat a big, savory breakfast. On a French person’s breakfast plate, you’re more likely to find a simple slice of baguette with butter and jam or nutella (known as a tartine) than eggs, bacon, and hash-browns. The concept of eating sweet breakfast foods for lunch or dinner isn’t common in France, either – we’re pretty sure our French friends would shudder at the idea of eating pastries and drinking fruit juice during the pause de midi (lunch break)! However, the allure of an appetizing brunch is just enough to make the French bend their strict rules around the kinds of foods they’re eating and when they’re eating them.

Jalen and I have discovered that Parisian restaurants offer three main types of brunches: buffet-style brunch, small plates to share, or a set brunch menu. No matter the format, one thing is for sure: The French take the definition of brunch literally. While Americans tend to think of brunch as an opportunity to order pancakes or a hamburger, French brunch menus are usually designed to ensure you get both sweet and savory on your plate – a true breakfast-lunch combination meal. Set brunch menus, our personal favorite kind of brunch, commonly allow customers to select a savory plate, a sweet plate, a hot drink (typically coffee or tea), and a cold drink (typically fruit juice or a cocktail). Cute, right?

Though you’ll almost always find at least one stereotypically-American breakfast item on the menu, like eggs, bacon, or pancakes, brunch options vary by establishment. You can find menus with pastries, sandwiches, cookies, granola bowls, salads, and even international dishes like Mexican huevos rancheros or Swedish gravlax. While we haven’t found a spot offering all of the classics we associate with brunch (still on the hunt for bagels with schmear and biscuits and gravy), we’re pretty confident that there’s something for everyone on the Parisian brunch market.

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Here’s a list of some of our favorite dishes we’ve ever eaten for brunch in Paris:

• Pancakes bacon œuf poché (Pancakes with bacon and a poached egg) from Kozy
• Avocat halloumi benny (Avocado toast with halloumi and eggs Benedict) from Kozy
• Choux-fleurs frits à la coréenne (Korean-style fried cauliflower wings) from Maslow
• Pain perdu tatin (French toast with apples) from Maslow
• Pancakes aux fruits frais du marché (Pancakes with market-fresh fruit) from Le Bistrot
• Bowl lait amande coco, fruits frais, chia, granola, peanut butter maison (Bowl of almond coconut chia pudding with fresh fruit, granola, and homemade peanut butter) from Le Bistrot
• Pancakes américains (Pancakes with sunny-side-up eggs, bacon, and maple syrup) from Pompom Coffee
• Avocado toast accompagné d’un œuf mollet (Avocado toast with a soft-boiled egg) from Pompom Coffee

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We hypothesize that the brunch boom in Paris has a few different causes. Firstly, the French hate to love American culture, and brunch is no exception. They’ll never admit it, but throwing a few English words on a menu (notice that they always use the English loan word “brunch”) and promising a spread like they’ve seen in American movies will have the French waiting in a line out the door. Additionally, eating a multiple-course meal with loved ones on the weekend is a long-standing French tradition, and brunch fits in perfectly with this practice. In our modern the-phone-eats-first society, it also doesn’t hurt that brunch food is highly photogenic and marketable to tourists and French people alike. Combine these aspects with the fact that it’s easy to find a brunch for less than 30 € a head in Paris, and it’s no wonder that brunching has become so popular!

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Brunch foods don’t quite fit in with classical French cuisine, but they have claimed a place in the modern French lifestyle. As Americans in France, we love that brunching in Paris is more than just a feast for the eyes and the palate – it’s also about bridging cultures. We’re all for the proliferation of French brunch and can’t wait to try out even more brunch spots in Paris and beyond. Is weekend brunch part of your routine? What’s your go-to brunch order? Let us know in a comment!

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