And, while I don't necessarily want to promote restaurants that use the easiest methods, it is also obvious that standards of hygiene are much more strictly controlled for the "industrial" products than the homemade ones. It does bear mentioning if only because so many people are worried about eating something that will poison them.

Maybe I should just get an apartment with a microwave, visit Picard and do my own restaurant.

Well, you would certainly eat well. I think in the "brand name" surveys in France, Picard comes out in the top ten. (But if you really want to know, Google is #1, Danone is #2 and Michelin is #3.

Much ado about nothing - France has great restaurants no matter how you look at it. If you did not know it you would not realize it and meals would cost even more than they do!

At least the cheese plate can't be of frozen goods?

Most people I know say the food in France is crap. You can find better food in London.

I'll never forget a "real English breakfast" I had in Basingstoke. Stuck a knife in the sausage ---grease squirted every which way.

Why do I never hear of gourmet English restaurants?

Why do I never hear of gourmet English restaurants?>

They're called chippies - Fish and Chips about as gourmet as it gets in the UK!

Nonsense!

One sausage in the foodie mecca of Basingstoke was greasy, therefore all British food is bad? Fish & Chips are as good as it gets?

Have a look at the Michelin guide and if you're in the UK ask locals for good restaurants. I once had a tough steak in Nevada--US food is cr*p.

Pal should keep off the Dulux cocktails (shaken not stirred).

Even French bread is subject to falling standards it seems - my French friends came here and said that the bread they got at Panera Bread was better than the bread in many French boulangeries!

Panera bread is wonderful. I keeps for weeks in the fridge without getting stale or moldy. Better living through chemistry.

Actually I think Panera bread prides themselves on not using chemicals? The old St Louis Bread company, as it used to be called, may have but I think I read now that the company has gone green - yeh the slimy green mold after weeks!