Paris Feast - Food for the Journey

Three reasons to visit Paris this trip (or any trip for that matter):

1. The food

2. The craft/fabric shops

3. The sights

This post will focus on THE FOOD, with a blow by blow account of what we ate and the food we saw!

• Thursday night - Vietnamese food at Chez Duc, Passage des Panoramas
  
• Friday morning - croissant, sable du chocolat from the boulangerie at the corner of Rue Crimee and Avenue des Flandres
  
• Friday lunch - Galettes at Suzette Creperie on Rue des Francs Bourgeois, Marais. If you look at the link you'll see the little table we sat at, outside, bathed in sunshine (not on the day we were there unfortunately). Great modern crepes!
  
• Friday dinner - lamb, chicken and merguez couscous at La Mascot on Rue Crimee
  
• Saturday breakfast - brioche au chocolat from the boulangerie
  
• Saturday lunch - croque monsieur at the foot of Montmatre, Rue de Martyrs
  
• Saturday dinner - homemade pate, steak, fondant au chocolat from Chez Juliette, 42 Rue Rochechouart
  
• Sunday breakfast - brioche suisse, boulangerie, Rue de la Deux Ponts, Ile St Louis

Food shops/markets we visited:

• The amazing foodhall at Galeries Lafayette Gourmet
  
• Pain de Surce, 14 Rue Rambuteau, Marais - amazing homemade marshmallows (guimauve in French - a new word for me but one I will never forget, like gabbiano in Italian - a seagull) flavoured with green tea, or raspberry & violet, or vanilla & olive oil.... owned by Didier and Nathalie, they make and sell the most amazing desserts and patisserie.
  
• Ice cream from Berthillon 31 Rue St Louis, Ile de la Cite - more raspberry & rose, pistachio....
  
• Eastern European specialities at the bakery of Florence Finkelstajn, Rue Rosiers (the historical heart of the Jewish quarter in Paris), Marais - watching the owner cutting up cheesecake in the window, with the most beautiful mosaic facade, opposite the most popular falafel shop in the whole of Paris.

 

• Food markets in Paris are just amazing....why we cannot have markets like this in the UK....Sunday morning we went to the lively Rue Moutffetard and Place Monge, where we wandered around the shops of Rue Mouffetard, marvelling at the shops full of fish, meat, cheese, wine & chocolates and the market stalls, savouring the colours and smells, the sights and the sounds.... watching the Parisians doing their shopping....choosing from 10 different types of lettuce (Tesco take note - lettuce is not just iceberg and round....)

Food is one of my favourite things to take photos of, markets in particular! When in Rome, we visited the Marche de Fiori where I took about 15 pictures (pre-digital) and then the colosseum where I took 1.....the colours of the fruit, the smells of the market, the bustle of the people, the voices rising above the hum shouting out their wares, are all much more evocative of Rome for me, than the colosseum....

The Marais is in the 3rd arrondisement and has been gentrified over the last few years, but still retains it's multicultural feel, Jewish bakeries, falafel shops featuring alongside chic boutiques....have a read of this article, published in the New York Times - 36 Hours in Paris and you'll get a little bit of a feel for the place.