Food and nutrition have changed in France.

My two-week visit in mid-September followed the Olympics, when more than 11 million international visitors came to Paris. Maybe the invasion of hamburgers, cheeseburgers and pizzas that I see on the menus of that city is a result of this. I don’t remember seeing them when I visited in 2019.

Fortunately, the camaraderie of croissants and crepes, as well as long and delightful outdoor meals at sidewalk cafes, remains a mainstay of France. Pastry shops that appear on every corner still fill their windows with carefully prepared desserts.

My daughter Sascha Nelson and I took a French pastry class in Paris to learn more about the beautiful desserts we see everywhere. La CuisineRun by Chicago native Jane Bertch, she teaches classes in English and is as interested in French culture as she is in cooking French food. Before our trip, we had both devoured Jane’s latest book, “The French Stuff,” and her monthly Bonjour From Paris newsletter.

The school eyes towering construction cranes working to restore the Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral on the banks of the River Seine, which will reopen on December 8 following the tragic fire in 2019.

One of the first things we learned in La Cuisine class is that French ingredients are so different from what we get in America that we cannot properly reproduce many French pastries in our country. In France, butterfat content is much higher and their all-purpose flour is more similar to our cake flour, for example. But the desserts we made in class were amazing.

Sascha made it his mission to bring French butter back from France, and despite the obvious difficulties, he succeeded. Our La Cuisine instructor offered to help with a list of Paris sources for ingredients we wanted to bring home.

The butter section at La Grande Epicerie is truly huge, and the store will be cutting back on travel packaging purchases. We already had packaged gels that we brought from home to keep my medications cold. We asked our hotel to refreeze them so we could bring the French butter home.

La Grande Epicerie de Paris Beyond butter, there are 13 counter-style restaurants with special sections dedicated to the things available here, along with tens of thousands of amazing food items, including cheeses, pastries and caviar. Paris is a great place for picnics and to stock up on unusual things to bring home.

The carbonated flamande we had in Lille earlier in our visit is not as difficult to reproduce at home as baked desserts. This is a stew in which beef is marinated in beer and then baked with a slice of gingerbread covered in mustard. Hard-to-imagine ingredient combinations result in an unusual and delicious dish.

We came to Lille for the annual 48-hour flea market Braderie, one of the largest and oldest in Europe.

How did we overcome mobility issues in post-Olympic France?

Due to France’s proximity to the Belgian border, Lille menus feature Belgian-style food, and beers are served more often than wines.

Mussels and fries, called moules et frites, are everywhere, and the piles of discarded mussel shells that grow in front of restaurants during Braderie indicate the most popular places to eat.

While in Lille, I also enjoyed Welsh, a cheese dish with points of ham and toast, similar to Welsh rarebit. The meals were satisfying and cheap.

With a few exceptions, our meals in Paris averaged between 60 and 80 euros for the two of us, with wine and tips; this was included in a check that was never offered unsolicited. The French consider meal time sacred, believing that a meal should be enjoyed with pleasure.

It is located in an old mill on a nearby hill. Sacré-Coeur Basilica in Montmartre, Le Moulin de la Galette It was especially unforgettable among restaurants. Once a guinguette wine bar in the late 1800s, this venue was favored by the Impressionists and provided the backdrop for works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and other artists of the time.

Our patio table was nestled among the greenery beneath the mill’s wings, and our meals of coq au vin and linguine were delicious. Sascha’s chocolate soufflé dessert, brought to him in a giant bowl containing gallons of soufflé, attracted the attention of those at neighboring tables. Our server scooped it onto her plate with a large ladle and invited her to say “when?” It was served with an extra spoon for me.

Paris beef bar Sascha’s Paris was at the top of my wish list and my friends told me about it, so we emailed to make a reservation. I’m not much of a beef eater and generally prefer independent restaurants, but my interest was piqued when I learned that owner Riccardo Giraudi sources the world’s best beef for his Beefbar restaurants in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Since opening the first Beefbar in Monaco, he has garnered accolades, awards and lots of press.

The restaurant did not disappoint.

As we were led into the dining room, we stopped to gaze at its ornate beauty. The Art Nouveau elegance of the once famous but long-closed La Fermette Marbeuf restaurant was discovered beneath nondescript walls during its transformation into Beefbar in 2019.

To sample the many ways the meat is served as street food with its iconic sides, the staff suggested a dish that included tacos made with Kobe beef and its signature mashed potatoes.

Since then, Sascha has been putting her potatoes through a ricer and whipping them with full-fat cream and real French butter, to the delight of family and dinner guests.

For our last dinner in Paris, we chose fondue, one of my daughter’s specialties from her hometown in Maryland. ‘Le Chalet Savoyard’The fondue consisted of a mixture of melted cheese, pieces of bread, and potatoes for dipping. I prefer Sascha’s fondue, which includes apple pieces, broccoli and dried sausage among the toppings. I should have ordered Reblochen fondue because that raw milk soft cheese is not available in the United States.

However, our table neighbors at Savoyard had Raclette, a cheese dish I ate in Switzerland, and they let me take photos if I wanted.

Raclette cheese, which is available in the USA and melts easily, is melted with a heating device brought to the table. Melted cheese is scraped onto a plate for dipping into various vegetables.

Maybe I’ll get that next time.