Consumption is a heading so all-embracing as to be potentially infinite in its scope. We have chosen to concentrate on the fields of cuisine and fashion for a number of reasons. They are, as this chapter will show, to a large extent related ('show what me what you eat and drink and I will tell you what you wear' is perhaps an exaggeration, but not much of one); they have perhaps unsuspected political and ideological resonances; they are probably the two areas of French popular culture most significantly ignored by Anglophone academics, as the dearth of articles on them in major journals suggests; and yet their presence not only 'on the ground' in mainland France but in French literary and cinematic texts is an often vitally important one. Much more important work remains to be done in exploring the resonance and significance of these two most inescapable of areas. The French all eat, drink and dress themselves, but until now little has been done, in English at any rate, to investigate how and why.

Food and drink France's cuisine is among her major cultural and economic assets. Indeed, it could be argued that it is the area more than any other in which she clearly leads the world. German philosophy, Italian art and architecture, the American cinema, the British theatre are worthy rivals and sometimes more to their French counterparts, but nobody would question France's position as the cradle of gastronomy and the world's leading producer of top-quality wine.