The French were once skeptical of McDonald's, and it wasn’t a success there until the turn of the millennium, when executives leaned into embracing French culture.

The most significant change was using local ingredients and ensuring customers knew this by investing in a booth at the Salon de l'Agriculture, a huge agricultural trade show in Paris.

Local menu items, such as the McBaguette, the Ovaltine McFlurry, and baked goods like croissants and French macarons, helped the company's unexpected success in France, too.

McDonald's is now entrenched in France (known as "McDo's"). There was even a campaign to save a struggling location on the outskirts of Marseille in 2018.