It all started with a huge queue—and please, do not read this with a French accent and a dirty French mind because just in case you didn’t know, “queue” means “dick” in French.

Alright, let me rephrase this. Let’s just say it all started with a giant line of people at the corner of Rue du Couëdic and Rue Sainte-Catherine.

Now, if you’re not French, you may assume that Taylor Swift was staying at the Mercure Hotel, which is also right at the corner of the street, and signing autographs in the street. But if you’re from Nantes, you’re likely to just nod and go “Ah, lunchtime” or “Ah, dinnertime” because the colossal wait isn’t even a one-time thing but a regular occurrence around noon and in the evening.

See, people are waiting for a table à L’entrecôte, a restaurant famous for a set menu featuring rib steak, a buttery sauce, and all-you-can-eat fries.

French people go crazy for it and since the restaurant doesn’t take reservations, you’d better get in line.

And it gave me an idea for a photo project—what French people eat when they eat out.

I rushed home, grabbed my camera, and started the project with the lineup in front of L’entrecôte.

Initially, I thought I’d try to capture what was on people’s plates—nice summer weather, plenty of narrow streets, and people eating outside centimetres from passersby, shouldn’t be too difficult.

I started wandering around, paying attention to tables and plates. The table setting kept me busy for a little while. It’s funny how different it is depending on the food—knife and fork for traditional French food, small bowls for cider in Breton crêperies, plastic trays and plenty of paper napkins for kebab sandwiches.

But where was the food? Everybody was drinking booze instead or ordering picturesque meals!

It turned out I had forgotten that 8 or 9 p.m. isn’t dinnertime yet, it’s apéritif. You have to give that to the French, they somehow completely normalized pre-dinner drinking.

“In a way, you did capture the essence of French culture,” Mark said, laughing when I explained why I wanted to go out again the next day to take pictures of people and their food. “Alcohol is food in France.”

True, but it’s not super picturesque. I was still dead set on showing amazing food on this blog.

We went later, around 10 p.m., so people were done drinking without food—they were still drinking but with food. Except it was still hard to take pictures of their meal because guess what, food gets eaten fast. I spotted half-eaten crêpes, leftover fries, melted ice cream and greasy plates (Steak or buttery fish? A DNA test is required!) but nothing really Instagram-worthy. Just as well, I suppose, since I don’t have an Instagram account.

I learned a thing or two along the way, though. For instance, I can tell you that no matter how fancy the restaurant is and regardless of what you’ve heard about non-picky young French eaters, kids are invariably munching on French fries. Parents are eating steak tartare? French fries for the kids. Parents ordered mussels? French fries for the kids. Kebab? Now the entire family is eating fries. Maybe that’s why Americans called them French fries (it’s not, the credit was given to the wrong country because WWI American soldiers discovered fries in French-speaking Belgium).

I can also tell you that French people eat with a knife and fork but also with chopsticks or their hands. There are roughly four restaurant categories in Nantes. First, traditional French food featuring meat, fish, rich sauces and classic dishes nobody actually cooks at home. Then comes tons of crêperies and pizzerias, an easy and relatively cheap sit-down restaurant option for a satisfying one-plate meal (France always serves personal pizza, not giant sliced pies). Ethnic food is another category, with Indian, Greek, Lebanese, Eritrean, Thai or Japanese restaurants. Then you have kebabs and local burger joints, many of them offering “French tacos”—this is not your traditional Mexican tacos!

But you will have to take my word for it since I don’t really have pictures of drool-worthy food, sorry.

However, I can offer pictures of French people eating and drinking—and it’s actually quite entertaining.