Burgers Are Quickly Becoming A Favorite Food In France

The French take a lot of pride in their national cuisine (rightly so), but an American staple has taken hold recently. Burgers (dubbed le burger in France) are now on menus at 75 percent of the country's restaurants, and at 80 percent of those, it's the top-selling dish, according to a new study.

Last year, 1.19 billion burgers were eaten in France. That number's approaching the 1.23 billion jambon beurre (the quintessential French sandwich) that were sold.

The burger obsession can in part be tied to the golden arches. France is McDonald's largest market outside of the U.S., but it's more than that, the Telegraph reports. Burgers are on menus of Michelin-starred restaurants like Alain Ducasse's Le Relais du Parc and Joёl Robuchon's L'Atelier.

Still, France has a long way to catch up to burger-consumption levels in the U.S. and the UK, where an average person eats 30 and 20 burgers respectively per year. In France, that number is 14, so about one a month.

An outpost of Five Guys is slated to open in Paris's Gare du Nord train station soon, so maybe that number will go up.