A traditional French breakfast, called le petit déjeuner, is small, mostly sweet and built around bread: a tartine of baguette spread with butter and jam, a hot drink such as coffee or hot chocolate, and often a small glass of juice. Croissants and pain au chocolat are more of a weekend treat than a daily habit. Eggs, bacon and savory plates are uncommon on a weekday morning, and lunch, not breakfast, is traditionally the bigger meal.
Below: what goes on the table on a weekday and on a Sunday, what the French drink, how the tartine is really made, how a French breakfast compares with an American one, and a simple plan to serve one at home in about 35 minutes.
What is a typical French breakfast?
Picture a kitchen table on a school morning, not a hotel buffet. A typical French breakfast has four parts, and rarely more:
- Bread. A piece of baguette, often yesterday's, split lengthwise and sometimes toasted. Some homes keep biscottes, the dry, crisp rusks sold in packs, for the days when there is no fresh bread.
- Something to spread. Salted or unsalted butter, a fruit preserve, honey, or a chocolate hazelnut spread for the children.
- A hot drink. Coffee for most adults, hot chocolate for children (and plenty of adults), tea for some.
- Fruit juice. Often orange, freshly squeezed in a café, from a carton at home.
That is the whole meal. On a weekday it is often eaten quickly, and it is meant to carry you to lunch, which in France usually comes around noon to 1 p.m. and is traditionally a sit-down meal.
What do French people eat for breakfast on a weekday?
On a normal weekday, many French people start the day with a coffee and a tartine. That simple slice of bread, more than the croissant, is the center of the traditional French breakfast.
The tartine, done the French way
A tartine is simply a slice of bread with something spread on it. At breakfast it is very often a baguette: a section about 6 to 8 inches long, cut in half lengthwise so you get two long pieces with a soft side and a crusty side. The butter goes on first, generously, then the preserve on top. Many people toast it first (une tartine grillée), especially when the loaf is a day old.
Then comes the gesture that surprises many visitors: plenty of people dip the tartine into the cup. At home, coffee or hot chocolate is often served in a wide bowl, which makes dipping easy. The butter melts a little into it, the crumb softens, and the crust stays crisp at the tip. It is a childhood habit that many adults keep.
Cereal, yogurt and the modern table
Habits change. Many French families now also eat breakfast cereal, yogurt with muesli or granola, or fresh fruit, especially with children. Savory food is slowly appearing too, but eggs are still more of a lunch or a light dinner in France. When there is an egg in the morning, it is usually a soft-boiled egg with strips of baguette for dipping into the yolk.
Croissants on the weekend: the trip to the boulangerie
The croissant is the symbol of the French breakfast, but in many homes it is a weekend treat. On Saturday or Sunday morning, someone goes down to the neighborhood boulangerie, and the line can run out the door. They come back with a baguette for the day and a paper bag of viennoiseries, the buttery, laminated or enriched pastries that bakers make for the morning:
- Croissant: the plain butter croissant, eaten as is, without cutting it open.
- Pain au chocolat: the same dough rolled around batons of dark chocolate. In the southwest of France it is called a chocolatine, and the name is a friendly, endless argument.
- Pain aux raisins: a spiral of dough with pastry cream and raisins.
- Brioche: a soft, rich loaf made with eggs, lovely with a fruit preserve.
- Chausson aux pommes: a flaky turnover filled with apple compote.
Very few French households bake viennoiseries themselves. Laminating croissant dough takes time and practice, so the neighborhood boulangerie does it for them. That craft is what Florent and Bertrand brought from France to Washington, D.C., where Fresh Baguette has been baking since 2013; in our bakeries, croissants are still folded again and again into delicate buttery layers, as told in the story of our bakery.
The Sunday croissant, from your freezer
Butter croissants, 3 per pack; each pack fills one of the 4 to 12 slots in your box. Straight from the freezer into a 425°F oven, crisp in 5 to 7 minutes.
