Sacre bleu!!!!

Epicurean Exploits - Food and Recipes
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Hey…$ is $…and if the Louvre has to have a McDonalds to earn some extra $ to bring in some more exhibits, then I’m all for it.

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The first sentence just about knocked me off my chair:

McDonald’s (MCD) plans to open its 1,142nd outlet in France next month

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A bit sad, but inevitable, I think, that a cheap and quick (though not necessarily tasty) source of sustenance (and I use that term loosely) open in the Louvre. I’ve eaten at Café Marly downstairs a few times and lunch at another café-teria there in one of the higher floors (can’t recall the name, but it had long lines for mediocre food). I like Café Marly’s pastries much more than their “real food” - very nice tarte citron with double espresso - but I don’t think everyone is willing to pay around 12-14 Euros for a little bit of tarte citron (if I recall properly, more with the double espresso), good as it is.

I think everyone should be able to spend as much time in the Louvre to take everything in as leisurely as possible. If that means having a McDonalds outlet there for those who want a quick and cheap bite to sustain them in their appreciation of art, so be it. Times change.

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You have to remember there are only 2 burger chains in France: McD and Quick. All the others (including e.g. Burger King) have been kicked out by McD. The only other big chain I can think of is KFC. That explains the high number of outlets, since they basically grabbed the whole market.

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In addition, until recently (I think) McDo wasn’t taxed as a restaurant but as a take-out outlet, which apparently has lower taxes. So they had a definite advantage to other, more traditional places. My biggest outrage about this whole thing is that the Louvre will stink of that awful McDo smell that makes my stomach turn. [barf.gif]

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I think they were taxed both ways depending on where you had your food (hence the regular question “is your order for take away?”). It used to be regular VAT (19.6%) for regular restaurants, and reduced VAT (5.5%) for take-away, but now our enlightened government finally gave this whole industry a big gift by bringing the VAT down to 5.5% for all restaurants. It of course made no difference for the consumer.

And re: the stench (I think that’s the proper word) it will indeed be an issue. But the McDo isn’t open yet… let’s see.

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Sad news.

I strongly recommend reading Michael Steinberger’s new book: Au Revoir to all That; its on this very subject. McDonald’s is, I believe, the largest private employer in France.

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I’ve just finished The Omnivore Dilemna and I think that’s enough for now. I need to digest this for a little bit before I move on :slight_smile:

Melissa, I had a look at McDonald’s numbers and although there are almost 1,200 franchises in France, there are over 12,000 in the United States - that’s twice as many based on population. And as I said the only competitors in France are Quick (332 franchises in France) and KFC (less than 100), which means around 1,600 outlets overall (we have a lot of independent, small businesses as well). In comparison Taco Bell has about 6,000 outlets in the US, Sonic has 3,500 and so on.

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And, amazingly, Quick food is even worse than McDo. The only good thing about them is they don’t stink up the air like McDo does.