We Tried Authentic French Foods and It Traumatized Us!

When in... Paris? France and Italy have a bit of a battle between them- who makes the best food in the world? Since we're in Paris, we decided we had to put their cuisine to the test! After many recommendations and lots of research, we set out for the famous Bouillon Chartier to try escargot, foie gras and andouillette sausage for the first time.

Thank you for all of your love and support! Don't forget to subscribe and turn on the bell so you never miss a new video! You can also follow us on our other socials below! Ciao for now! -Jessi and Alessio

[georgelei]

As a Parisian, Bouillon Chartier is definitely not the best french restaurant if you're looking to try "good" French food. The restaurant is famous because it's been around for a long time and is sort of an historical place. People go for the experience and to take pictures. The food is not great, but decent for the price. I used to go a few years ago when it wasn't as famous amongst tourists and we didn't have to wait in line to get a table. Nowadays, there are much better options!

[florianguerin]

I’m French and your plates looked like from a school canteen. Also andouillette is really not for everybody. Cheers.

[gregkerr]

Surely there are restaurants in France where you can walk in and get a table right away and have a decent meal. I would never ever ever wait in a series of lines like those you've shown unless at the end of the line they were handing out large sums of money.

[gixlee]

We just walked to a restaurant close to our hotel on Rue Cler and we loved every dish we ordered. We ended up eating there for dinner almost every night because the food was that good. Even their side salad was eye openingly delicious!

[christelleviguier]

Bonne analyse Jessi, pour avoir autant de plats sur un menu, c'est un signe qu'il y a beaucoup de congelé. Chose utile à savoir pour manger dans des restaurants en France qui ne cuisinent qu'avec des produits frais: une carte extrêmement courte avec seulement 2 ou 3 entrées, 3 plats principaux max et 3 ou 4 desserts. Les plats principaux coûtent environ 15€.
Thank you so much for all your videos, you are a joy to watch. 🐌

[dapoun]

The glass, the boeuf bourguignon with coquillettes... It makes me remember my childhood and the school canteen💗

[luparanera]

Chartier c'est juste historique et pas cher, franchement pas le meilleur resto, mais bravo à vous d'avoir tenté les escargots et l'andouillette 👏👏😁 super vidéo 👌💙

[AverytheCubanAmerican]

Yup, frozen food is...not a good sign when you're judging a restaurant's quality. I'm guessing they're doing it to catch up with demands but a restaurant that actually cares about the experience would NEVER serve frozen food! And a line out the door doesn't always mean the place you're going to is the best, but that it's more likely a tourist trap portrayed as an amazing experience. That cozy French restaurant Claudette you went to in NYC was better quality than this was, because yeah, you can just tell they cared!

Those cheap cream puffs are definitely an insult to their original recipe. So regarding cream puffs: The choux pastry used to make them was invented by the Italian head chef of the court of Catherine de' Medici, who came to France from Florence to marry Henry II in 1533. The original recipe changed as the years passed, as the pastry cook's art began to develop around the 17th century. It would take until the nineteenth century to be perfected by Marie-Antoine Carême

[SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

So while eating snails is commonly associated with the French, different peoples of different periods have eaten snails! Lots of broken snail shells dating back to 10, 700 BCE were found in a cave in southern Greece, implying they were eaten. They found the same thing in many sites of Iraq and western Iran from the late Pleistocene. Ancient Romans considered snails as an elite food, and the first written reference to snail farms comes from Ancient Rome. Roman breeder Quintus Fulvius Lippinus is considered the "father" of heliciculture, and while he feasibly studied domesticating other creatures like dormice and wild boar, he was famous for his big snail collection, and each snail was enormous themselves thanks to a fattening diet.

[tombeket]

Mes enfants, si vous voulez goûter la vraie cuisine Française, fuyez Paris à tout prix!!! Dans les régions de province vous découvrirez des merveilles gastronomiques pour beaucoup moins cher et bien plus copieuses, goûteuses et savoureuses.😑.

