will be in paris in september, anything special we should try besides the obvious crepes, creme bulee, french onion soup, etc. thanks for any input/

If you like creme bulee you should try tete de veau. Sorry for not resisting temptation

As you go about the city stop in at neighborhood bakeries. They have inexpensive and fun snacks, things that you may not see anywhere else and not only sweet things. Dangerous but fun.

I usually travel alone, eat lunch in restaurants but like to bring things back to my room for dinner. I can always count on finding great fresh things in the bakeries.

"The only thing I can't resist is temptation."~~Oscar Wilde


"I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it." ~~Mae West

I think you mean French cuisine - not Parisian - since the foods you mention come from different parts of France.

tete de veau - now there's "temptation" worth resisting... or better yet running away fro quickly.

foie gras, magret de canard, pate, quiche, salade nicoise, vichyssoise, boeuf bourgignone, croque monsieur, croque madame, moules-frites, coq au vin, gratin dauphinoise, ratatouille, sole meuniere, bouillabaisse, tartes, profiteroles, napoleons, clafouti, mille-feuille, mousse, macarons.

Sorry, that's all I could come up with on the top of my head before my fingers got tired.

Seriously, French cuisine is the most fabulous and extensive in the world and is alway being reinvented. Paris doesn't have anything particularly unique itself, but adopts from the entire rest of the country.

(Also, I think the French onion soup thing is similar to sangria in Spain. The locals don't order it as much as the tourists.)

Enjoy!

Not to mention the crucial fromage and vin!

Jeez, there are about a thousand things you should try. And Paris doesn't have a cuisine - it's all about the many, many, varied regions of France coming together in the capital of the country.

Crepes, creme brulée, and French onion soup are good, but clichés. Try lapin, foie gras, tête de veau, rognons, pieds de cochons, escargots, all kinds of cheeses, all kinds of charcuterie, all kinds of patisseries if you're into sweets...there will be food galore all around you and you should taste it.

I noticed a awful lot of marshmallows in Paris. The one food that makes me think Paris is, seriously, marshmallows. I don't like marshmallows, but my husband eats them in Paris.

Marshmallow in French is guimauve.

Chocolate! You all forgot CHOCOLATE. There are only three food groups in France:

wine
chocolate
cheese

Well, coffee and croissants might be another, and then there is French Bread! I know someone said crepes but the nutella with bananas are the best! imho

And remember if you don't want to be mistaken for a tourist, you must, Must, MUST dip your croissant in your coffee!

<And remember if you don't want to be mistaken for a tourist, you must, Must, MUST dip your croissant in your coffee!>

Am I missing something? Ronda, are you being tongue-in-cheek? Please tell me it is so.

This is at least the second time this week I am seeing this here on Fodors. I lived in France 3 years with a well-to-do, cultured family, and traveled extensively with them, visited their friends and family throughout France. Not one of them dipped their croissant or their bread in their coffee. As a matter of fact, to do so was considered gauche and done only by 'les ploucs'.

If the only way one can enjoy their croissant is to dip it, fine, do it. But please don't think it is usual and customary; it isn't.

As to what not to miss for aperatif: un Kir (cassis is my favorite, otherwise peche)

Even better is a Kir Royale!

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A nice terrien to start.
Pain au chocolat amandine
Poulet de Bresse
Escargot

fpsoley,
I think you will find some great recommendations if you do a search here on restaurants. There are a huge amount of threads discussing places to eat, and you will see some names that keep coming up.

Restaurants post their menus outside, so you will have a chance to see what they have before going in.

Tete de veau and its pork equivalents are delicious. Nothing weirder in them than in a hot dog or bratwurst.

But it is a good point. The French eat a lot of things that would have been familiar to our grandparents but that our parents's generation moved away from -- excepting soul food. It is a great time to explore!

Don't know about dunkin' croissants in one's coffee but I'm familiar with French mamans breaking pieces of baguette into their enfant's bowl of hot chocolate for breakfast at home before school. The adult version is to break the bread into cafe au lait also served in a bowl, and eaten at home.

Just to help out the OP, Michel wants you to try a terrine. Which is pâté in a dish.

<<And remember if you don't want to be mistaken for a tourist, you must, Must, MUST dip your croissant in your coffee!>>

Actually, that is probably a dead give-away that you're a tourist.