Food Tour of Paris

Once we pick a destination, a HUGE part of our trip planning is around food. Whether it's restaurants, markets, cafes, food festivals, etc...we love to plan around the tastes & foods of the areas we visit. Paris was no exception. We thought there was no better way to have a taste of the best flavors than to go on a food tour. We researched a few different options, and selected Paris by Mouth. SIGN US UP! Their tours sell out quickly, so you need to plan this in advance. They have small tours (8 people max) so you really get an intimate experience. There are several tours you can choose from, and we decided to select the "Taste of Saint-Germain" since that was our base camp for the week.

Let's do this!! The way this tour worked is that we would visit a few restaurants/shops along the way and have a little taste, while our tour guide was buying additional things for us to later sit down and feast on! YUM. Our tour guide was an absolute delight! She is from the States but has been in France for some time. She told us she is working on a project to taste every French cheese available in France. Check out her blog here: https://chezlouloufrance.blogspot.com/!

First stop (and where we met our guide & tour friends) was at the Poilane bakery This is a third-generation owned bakery, and some claim "the most famous bread in the world". Since we've been, it's amazing how many time I've seen it referenced and just never knew what it was. It was a small shop but a constant hustle and bustle. You could tell most people coming and going were locals, which says a lot. The smells were crazy good. We got some of the apple tartlettes which we ate immediately (this is going to be a good day!), and our guide got some sourdough loaves for us to enjoy later.

 

Our next stop was to the famous chocolatier Patrick Roger's shop. It was like a museum of art. Chocolate art. We were offered samples of milk chocolate rochers (MELT IN YOUR MOUTH), then they gave us a dark chocolate but wouldn't tell us what the flavors were. You could taste hints of this, and hints of that, and it turned out to be a lemon/basil chocolate. Such an interesting flavor and combo!

He is famous for his works of art in chocolate, especially the giant sculptures. LOOK at this monkey head. @mkmaddox is right behind it to give you an idea of how big it is! So cool.  

From the chocolate store, we headed to the Saint Germain covered food market: Le Marché Couvert Saint-Germain. I wish I lived around the corner. We were going primarily for meats and cheese, but they had all types of little shops: Greek/Italian/fruits/vegetables/fish/pastries. 

We went to the charcuterie and met, Serge, an 85 year old neighborhood butcher who was a magnificent flirt. (ooh la la!). He let us try a few nibbles, and then we bought some rosette de Lyon (cured French pork sausage), ham and parsley in gelatin, and goose rillettes (similar to pate) to eat later. Isn't Serge the cutest!?!

The other must-have-buy at the market was CHEESE. Glorious CHEESE. That's one thing we especially loved about this tour. They selected things that were fresh and in-season for us to try. They didn't follow a certain menu. If there was a new cheese that had just gotten in stock, we were luck enough to be the ones to try it.  

As we left, we went through the flower shop also located on site. They had the most beautiful flowers and arrangements. How fun would it be to come to the market and buy your dinner and fresh flowers. So Parisian indeed!

Armed with loads of food from our various visits, we headed to our next stop to sit and feast on all of our goodies. What better placed to stop for a bit than a wine shop! We graciously were invited into La Derniere Goutte. They had a private room in the back ready for us.

Our guide really spent time talking about the cheese and wines as we were tasting them. She had a map that showed what region everything came from. It was so helpful and made each bite even that more interesting. 

It was SUCH a delightful experience. We stayed there close to an hour just enjoying the smells and tastes and each other's company. Even though we all were full, we still had one more place to visit. 

We walked to the Rue de Seine, and it was filled with the cutest shops and restaurants. We went to a little patisserie called Popelini. They make these little cream puffs that are known as "luxury in one bite". Everyone got to pick whichever flavor that wanted. We chose pistachio and hazelnut. SO so good! A perfect little bit to end the day.

We can't recommend this food tour enough. It allowed us to learn a lot about the area we were staying in and helped us find little restaurants and shops we wanted to visit during our time there. It's the perfect way to get acclimated, and you have some of the best food in Paris along the way! We can't wait to go back and try another tour. Until next time....

Profitez et heureux de manger

(Enjoy and happy eating!)

XO,