Lunch Cheques

[raisab]

I have seen the sign in restaurants for many years that say Cheques de Dejeuner Accepter. What are these vouchers. Who supplies them? Or do you buy them? My husband told me to ask on EGullet, what a smart man he is!

This is seriously like a community...I had to sneak a peek all week while I was in PAris to see what was going on here!

Edited to correct spelin

Edited April 27, 2005 by raisab (log)

[ScorchedPalate]

Do you mean these?

[raisab]

I appreciate the link but I still don't understand what they are, besides vouchers for lunch. Is this something provided by employers? Who does it benefit? Does it offer a discount off the standard meals or are they taken at face value?

[chefzadi]

I didn't look through the website. But basically it's a meal ticket. Big companies/corporations get them for their employees. The employees receive them for free (I think) or purchase them at a discounted rate from the face value. There are versions for students as well. I never used them. So I'm just going off of what I remember about them. I can look through the website and translate specific things if you have deeper, burning questions.

[therese]

Interesting web site. Under the "Mieux nous connaitre" drop down is "A l'origine", listing French laws which require companies with more than certain number of employees to provide a place for said employees to dine away from the immediate work site. Subsidizing restaurant meals was a way of getting around that requirement.

The company contributes between 50% and 60% to the value of the meal.

It benefits the company, because it's a fringe benefit that will help it retain employees. It benefits the employee, because it means that his meals are half of less of the normal price. It benefits the restaurant, as it ensures (assuming that the food's reasonably tasty, I suppose) a steady stream of customers.

The site lists all sorts of rules regarding use of the cheques, including prohibiting their use on weekends and holidays (because you're not at work, are you?) and redeeming them for cash (change given on leftover value from a cheque).

[John Talbott]

All of the above is correct. I would only add that my limited experience as a guest of someone who was using the "ticket" is that the restos/meals obtainable with these benefits are not what eGullet members come to France for and second, that to the contrary, when big companies, eg banks, have dining rooms, they can be elegant and serve terrific food.

[raisab]

Thank you all...I wish my company would subsidize my meal! I wish they would give me a meal! It is hard to go out for food at 37,000 feet in the air.

Though even though these are not the resaurants I go to France for, it is always fun to sit outside, have a glass of wine and very often enjoy some wonderful assietes and salads.

[bleudauvergne]

The tickets are partially subsidized by the government, partially by an employer. They are often sold at low prices to employees that don't have access to an on site canteen.

Where I work, we are able to buy tickets for 2€40 for a ticket with a face value of 6€90. These tickets are used as payment at any restaurant that accepts them and the establishment in turn get reimbursed at face value for the ticket.

The tickets are also accepted a food stores, butchers, boulangeries, etc. I have a friend who saves up her tickets and then goes on big spending sprees at Les Halles.

[raisab]

How wonderful for the workers! Will the new european union constitution put an end to these also?

[bleudauvergne]

How wonderful for the workers! Will the new european union constitution put an end to these also?

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I don't think so, since the tickets themselves are handled as a state matter which, with the treaty in effect, should not change.

[mzimbeck]

Thank you all...I wish my company would subsidize my meal! I wish they would give me a meal! It is hard to go out for food at 37,000 feet in the air.

Though even though these are not the resaurants I go to France for, it is always fun to sit outside, have a glass of wine and very often enjoy some wonderful assietes and salads.

←

A variation on this great deal are the "tickets restos" that are provided to educators in France. They work similarly - one can buy a book of tickets for half the price of the face value (7 euro). I use these all the time at neighborhood bistros (not canteens or dumps), and they're effectively a supplement to the famously low academic salaries. Viva la coupon!!

[John Talbott]

Update: Today/this week/month, these perks of employment (Cheque-Dejeuner, Cheque de Table, Cheque-Restaurant + Ticket-Restaurant) are 40 years old (bless President Georges Pompidou for the idea) and represent 567 million meals a year accepted in 160,000 restaurants (according to Metro.)