In Episode 4 of Fishwives of Paris, Caroline and Emily talk about French breakfast. Discover how coffee, tea, and chocolate shaped French breakfast and culture in this episode of Fishwives of Paris. Stick around for the Fishwives’ hot takes on French bacon and brunch!

Episodes drop every other Tuesday on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Deezer, and everywhere you get podcasts.

Forget bacon and eggs, in France, breakfast doesn’t even come on a plate.

Instead, it’s all about the bowl, a cozy ritual born from global trade, colonial expansion, and 17th-century aristocratic trends. Long before café culture took hold, France’s mornings were transformed by three simple plants, coffee, tea, and chocolate, and their intoxicating new promise of energy, sophistication, and status.

In this episode, Emily and Caroline trace how Satan’s beverage (yes, the Church once banned coffee!) helped pave the way for the minimalist, sweet breakfasts we know today and why the French still dunk their tartine straight into a steaming bowl of café au lait.

Tune in to learn:

• Why the French word for lunch, déjeuner, actually means breakfast

• How three caffeinated plants from three corners of the globe, coffee, tea, and chocolate, reshaped French mornings forever

• What French people actually eat for breakfast (spoiler: it’s not croissants 🫣)

• How French café rituals reveal centuries of cultural exchange, colonization, and class

Plus: Caroline and Emily spill their favorite breakfast spots in Paris (5 Pailles) and Lyon (Odessa and Le Déjeuneur), perfect for when you’re ready to live your own petit déjeuner fantasy.

🎧 Fishwives of Paris: where French food myths go to die (and breakfast gets a reality check).

Hosted by Lyon-based sommelier Caroline Fazeli & Paris-based food journalist Emily Monaco.
Follow us on Instagram: @fishwivesofparis
Partnerships & inquiries: bonjour@fishwivesofparis.com

Episodes drop every other Tuesday on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Deezer, and everywhere you get podcasts.