Mayonnaise, n. One of the sauces that serve the French in place of a state religion.

Is mayonnaise an instrument?

I want a sexual innuendo sandwich, hold the mayonnaise.

Booing the Marseillaise is a very symbolic gesture, especially when it comes from French nationals. France was built on an unwritten national contract, that of a community sharing not only the same geography but also a sense of a common destiny. The Republican model is that of integration and togetherness, not of peaceful cohabitation between separate communities, as with multiculturalism. Integration supposes a will to integrate and a desire to live together. Since the 1960s, the French left has shied away from any debates brushing on anything linked with, in its eyes, the awful word of "nationalism", forgetting that the political concept born in the 1840s was a progressive one.

Almost anything is edible with a dab of French mustard on it.

And parents, some old fashioned kitchen wisdom for dealing with those lice: take your child and cover his hair with mayonnaise and shove him outside because he disgraced your house by bringing lice into it.

France took Algeria, hoping for a country to eat cassoulet and instead France is now eating couscous.

In Paris in the 1950s, I had the supreme good fortune to study with a remarkably able group of chefs. From them I learned why good French good is an art, and why it makes such sublime eating: nothing is too much trouble if it turns out the way it should. Good results require that one take time and care. If one doesn't use the freshest ingredients or read the whole recipe before starting, and if one rushes through the cooking, the result will be an inferior taste and texture — a gummy beef Wellington, say. But a careful approach will result in a magnificent burst of flavor, a thoroughly satisfying meal, perhaps even a life-changing experience.

Such was the case with the sole meunière I ate at La Couronne on my first day in France, in November 1948. It was an epiphany.

In all the years since the succulent meal, I have yet to lose the feelings of wonder and excitement that it inspired in me. I can still almost taste it. And thinking back on it now reminds me that the pleasures of table, and of life, are infinite — toujours bon appétit!

France is a nation with one religion and many sauces; England is a nation with many religions and only one sauce.

France has usually been governed by prostitutes.

Food makes history in France, in legend and in fact. (...) But when Charles de Gaulle radioed the French underground that the D-Day invasion was imminent, his message included the key phrase les carottes sont cuites. Literally, this means "the carrots are cooked," and metaphorically "it's all over." What other nation marches to war in the glow of beta carotene?

It seems that the sophistication of French cuisine arose from the need to mask the lack of freshness of the ingredients --much as perfume came from the need to compensate for bad hygiene. In contrast, Italian and East Med cuisines make salient the freshness of the ingredients.

Monsieur' to a convict is a glass of water to a man dying of thirst at sea; ignominy thirsts for respect.

The French like burgers, Madonna and Miami Vice.