Paris is a city of foodies. Parisians are passionate about great food and preserving tradition whilst also exploring new culinary horizons. That is why it is always a shame when tourists visit the city and leave with memories of mediocre meals, crap crepes and expensive eats. There is so much to try and so much of it is so good! We joined Eating Europe on the Left Bank to learn about where to go and what to seek out. Read on for our Eating Europe review.
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Eating Europe in Paris
Eating Europe has food tours all around Europe. They hire local guides with a love of food, their home town and of meeting new people. Not only are they going to feed you the good food, but you’ll have the chance to learn about the guides and local area…if you want. Our guide Rachel was British, and both a tour guide, and a food journalist that has been in Paris for three years.
During our latest trip to Paris, we opted for the Eating Paris: Left Bank Food & Wine Tour as it was a nice blend of sweet and savoury, and who doesn’t love a glass or two of wine along the way? Plus, we had never been to the St Germain area of Paris so it would be a fun discovery too.
Breakfast From the Bakery
Every good day starts with pastry, the flakier and more buttery the better. Nowhere is this truer than in France. Admittedly, classics like the croissant actually came from Austria (why these pastries are often referred to as Viennoiserie) but I think France has perfected the balance of sweet and savoury to make them a firm favourite.
We skipped breakfast so it was marvellous to hear that our first was a bakery. Here we learned about the first of our Parisian artisans. A family that has been in the bread business for generations and has several branches of their shop in Paris. Poilane are famous for their giant sourdough loaves which line the shelves on one side of this location. They are also the owners of the only wood-fired oven left in Paris and the smell of the wood is lush. However, the sourdough wasn’t our intended treat. Instead, we picked up some biscuits to have a little later and an apple pastry. It was perfectly crisp and full of proper pieces of baked apple. Heaven.
Cheeeeeeeeese
Yes, it is always worth the Wallace and Gromit quote.
I don’t about you, but I always find the cheese counter a bit scary as I am probably a bit basic. I love a brilliant brie, can munch a mean manchego and chomp a cheddar or seven. However, when it comes to unusual French cheese, I am still learning. It might take a while considering there are officially around 1300 types!
Walking into Barthelemy was more exciting than walking into a sweet shop for sure. The goat cheese section alone, with its pretty petit fois cheeses, was so exciting. Apparently, they age their cheeses in the cellar but that isn’t for public viewing. I wasn’t going to argue as Madam Nicole Barthelemy that has run this cheese emporium for decades is famously terrifying (until you get to know her).
I wish we could have eaten our way around the whole shop, but I believe nibbling the edges of every cheese is frowned upon. Instead, we had a chat about fromage (cheese) in France. it is taken seriously and to earn an AOP you have to make your cheese in a certain way, and in a certain location. These are craftspeople of dairy and that is why the cheese in here costs a fair whack. Rachel picked up a few tasty options for later. Waiting for cheese is torture.
Baguettes at the Boulangerie
If you aren’t eating a baguette a day, are you even in Paris? However, what we get as baguettes in the U.K. are typically not the kind every Parisian is enjoying. The “Traditional” is a baguette in its purest form. In fact, it can only contain four basic ingredients and has to be a certain size and weight. If it has anything other than flour, watering, salt and yeast then it is not a Tradition. The white sticks we see most often are here referred to as “Classique” or “Ordinaires”.
For our second boulangerie (bakery) of the tour, Thierry Marx, we grabbed some bread and popped in the our tote bag (such locals). We learned that for a shop to be considered a boulangerie it must make the majority of its money from the sale of bread. It must be so hard when everyone’s baguettes have to be the same!
The Willy Wonka of Paris
We have both eaten a fair amount of chocolate in our time. We have sampled the spectrum from cheap supermarket slabs to fine Swiss concoctions. However, I feel like I have been wasting my tastebuds after visiting Jacques Genin. The chocolates in this fancy boutique are on a whole other level.
Jacques Genin, the chocolatier is incredibly meticulous in the selection of ingredients and then, with his stash of top quality flavours, he treats them with the greatest of care and skill. We had the chance to try his mint chocolates first and my eyes nearly popped out of my face with surprise. It was a burst of fresh mint, like thrusting your face into a plant. After years and years of peppermint oil and peppermint cream choccies, this was a revelation.
Next, we sampled one of his mango and passionfruit caramels. I was a little apprehensive of “caramels” picturing either the kind that is penny-shaped and sticks your teeth together for half an hour (from that Christmas box), or the sickly sweet liquid centres from the other box’s golden barrel. Well, this was soft and easily chewed with a bright and intense tropical fruit burst.
It is no wonder he supplies all the top hotels…now how can I get him to deliver to our house?
