Thanks MellowFellow07 that's more what I was looking for. I know that there are lots of translation websites but sometimes the computer can lead you into saying phrases that are not what the French themselves would use and may look a bit odd. This combination of words seems a little more natural. Thanks

Just a correction to MellowFellow's phrase - rather than "avant nous mangeons", it should be "avant de manger". However, I think that the following wording would be slightly more understandable/natural in French:

"nous voudrions attendre un petit peu avant de continuer notre repas/ avant de prendre le dessert, s'il vous plait"

Many Americans find the meal too stretched out when they want to have coffee with their dessert in France. No matter how insistent you are that you want coffee WITH your dessert, 98% of the time it will always arrive AFTER your dessert.

analogue wrote: "No matter how insistent you are that you want coffee WITH your dessert, 98% of the time it will always arrive AFTER your dessert."

Proper order, too. This fad for coffee with dessert has got so out of hand that I now sometimes find the coffee delivered to me before the dessert.

Analogue, I understand what you mean. In my case I want to taste sweet & bitter at the same time so I often asks e.g. "J'aimerais mon café en même temps que le dessert". That usually works but not always. That's something other than language problem. Even my French friends don't always get what they want.

Of course, if you order a menu, you will have the whole lot set out in advance and you'll HAVE to tell them. You now have a range of options.

As to the coffee thing, and speaking from Britian, they REALLY don't understand it. I have been downright refused, on the basis that it's bad for my digestion; and in Paris in March, you'd have thought I'd suggested boiling the waiter's granny's bones for soup!

Maybe better to do what the locals do while on holidays. Relax, get into the spirit of the city and it's only for a few days to break a habit which you could pick up straight away when you get home.

Not such a bad thing to have coffee after dessert and they are right about the digestion part!

Just have to recount seeing a lovely and happy middle aged American couple eating dinner (7;30 p.m) at Leon des Bruxelles in Paris last April. The lady had a main dish of mussels and coffee with her meal; her husband had a waffle and an Irish coffee. The water couldn't have been nicer to them, although he appeared to be somewhat amazed.