Coffee is the second most popular drink in France. It is the perfect place to meet up with friends to have a drink or a simple, cheap meal or the apéro.There could be other things that you can buy in a cafés, there are different kinds of cafés depending on what you can get inside.

A café will have a few things available to eat (usually they don’t take much time to be ready to serve). It could be a sandwich or a croque monsieur, with an ice cream for desert.

Popular drinks include:

La café crème Les vins

Un expresso Le coca-cola

L’orangina

The café-tabac sells the normal drinks and meals available in the café and ask a corner dedicated to tabacco. It is forbidden to smoke in French cafés (and public places) since 2006.You will find this sign outside of cafés that sell tobacco.

The café-tabac-presse sells the things a café-tabac sells, and also weekly magazines and newspapers. They are nice places to go to if you want to spend some time alone reading the news or socializing with people.

1. There are no TVs in cafés. (yes, no football!!)

2. The type of food served is different.3. Unless you are in a “Brasserie”, the cafés’

speciality is… coffee!4. If you order food, no need to tip, the tip is

usually included in the bill.5. You do not need to go to the bar to ask for

your drink, if you go straight to a table and sit down, a “serveur” ou “serveuse” will come to you and take your order.