A Seafood Sit Down
With our collection of vittles, we made our way to a gorgeous deli/cafe/wine shop called Kaviari Deli. Already excited about our cheese, bread and biscuits, it was amazing to find out we were going o have some scrummy smoked salmon and caviar.
Seafood is my happy place and smoked salmon in particular has always been a part of my family’s celebrations so it is linked to so much joy. Seated in our next stop, we were treated to a blini with four corners.
- Gravalax – Mild and soft with a fennel and dill marinade. I could have eaten this whole fish.
- Smoked salmon – Lightly smoked and served with a smooth creme fraiche. Can I have this all over a bagel please?
- French salmon roe spread – A bit like taramasalata but with a lighter flavour and thicken texture. Considering how many pots of salmon roe dip I have eaten this was obviously going to make me happy.
- Caviar – What can you say? Caviar is pure bliss and it was really interesting to find out how this shop works with sustainable sturgeon farmers. We had a bite with creme fraiche and then slowly enjoyed the remaining soft, buttery fish eggs on their own.
More Cheeeeeeeeese
Once this was all devoured, we bust out the bread, cheese and biccies.
We were presented with our very own Fontainebleau, Its fluffy top looked so tempting so we dug our biscuits straight in. The cheese was really mild and almost sweet. Turns out it is cows milk cream cheese and whipped cream. I could do some real damage with this and a plate of cucumber slices.
To go with the whipped cheese, we had the biscuits from Poilane. These little shortbread biscuits were very simple and tasty, cooked in the bakery’s wood-fired oven. However, as the cheese was so lightly flavoured, I would have gone for a saltier base…but that’s just me. I would, however, like to nibble on a punishment biscuit with a cup of coffee. I will leave the story of the name for your tour, I don’t want to give everything away!
We also had a fun selection of four other cheeses to work our way through:
- Ossau-Iraty – A semi hard sheep’s cheese that is very like manchego and goes excellently with quince paste…which we also had.
- Rocamadour – A lovely goats cheese, not as punchy as the kind we normally have. A nice discovery.
- Comté – I call this French cheddar (uncultured swine that I am). it’s a semi hard Alpine cheese which is the most widely produced of all AOC cheeses.
- Fourme d’Ambert – Rachel said it was a mild blue but I’m not huge fan of blue cheese so it was strong enough for me.
We washed all of this delicious food down with a crisp glass of white wine as customers came in and out, ordering the excellently prepared salads and yummy fish on offer. What a foody paradise.
Pigging Out
For glass of wine number two, plus some more tasty snacks, we stopped at Avant Comptoir. After so many traditional treats, this was a nice change of pace. Avant Comptoir focuses on cuisine which links France and Spain. Here you will find gentle spice and lots and lots of pork. They have a mound of self-serve butter which we hacked into with relish. Then you could add salt, pick up some paprika and even grab as many cornichons as you fancied. How novel!
We ordered the caramelised pork belly, sweetened with Corsican honey which was very moreish. Sadly, it had a decent amount of onion in and I cannot bear onion so most of it was Mr Fluskeys.
Then we went a bit more left field with a couple of black pudding macarons. Apparently, some guests are a bit squeamish when it comes to blood sausage but we both enjoy it so we thought this a very fun dish to try. It was intriguing to have it with the sweet cases. I liked the salty sweet combo but the macaroni exploded when I tried to bite into it. I should have gone down in one!
A Divine Dessert
Have you heard of anything more delightful than the concept of a chocolate mousse bar?!
Now I am not a massive fan of the light, slightly watery mousse that you can buy in the supermarket. I’m much more of a Pots of Joy or Gu girl. However, the chocolate mousse at Chaplin is a very different beast. Again, the chocolatier here is a real master. He used to work at Buckingham Palace so he is no joke!
We got to pick from five different flavours. These included the extremely dark Venezuelan mousse and limited edition lemon. We opted for the Ecuadorean milk chocolate. Honestly, neither of us thought we had room, especially as Rachel had warned us that we might struggle.
The mousse was creamy and rich but still light and fully demolished it as the heavens opened and began to rain. This was the perfect punctuation mark at the end of our tour. We said a fond farewell to Rachel and she dashed off to the metro as we popped into a church for a touch of culture, and to wait out the worst of the rain shower.
Final Thoughts on Our Eating Europe Review
This was such an amazing exploration of some of the finest food in St Germain. We even got recommendations of a nearby food market that we need to go back to. I mean, I have been thinking about those chocolates ever since we left the sleek shop behind.
If you want make sure you don’t leave Paris with a bad taste in your mouth, I.can’t recommend taking a tour with Eating Europe enough. It was casual yet informative, fun and of course, delicious!
Rosie xx
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