[paulbonge]

I'd have to agree with George Lei! Since 1985, whenever I am in Paris I have to visit my favorite, Brasserie Bofinger, an Alsatian "Belle Epoque" brasserie founded in 1864 near Place de La Bastille! It is famous for it's magnificent domed skylight (backlit) and worth a visit, they'll let you in to look during the day if they are not busy! Other suggestions would be Les Deux Magots (hangout for Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Picasso, Hemingway, Henry Miller among others) and continuing on the Left Bank, there are other famous hangouts of artists and writers (Hemingway etc.) Brasserie Lipp, Restaurant Polidor, and La Closerie des Lilas. I'm forgetting so many places, but one last one, another rather famous restaurant is Au Pied de Cochon! Don't short change yourself and get the wrong impression of "La Belle Cuisine" Bouillon Chartrier has been for more than a few decades now, an overrated tourist trap. Perhaps you two, being as delightfully young as you are, may not be familiar with Le Guide Michelin but get one for Paris or the red overall one. You just cannot go wrong with it. Even one or two crossed fork and spoons (the red ones are a higher rating) will reveal wonderful places to eat and which are often much less expensive. For hotels, more little birdies on rockers the more tranquil and quieter the place, the more little hotels the higher the rating and the higher the luxury and price.

[Shaumbrahedvig]

The french fries and the macaroni tells me this is just a tourist trap.

[videojeroki]

as French I had the chance to go to Roma and as a food lover I was excited to try stuff but of course as tourist, even being very careful and picky about the place to go, with my budget, I didn't succeed to find a restaurant that full fill my expectations and end up being disappointed (because I expected too much). BUT I know the italians classics and the quality of their products and I would NEVER judge an entire internationally famous gastronomic country like Italy based on my personal bad luck and/or lack of time/knowledge at that time. Vive Italy and their talents!

Like many countries, France has influences from surrounding countries, including Italy. It is about regions, not country. Sicilian food is very different than food from North Italy. Same for France. France has been internationally famous for its food, but especially for the fact that the concept of modern restaurant became a thing: after the revolution, all the chef cooks of the bourgeoisie opened places where the customers would have a quality experience within a clean, comfortable and decorated 'restaurant' with a menu, service, toilets, etc. Before that, you could only find something to eat in bars/taverns, surrounded by drunk people, you would need to bring your own knife and fork, and the choice was limited to whatever local product or whatever the wife of the owner would have time to cook.

Today in France and other countries, the regulation, normes, food safety stuff, taxes, etc... push the restaurant owners to not take risks and discourage talented hard workers to make great but simple food, but there are still a lot of beautiful and simple restaurant to enjoy :)

[atmacdee]

For our first trip to Paris from the UK over 20 years ago, our cousins who had lived there for several years recommended this place to us for a quick and inexpensive meal. Luckily the queue was nothing like you encountered, but nobody had explained to us that you share tables. We were told (at least we think we were told as we don't speak French) that there was space open up the stairs, so of course went up and couldn't see a table available. So at that point we gave up and left. We're big people and I would hate having to squash in on a little table for 4. However my husband discovered the joy of andouillette (he is a Kiwi farm boy and has eaten everything including mountain oysters) but I gagged when I had a mouthful and had to discreetly spit it out. You both did very well with your facial expressions. My husband has them every time we go to France now because he knows he'll never have to share. I think at this place you are going for the history rather than top notch cooking.

[melaniebayette]

Please don’t judge All French food upon your experience in Paris because every town in France has its own culture and its own food specialties. If you really want to discover real French food, go to a city where prices are reasonable and food is really good. And really, I am French, and I absolutely can’t eat an Andouillette without throwing up. Begin with something easier!

[a.humphries]

Oh God, the sausage music.😅😅😅I'm rolling over here.
And, the look in your eyes after the escargot, priceless😅😅😅

[tess]

Loved his wink when he was helping you make your escargot sandwich.

[Misterjingle]

It's mostly Parisian food. It's like trying food from Rome and thinking it's the food of all Italy.. In my part of France, the food is mostly mediterranean : olive oil, fish, a lot of vegetables, lemon, etc. I'm sure you heard of ratatouille or salade niçoise.

[melvicci]

Love your honesty and description of the food.. always look forward to your videos and adventures

[yefefiyah]

Tastes so good, but I can't look at it! Lol. Awww, Jessi. You got this!