Germaine Tailleferre at the table

In high society Paris at the dawn of the 20th century, meals were served in successive courses rather than a simple starter-main-dessert format: first the soup or hors d'oeuvres, then the main course (fish or meat), followed by cheese and a dessert or fruit. Two essential rituals were added: the afternoon snack (madeleines, lemonade, chocolate) that punctuated the life of literary and musical salons, and, in the countryside, the summer preserving work that filled jars and pots for winter.