Shop frozen croissantsWhat do the French drink at breakfast?
| Drink | What it is | How it is served |
|---|---|---|
| Café (un café, un express) | A small, strong espresso | In a small cup, often at the café counter |
| Café au lait | Strong coffee with a lot of hot milk, roughly half and half | At home, often in a wide bowl, made for dipping a tartine |
| Café crème | Espresso with steamed milk | The café version, in a large cup |
| Chocolat chaud | Chocolate melted into warm milk | In a bowl for children, a cup for adults; tartines dipped in it |
| Thé | Black tea, sometimes herbal tea | In a cup, with or without milk |
| Jus d'orange | Orange juice | A small glass on the side; "jus pressé" means freshly squeezed |
A simple French hot chocolate
For 2 bowls, warm 2 cups of whole milk in a saucepan until it steams, without letting it boil. Take it off the heat and whisk in 2 ounces of chopped dark chocolate and 1 to 2 teaspoons of sugar until smooth. Put it back on low heat for a minute, whisking, and pour it into bowls. It should be rich but still pourable: something to dip a tartine into, not a dessert. Serve it on a tray for two: a Valentine's breakfast in bed.
French breakfast ideas for a slow Sunday
When there is more time, some French homes add a few easy dishes to the usual spread. A few weekend ideas, none of them complicated:
- Crêpes: thin crêpes, which some families make at home on a Sunday morning, rolled with sugar, lemon or a spoon of confiture.
- Pain perdu: the French name for French toast, a way to use up stale baguette or brioche.
- Yogurt and fruit: plain yogurt with honey, granola or seasonal fruit.
- A soft-boiled egg: with strips of toasted baguette, the egg dish most often seen at a French breakfast table.
- A pastry basket: croissants, pains au chocolat and a brioche, shared in the middle of the table.
French breakfast vs American breakfast
| French breakfast | American breakfast | |
|---|---|---|
| Size | Small, light | Often large and filling |
| Taste | Mostly sweet | Often savory: eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns |
| Bread | Baguette tartine | Toast, bagels, English muffins |
| Pastry | Croissant or pain au chocolat, mostly on weekends | Muffins, donuts, pancakes or waffles |
| Drink | Espresso, a bowl of milky coffee, or chocolat chaud | Drip coffee in a mug |
| Main meal of the day | Lunch | Usually dinner |
Brunch is the bridge between the two. In French cities, "le brunch" on Sunday has become popular, with pancakes, eggs and pain perdu, the French name for French toast. But it is a weekend outing, not the everyday petit déjeuner. For a friend who misses these mornings, see our gifts for people who love France.
How to make a French breakfast at home
A Parisian breakfast at home needs only a few good things and a little timing. The goal is a warm loaf with a crisp crust, something good to spread, a hot cup, and croissants that shatter when you bite in. Here is how we would set the table. Croissants left from Sunday? Turn them into croissant pain perdu.
A warm baguette for tartines
Start with a crusty baguette. Our Parisian Half Baguettes come par-baked and frozen, and you finish them in your oven: preheat to 450°F, unwrap the frozen baguette, set it directly on the middle rack with no baking sheet, and bake for 6 to 10 minutes. Let it rest 5 to 10 minutes before you cut it, because it keeps baking as it rests. Our baker's tip: lightly run a little water over the back of the baguette before it goes in, for a crust that is crisp without turning too hard.
If you would rather use the toaster, the Butter Croissant Loaf is croissant dough baked as a loaf and wide sliced. Slices go straight from the freezer into the toaster for 90 to 120 seconds; watch them, because the crumb browns quickly. It makes a richer tartine than baguette, closer to the weekend side of the table.
What to spread on the tartine
Butter first. Salted butter is closely associated with Brittany, while in many other parts of France unsalted butter is the more usual choice. Both work on a tartine. Keep it cold and spread it thick. If you like it salted, we carry a sea salt butter by Banner Butter, an American cultured butter made in Atlanta, Georgia, slowly churned in small batches and finished with flakes of hand-harvested sea salt.
Apricot, strawberry and raspberry are classic French choices of confiture. Our wild blackberry jam is made with 55% fruit and unrefined cane sugar, and cooked in a copper cauldron.
