Favorite French Food?

Whenever I come back from France, I am asked what about what I ate.  What was my favorite?  What was the best?  How can I possibly choose?

Lunch on the TGV on the way to Avignon?  Un sandwich jambon fromage salade bought at the Gare de Lyon before departure, a Twix bar (they are better in France, trust me), and a bottle of rosé bought in the dining car on the train?

Confit de canard et frites in a café on Rue Cler?

Soupe à l'oignon in Paris, near Notre Dame Cathedral?

Breakfast croissants and café au lait at a café near our apartment in Paris at Arts et Métiers?

Vegetable quiche in Montmartre?

Escargots à la Bourgogne?

Falafel from L'As de Falafel on the Rue des Rosiers in the Marais?

Melon and proscuitto? I ate this every chance I got since melons were in season and they are amazing in France.

Caviar d'aubergine in Villeneuve-lez-Avignon?

Salade de chèvre chaud at a café in St. Rémy de Provence?

Tarte tomate-chèvre chez M. Pastis?

Soupe au pistou chez Mme P?

Soupe aux poissons at Néné and Hélène's restaurant in the Camargue?

An omelette et frites with Normandy cider on Mont St. Michel?

Mussels prepared by our group with Arles Betty as head chef?

Zucchini-goat cheese appetizers à la Arles Betty?

Oui, I ate all these things during my two weeks in France in July.  And this doesn't include any of the desserts.  And I didn't gain an ounce.
But truly the best thing I ate?  You really want to know?  Well, it's very simple...  no 5-star Michelin restaurant.  No Alain Ducasse.
We went to visit Mme P's brother and sister-in-law up in the Ardèche.  I have a real thing for goats.  And Carole and Pierre have 40 of them.  Including some babies.  I got to feed them hay.

They make delicious cheese.

Mme P took bread, tomatoes, her mom's homemade tapenade, and some rosé.  Add fresh goat cheese and voilà...  my favorite meal while in France this time.

The taste of Provence, sitting outside in the shade of their house.
Absolument délicieux.
But perhaps the most important ingredient in all of the meals pictured in this post...  my friends.  It was the common denominator in each and every one.  My American friends, my Frenchie friends, my brand new friends, my family, my long time friends.

Bon appétit to good food and great friends to share it with!