every one has their own version of salad nicoise. i keep mine simple: bib (butter) lettuce, steamed haricots verts, good tuna, olives, tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, and {sometimes} boiled potatoes, topped with a good amount of lemony shallot vinaigrette (i leave out the anchovies, but add a small amount to the vinaigrette once in a while). no matter how you do it, a nice salad nicoise is an easy and satisfying option for a light and healthy summer lunch or dinner. in the south of france it is often served in  a round sandwich called pain bagnat (which means wet bread in nicoise dialect-probably because of the good amount of vinaigrette that's added to the sandwich just before serving). my sister and i used to buy these for lunch from the little food trucks that sold them along the beaches- pain bagnat  is one of my favorite sandwiches ever, but i have never been able to reproduce that same particular {amazing} flavor at home. when my sister served {a rather large crowd} salad nicoise recently, she separated the lettuce and endives (her addition) on a platter. everyone then built their salads starting with the lettuce as a base and adding on whatever components they preferred from the lovely platter you see. i forgot to take a picture of the tuna (probably too busy enjoying my food as usual), but it was covered in delicious vinaigrette and sprinkled with sea salt and cracked black pepper. the egg yolks were an amazing deep orange color-my sister explained how you do this: