You hear a lot of French spoken in San Francisco, and boy, do we like French pastries here. This is a city, after all, with a mini-chain of so-so boulangeries that Starbucks recently bought for $100 million. So while croissants are easy to find, authentic French foodstuffs have been a little harder to track down. Not anymore, thanks to Gourmet and More in Hayes Valley. My friend Adam steered me toward the deceptively small fancy-food store, whose narrow space is filled with Gallic groceries: canned escargots, L’Artisan macarons, crisp pain d’epi, and (with apologies to France Gall) even des sucettes. In the back, a small room gloriously overflows with imported cheeses. Is there wine to be had? Mais oui — as well as a tucked-away patio in the back. If you were to replace the warm welcome with a dose of Parisian aloofness, you’d swear you were in little shop in the 18th arrondissement. Not that I’m complaining…

Tags: california, food, san francisco, shopping