Yes, it's a salad.

Everyone wigging out? Yeah, that's how I was when they plonked it on the table. This was at La Marmite, 2 blvd de Clichy, Paris. It was listed as a salade paysanne, and it is supposed to look like this. Paysan(ne) is the word for peasant. The idea is a rustic salad with a few extras, like boiled egg or potato and ham or bacon pieces. This monstrous creation was a bowl of lettuce and tomato, with vinaigrette, hidden under a gigantic mound of garlic-fried potatoes and lardons. Observe the lonely little poachie at the summit of Mt Everest. Good God.

The interesting thing was the table of American and German tourists (why do I always pick the tourist cafes?) nearby, who thought this salad was the greatest thing ever and were tucking into theirs like there was no tomorrow. Perhaps this dish illustrates the extremely loose correlation between the definitions of "salad" across continents...