Southern French restaurant tips

Complete menus are often displayed outside of restaurants to help the customer decide. There is usually a significant difference in price between the lunch (déjeuner) and dinner menus so don't fall into the evening trap of deciding based on the wrong menu and associated prices.
A ''formule'' is generally the best way to go. Individual servings are generally small and ''formules'' are invariably better value and a better, more authentic all around French dining experience than ordering ''à la carte''. Some ''formules'' are 3 or more courses and include wine and or coffee and others consist of only two dishes. If there are only two it is often a choice between starter -main or main - desert. The starter, main and wine are generally ordered at once and they will come back later to ask you what you want for desert, or more likely tell you what is available.

One good thing about French meat is that antibiotics, hormones and steroids are illegal. If you are buying your own at the grocery store look for the labels that confirm ‘’née. et élevé en France’‘ to make sure it wasn’t born and raised in Poland with lower standards and then shipped in to a French abattoir to serve the European market with a false pedigree.

It is inconceivable for the French that you might be hungry outside of 12h -13h30 and 19h -22:00 besides they need time to visit a dozen different places to sample, discuss and negotiate their food, that could involve a few drinks with the wine merchant or vintner, some heated arguments from the back of their overloaded scooter in traffic and an illicit affair in a store room. Generally you should be aware of restaurants that serve outside these times because their clientele are tourists so the overall quality is considerably reduced. They know they won’t see most of these people again and they will keep coming and mostly loving it too because these Americans are undiscerning and, whatever they have, it’s probably already better than the drivel they were eating at home. Fewer of the ''insider secret'' kinds of restaurants, bakeries, butcher's shops or bars are open in August or on Mondays or Sundays.

Niceties
The TVA included your bill (l’addition) is your standard tip (built in), whatever you add shows your pleasure.
Women are served first but usually the most senior man or the guest of honour does the wine tasting unless he defers this honour to someone else. (there is no tasting for the pichet wine).
Theoretically, you should hold your glass by the stem or base but people no longer strictly observe this custom. If you are clinking glasses with a French person you must look them in the eye or it is seven years of bad sex.

You are usually asked if you would like an ‘’appertif’‘ or ‘’appero’‘ to start, which is traditionally a pastis or muscat in the South but beer is becoming more popular. In some regions there are other traditional drinks like Noilly Pratt vermouth or Byrh in Catalan country.

It is unlikely that you will be given butter with bread unless it is breakfast or you are having nothing else as it is considered to be something which deadens the palate.
Coffee comes after the desert and not with it unless you specifically ask for it.
You generally have to ask for the bill yourself. It is considered bad manners for them to bring it to you automatically when you get to your last crumb of cake. Service is generally slow in the South, they don’t see things in terms of the same commercial relationships as we do. They won’t kick you out of a café for spending 3 hours reading a book over a tiny espresso and they won’t trip over themselves to please someone else because they bring more money or want to make more noise. This is also true in shops. Generally liberty and leisure are given precedents over monetary gain but they are not communists, status is still very important and internally restaurants, particularly larger ones, are probably an extreme example of French hierarchy.