How to order a coffee in France : a guide for cyclists
Sipping a café au lait in a leafy square after a morning’s pedalling is one of the daily pleasures of touring France by bike. But after pulling up to a café on your bicyclette, how do you know what to order, how do you put in your request to the waiter, and how do you pay?
Let us present you with the answers! Read our guide on How to Order Coffee in France…
An intro to coffee and café culture in France
Despite being denounced as the drink of the devil by the Catholic church, the lifeforce that is caffeine outweighed coffee drinkers’ lingering fears of the inferno below their feet.
Cafés spread from Istanbul through Europe thanks to the Venetian merchants who hauled sacks of the wonderous bean along the trade routes from where it had long been appreciated for its energising, even spiritual properties, in Africa and Asia.
France’s first café opened in Paris in 1671 and since then the “petit noir” has fuelled many an artist’s magnum opus, a philosopher’s musings and a revolutionary’s plot. In fact, café culture rapidly became engrained in the French way of life, thanks to early adoption by Pope Clement VIII and Louis XIV.
In recent decades, European café culture has been globally embraced and elaborated way beyond a simple espresso. So, if you are visiting France for the first time, you may be under the impression that you will be able to order a pumpkin oat latte, matcha with soy milk or a caramel macchiato just as you can at home. Not necessarily so!
In the majority of French cafés, the coffee menu has retained its unwavering simplicity in the face of such contemporary “innovation”.
So when you sit down to sip your shot of café and watch the world go by, remember that it France’s café culture, not its coffee culture per se, that has been so infused into our romantic vision of this beautiful country.
Which coffee to order in France?
These are the main choices you will find on the menu in a French café:
- Café/espresso: Ask for a "caffay" or "espresso" and your waiter will deliver a single espresso in a small cup.
- Double espresso: Say “dooblespresso” for two shots in a larger cup.
- Allongé or Americano: Requesting an "allon-jay" gets you an espresso with a splash of hot water to make a longer black coffee.
- Café noisette: Despite its name, no hazelnuts (noisettes) are included! This is an espresso with milk foam, like the original Italian macchiato. Say ""caffay nwa-zett".
- Café au lait: A "caffay oh-lay" is a single espresso with hot milk (which is sometimes served on the side)
- Grand crème: "Gron-crem" - a double espresso or longer coffee usually with hot milk but sometimes with cream.
- Cappuccino: France is close enough to Italy to have adopted these!
- Café viennois: Request a "caffay vee-enn-wah" and you'll receive a most decadent affair! Milky coffee with squirty Chantilly cream on top, often served in a glass.
- Déca: Ask for any of these drinks with a "day-ka" and you will get decaffeinated coffee.
A little note of warning to coffee afficionados: French coffee can be more bitter than you’re used to back home. Consider asking for milk, sugar or extra hot water to soften the blow!
Plant-based or vegan milks will sometimes be available in city cafés, but along more rural routes, your cycle guides may not always find a coffee house with soy/oat or nut milks, so you could opt for an espresso or an allongé instead.
Other drinks are available!
As mentioned earlier, it is the café, not the coffee that is the essential ingredient in this romantic vision.
It is therefore, perfectly acceptable to order any kind of drink in a roadside coffee house! Sparkling water is a popular choice and “Perrier” is the most common brand. Alternatively you could opt for a “petit blanc” (small glass of white wine), a “demi pression” (half a lager) or a “pastis”, the popular aniseed drink which you water down and sip in the sunshine.
If coffee is not your thing, you can order a herbal tea – a “tisane”. Green tea (with or without mint) is a popular choice, and you can also try “tilleul” (leaves from the lime/linden tree), or “verveine” (verbena). "Gingembre" (ginger) is also common, as is chamomile, and “fruits rouges” (red fruits).
Fancy a cup of tea? For British visitors, French cafés are not renowned for doing this “correctly”! The usual brand of tea available in France is not as strong as those available in the UK, and quite often you will be served a cup of hot water with a tea bag on the side. If you want milk, don’t forget to request this as well. Earl Grey is readily available, however.
If you need to warm up, then a hot chocolate - "chocolat chaud" - could do the trick! The waiter will probably ask if you would like "Chantilly", which is squirty aerosol cream.
How to order a drink in a café
First things first: ALWAYS greet the owner/waiter with a "Bonjour" as you enter the café. Failure to do so will be noted!
You won't need to walk straight in and order at the bar, you can just take a seat and get comfortable, the waiter will come over when they're ready to take your order.
Going around the group, they will take each person's order. Here's where you can roll out your best French! If you like, you can say "je voudrais" (I would like) or "je veux" (I want) but you can skip this. Equally, French people often say "je prends" (I take).
The simplest way to order a coffee is:
- “Bonjour. Un [café] s’il vous plait” is pronounced "Bon jor, an ka-fay see voo play"
Don't forget that "café" is an espresso, so you will need to change your order if you would like eg. milk or a cappuccino (see list above).
Sugar is usually served in sachets alongside your coffee, whether you ask for it or not.
How much is a coffee in France? And what about tips?
The price of a coffee in France depends on the location. An espresso can range from €1 or just over in a rural village, to around €2 in more expensive cafés. You can expect to pay between €2-€3 for a coffee with milk or a cappuccino in a smaller or more traditional café, and up to €5 in a more glitzy area or smarter café. Just as in Italy, the price of a quick espresso is a bit cheaper if you stand at the bar, down your coffee and leave, rather than taking a seat on the terrace.
Tipping culture in France is not the same as in the USA, for example. When stopping at a café it would be normal to leave a few centimes on your saucer to round up your bill, but is not necessarily expected.
Cycling and coffee: a match made in heaven
On our guided French cycling tours, we love a coffee stop! Not only is a little rest and a stretch at a café an incentive to keep pedalling, but it is also a good opportunity to regroup and have a chat and check in on how everyone is doing.
As experiencing the best of France is our main mission during a cycle tour, frankly we would not be doing our job if we didn't make at least one coffee stop per day.
Café is fully engrained into the French way of life. Sitting in or outside a café, people watching and nattering is one of life's pleasures, and something that the French culture definitely values. Throughout Spring, Summer and Autumn, cyclists in France head out in groups or on their own, and will choose a route which includes a coffee stop, so cafés are very happy to accommodate people arriving with bikes.
Join one of our cycling tours and get to know the real France - including café culture!
If you have any questions about our cycling holiday destinations, don't hesitate to get in touch, we're always very happy to chat.
- fch@frenchcyclingholidays.com
- +44(0) 1923 894305 or +44(0)20 8357 8934
- Browse our articles for more inspiration on France's regions and culture
Image credits: Colin Watts, The Now Time, Stephan Coudassot, Inna Mikova, Deniz Demirci