The croissants
Frozen croissants need no thawing and no proofing. In our frozen croissants collection, the butter, chocolate, almond and Nutella Croissant packs all bake the same way: preheat the oven to 425°F, take them out of the freezer and the packaging, place them on a baking sheet on the middle rack, and bake for 5 to 7 minutes, until warmed through and crisp. Let them cool for at least 5 minutes before serving. For the French classic pair, take butter croissants and chocolate croissants, which are our pain au chocolat, folded around two batons of dark chocolate.
A 35-minute plan for four
The baguette and the croissants bake at different temperatures, so bake the bread first and let it rest while the croissants go in. At lunch, the same baguette becomes a jambon beurre.
- Minute 0: preheat the oven to 450°F. Set out the spreads and pour the juice.
- Minute 10 (or as soon as the oven is at 450°F; some ovens take longer): bake 2 frozen half baguettes directly on the middle rack, about 8 minutes (6 to 10).
- Minute 18: take the baguettes out to rest, and lower the oven to 425°F. Opening the door for a few seconds helps the heat come down.
- Minute 20 (once the oven reads 425°F): bake 4 croissants on a baking sheet on the middle rack for 5 to 7 minutes. Start the coffee and warm the milk.
- Minute 27: take the croissants out and let them cool for at least 5 minutes. Split the baguettes lengthwise for tartines.
- Minute 32 to 35: serve.
This gives each person one croissant and one long piece of baguette for tartines; for bigger appetites, bake a second pack of each. Everything else is setting the table: bowls for dipping, a knife on the dish, the jar of confiture open in the middle. Here is how our croissants go from our bakery to your oven.
Baguette for your tartines
Parisian Half Baguettes, 2 per pack, to add to your box. 6 to 10 minutes at 450°F, right on the rack.
Shop the half baguettesWhat to put on a croissant, and what to eat with it
In France, a good croissant is usually eaten plain. It already has plenty of richness in its layers, so many people simply tear it, and some dip the end into their coffee. Spreading something on it is common enough in homes and hotels that nobody will stop you, but it is not the everyday habit. Croissants from the day before can be revived: see how to warm up a croissant.
If you want something on it, these are the French-leaning choices:
- Jam: tear off a piece at a time and dab it with raspberry or apricot.
- A full tartine treatment: for a richer bite, split it open and spread it like a slice of baguette.
- Honey or a chocolate hazelnut spread, a favorite with children.
- Ham and cheese: a savory split croissant is more of a lunch or a brunch idea in France than a breakfast one.
As for what to eat with croissants: a hot cup first, then fresh fruit, juice or a plain yogurt on the side. That is a complete breakfast in France, and a basket of pastries next to a few pieces of baguette is the classic Sunday spread. Hosting? Scale it up into a French bakery breakfast board.
Shop the bakery
Questions about French breakfast
What is the most famous French breakfast?
The croissant with a café au lait is the best known abroad. In everyday French life, one of the most common is a buttered tartine with a fruit preserve, dipped into coffee or hot chocolate.
Do French people eat eggs for breakfast?
Rarely on a weekday. Eggs are mostly eaten at lunch or dinner, as an omelet for example. The exception is the soft-boiled egg, served with strips of bread for dipping, and the eggs that now appear at weekend brunch.
How do you say breakfast foods in French?
Breakfast is le petit déjeuner. A few words to know: une tartine (bread with butter and jam), le beurre, la confiture, les viennoiseries (pastries), un pain au chocolat, un café au lait, un chocolat chaud, un jus d'orange. Here is the rest of what you find in a French bakery.
What is a Parisian breakfast?
In a Paris café, "la formule petit déjeuner" usually means a hot drink, a croissant or a tartine, and a glass of juice. At home, Parisians tend to eat the same light, mostly sweet breakfast found elsewhere in France.
Is a French Breakfast also a radish?
Yes. French Breakfast is also the name of an oblong radish, red with a white tip, sold in many American markets. It is a vegetable variety, not a meal; in France, radishes with butter and salt are usually served as a starter or with an aperitif, not at breakfast.
Curious how our breads and pastries go from our bakery to your freezer? See how it works.