An important element of local life in Paris is food.
During Year 4, we have enjoyed our share of all sorts of food in Paris, from desserts to honey to soufflés to chocolate, among other edible wonders.
One of the very best desserts is served at our favorite café, the Relais du Louvre. Who doesn't love a flaming crème brûlée?
(By the way, the emergency telephone number of the Paris fire department is 18. Just in case.)
Another enjoyable dessert experience came from our local artisanal bakery, Yannick Martin. A special dessert for the holiday season is gateaux Saint-Roch, the namesake of our street and local church.
In the Tuileries garden, we discovered the Café des Marroniers, which is set in a grove of Chestnut trees (marronier means chestnut tree). They serve a delicious apple tart.
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| Tarte aux pommes |
Our Parisian friend Eliane introduced us to one of the very best bakeries in Paris, the award-winning Gosselin. Eliane knows desserts. They were delicious.
Honey:
During Year 4, honey was a frequent treat. Our first exposure was seeing beehives in the Tuileries garden. We learned that hives all over Paris are used for biodiversity and for making local honey.
We discovered where to buy locally-made honey, at the luxury food emporium Fauchon.
We also discovered a shop dedicated to honey, La Maison du Miel.
The clerk asked if we wanted the jars specially packed to take on a plane. We laughed and said there was no need for that. The honey was delicious. Without a doubt, Parisians know good honey.
Before Year 4, an acquaintance from Paris told us about her favorite restaurant in Paris, Le Recamier. The restaurant's specialty is the soufflé. We have dined there several times and once met the chef, who knows how to cook the perfect soufflé every time. One of the famous diners at Le Recamier was the late French President Jacques Chirac.
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| Chef Gérard Idoux |
Parisians love chocolate. Chocolate shops are everywhere. In our neighborhood, two are located around the corner, with more further down the street. We have enjoyed visiting the shops a few times during Year 4.
The experience of selecting chocolates is delightful. The people in the shops are extremely knowledgeable and they take great care in helping us make our selections. Plus, we have enjoyed the elaborate process of wrapping and packaging the chocolates.
Once during Year 4, we made a pilgrimage of sorts. Not a religious pilgrimage. More of a chocolate pilgrimage. We visited a chocolate shop in the 11th arrondissement, Le Chocolat. The chocolates are the creation of Alain Ducasse, the famous Michelin-starred French chef. Ducasse is known for his haute cuisine but he also knows chocolates. We had a reason for visiting the shop in the 11th, even though one is located a block from our apartment. The shop in the 11th is also their chocolate factory. We enjoyed watching the master chocolatiers at work using traditional methods and vintage machines.
Marie-Chantal did not leave empty-handed.
Cafés and Restaurants:
Paris is filled with cafés and restaurants, an estimated 40,0000. During Year 4, we enjoyed dining at several. Aside from our favorite Le Relais du Louvre, we also enjoyed the very trendy and popular Balagan, near our apartment.
We also enjoyed dining at the legendary Le Procope, a café where France's greatest intellectuals once congregated, including Voltaire, Rousseau and Diderot, and where some visiting Americans dined, including Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.
Some other visiting Americans also dined there.
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| From left to right: Reverend Canon T. Mark Dunnam, Marie-Chantal, Jean-Claude |
During Year 4, we also rediscovered a vegetarian restaurant near Les Halles. The restaurant's creative name is Veget'Halles. The food was likewise creative and delicious. Marie-Chantal first discovered the restaurant a decade ago.
Another great restaurant experience was very recent. We dined with friends Eliane and Jean-Charles (pictured below with Marie-Chantal) at La Traboule, around the corner from the Élysée Palace. We celebrated both our friendship and a great year in Paris by enjoying excellent cuisine. Jean-Claude enjoyed œuf parfait, ballotine de volaille jaune and mont blanc.
One final food note. Our guilty pleasure during Year 4 was the street crêpe. We sometimes stopped at a food kiosk along the street for a crêpe with cheese or cheese and ham. One crêpe was practically a meal and would tide us over until we returned home.
We even had a favorite kiosk that we visited, where the expert chef lovingly created each crêpe from scratch. We visited often enough that he recognized us and knew the type crêpe each of us preferred.
Thanks for sharing some delicious local food with us.
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