2 Things To Always Remember or You'll Get the Famous Gallic Shrug

Two hints to always remember in order to make your stay in France that much happier:
1) PARIS - most Michelin starred restaurants ( especially 2 and 3 ones) are closed on the weekends and thus Thursdays and Fridays become the hardest days to get reservations. Plan ahead!

2) In The Countryside: Because shops and restaurants are open on Saturdays, they certainly are closed on Sunday and many, you'll find on Monday also, especially food stores and restaurants. So if you have a villa OR an apartment, make sure to stock up on Saturday, because for the next two days it may be hard to find a market open.

My brother and I had rented a barge in Burgundy on Saturday and thought we had stocked up with enough for 2 to 3 days, but ate ourselves out of house and home ( on Saturday and Sunday) and on Monday, along the canal and small villages, we found not a store was open. We ate crackers and drank wine for the entire day until Tuesday morning!