This is a preview of the content in our French Food Decoder app. Get the app to:
  • Read offline
  • Remove ads
  • Access all content
  • Use the in-app Map to find sites, and add custom locations (your hotel...)
  • Build a list of your own favourites
  • Search the contents with full-text search functionality
  • ... and more!
iOS App Store Google Play

manger sur le pouce

to eat fast food

Delicious fast food background

Manger sur le pouce (‘To eat on the thumb’) is an expression that appeared in the 19th century and refers to the thumb being used a lot when handling a knife and slices of bread, in other words, when having a quick meal, not sitting at a restaurant table. These days it tends to mean a burger and fries.

The first McDonald’s opened in France in 1972 and today there are 1,485 ‘Macdo’ outlets and they are usually pretty busy! In fact France is the chain’s most profitable country outside of the United States. Why? It stays open all day and until late at night, most serve beer, offer free WiFi and most of all, it’s cheap.

Miscellaneous

Text © Dana Facaros

Image by Marco Verch Professional Photographer