We did the Paris by Mouth North Marais tour on this day. It was a great intro to French food. We went to Tout Autour du Pain for baguettes and croissants – they’ve won awards for both. We then stopped at Jacques Genin to sample the chocolate and fruit candy (and our guide grabbed some caramels for later) – that shop was amazing. Everything was seasonally based, and was delicious. Next stop was a fromagerie and caractère near the Marché des Enfants Rouges. That was where we ended the tour, at a wine bar, with lots of wine, cheese, meat, and the caramels to finish things off. I learned a lot about French wine, and it was nice to hear more about the seasonality of the food as well. (We hit rhubarb, asparagus and strawberry season – those featured prominently in most menus we ran across.)
We started the day with a bus ride down to the Place des Vosges. We like to take a bus at least once if we can – it’s really interesting to get a street level view of a city. Paris is similar to New York and Boston in the craziness of its drivers, and like Boston in the wacky street layout to deal with.
One slightly annoying thing about having a 10:30 meeting time is that Paris is definitely a late rising city. Not much was open before our tour started. The Place des Vosges, and really most of the Marais, has a bunch of really cool shops, but not much was open before our tour. If I had it to do again, I’d consider the afternoon tour instead, especially if I could do it on a day I needed an early dinner.
On our way through the Marais toward the Seine, after the tour, we ended up at the Hotel de Soubise, which is their National Archives Museum. It was all in French, but was still really cool – they had an interesting sampling of documents from French history, including papyrus and scrolls from as far back as the 7th century, and various documents from famous French people, like a letter from Napoleon to Josephine. We both studied Spanish, and between that, and the amount of French that English has borrowed, were able to puzzle out a fair amount from the display text. It was a cool little stop for any history nerds.
We ended up heading to Les Halles for a couple shopping stops – BF ended up getting some spring loaded, heavy duty kitchen shears at E. Dehillerin, which you’ll find mentioned in any good American Parisian tour listing as Julia Childs’ favorite cookware shop. It is pretty cool to wander through. We also went to G. Detou for the spices.
On our way to the shopping, we stopped at the Saint Eustace church. One thing about Paris is how many large, old churches are just lurking around any corner. I’d really love to go back to Saint Eustace when their organ is playing – it’s a lovely instrument, in a really nice setting. I’ve gotten away from church in recent years, but these old churches in France do feel special.
At the end of the day, we got to experience the special hell that is the Les Halles metro station. It’s the largest, and most confusing in Paris. Trying to find your way to the line you want is a trip. Definitely one to be avoided if you can possibly help it.
Dinner that night was at Le Comptoir Général, based on a recommendation of a coworker of BF’s. It was happily in easy walking distance of the hotel. This was definitely the most modern meal of our trip – their menu is posted online. It’s seasonally rotated, so has probably already changed, but you can definitely see that they’re looking for new and interesting combinations of things to try. We both had the octopus main, which was served over quinoa, with a passionfruit puree. Never in a billion years would have thought to put any of those things together, but they were amazing.