Paris has always been synonymous with great food. It's not just the restaurants, which are amazing, but the city's many markets and small shops sell almost anything you can think of to put on a dining table.
I had heard of a relatively five-year-old website called Paris by Mouth, which offers dining recommendations, food news and restaurant reviews. Two years ago the website began offering a now very popular series of walking tours of Paris food venues, so I was intrigued to say the least.
Paris by Mouth features three-hour walking tours of several Paris neighborhoods that are well associated with food. These small group tours (six people maximum) include Taste of the Latin Quarter, Taste of the Marais, Taste of Saint-Germain, and Demystifying French Wine. Each of these is priced at about 95 euros, not cheap but still an incredible value based on what we experienced.
We selected the tour of the Latin Quarter centered on a market street called Rue Mouffetard. When we walked out of the Metro station, we immediately knew we were in an area devoted to food. Various shops devoted to cheese, meats, produce, chocolate, bread, and pastries lined both sides of the street. It's a form of curated food shopping that we in the U.S. have virtually forgotten about with our devotions to massive supermarkets and discount stores.
We met our guide, Catherine Hass, at the Cave La Bourgogne on the Rue Mouffetard in Paris' 5th Arrondisement. Catherine is French, but married to an American wine expert. Indeed, Paris by Mouth's American founder Meg Zimbeck's partner is French. A very friendly Australian family of four joined us, including two kids who had surprisingly sophisticated palates!
Catherine gave us a quick update on the tour program and the area of Paris we would be visiting. Then we proceeded to what's best about this program: visiting, learning about and tasting the food and wine at eight different shops and markets on and surrounding Rue Mouffetard. There really isn't a lot of walking involved, but there is (be warned) quite a bit of eating! No need for lunch on this program, which began at 10 a.m. and ended at 1 p.m. And all the food is included in the price!
We began, somewhat counterintuitively, with dessert. We visited Carl Marletti, a small shop owned by a famous pastry maker (patissier) where everything is made on the premises. We gazed upon a wide assortment of delicious pastries, including fresh eclairs, lemon tarts, millefeullies, Baba au Rhum, Religieuse and macaroons. Fortunately we didn't have to just look at those pastries.
PHOTO: Carl Marletti is a small shop owned by a famous pastry maker. (All photos by James Shillinglaw)
Catherine bought a sampling of eclairs with different flavors inside (for example, a classic chocolate eclair has a delectable chocolate filling). We walked across the street to a small park and to our reward. And I wished I could have gone back and bought a box of them. But we had more shops to visit and more food to taste!
Next up was Gregory Renard, another small shop owned by a famed maker of macaroons. Now if you thought those dry cookies you get around the holidays are macaroons, think again. These were multi-flavored, fresh and made to order. Made of egg whites and powdered sugar, those cookies (and I hesitate to call them cookies) have incredibly moist fillings with such flavors as coffee, salted caramel, chocolate, lemon, mango, grapefruit, passion fruit, and, a personal favorite, violet and cassis (among others). Again, Catherine bought a sampling for the group (including some we saved for later).
PHOTO: Gregory Renard offers a wide array of flavors for its famed macaroons.
We proceed through a medieval section of the Latin Quarter, where Catherine pointed out the potbellied houses and narrow streets in a neighborhood thamart dates from the 14th century. Indeed, many of the markets and stores we visited were almost as old. We stopped at Aux Saveurs D'Auvergne, one of the older shops in the neighborhood famed for its charcuterie - namely sausages, pates, terrines, sliced meats and more, all from a specific region of France. Again Catherine bought a sampling of pates and sausages, which we kept for the end of our tour.
We then walked to Anrouet, a master cheese shop (fromager) in business since 1909. This shop is famed for its regional cheeses, as officially certified by the French government. Indeed, it was the first shop to sell cheeses from other regions of France. Needless to say the smells wafting through this store were amazing.
PHOTO: Anrouet is a master cheese shop famed for its regional cheeses.
There were nearly 400 different kinds of cheese from sheep to goat to cow. And we just happened to have our tour at the height of goat cheese season. Once again, Catherine purchased a selection of cheeses, inspired in part by our new Australian friends and their kids.
We kept walking up Rue Mouffetard, past Boucherie Mouffetard, a butcher shop filled with delectable meats. Now we didn't buy anything here (that would have required a kitchen to prepare it), but I kept imagining just how great it would be to walk up and down the road buying food for a daily lunch and dinner. We stopped at Poissonnerie Quoniam, which displayed oysters (barely still in season), crabs and many different types of fish. Again, those things weren't on our shopping list because they might have proven to be a bit difficult to cook on the street!
We ended up at Mococha, another shop famed for its chocolates. Its owner proudly displays and sells the chocolates of three master chocolate makers, certified by the French government as producing the best in France (Meilleurs Ouvriers de France or Top Workers in France). These included chocolates by Patrice Chapon, Jacques Bellanger and Fabrice Gillote, each a unique work of miniature art and cuisine. Needless to say Catherine purchased a wonderful sampling of these and the kids got to drink one of the richest hot chocolates I've even seen or tasted.
We moved up to the Place de la Contrescarpe and into the old university neighborhood, past a plaque commemorating the home of American author Ernest Hemingway when he lived here 1922-23.
We ended up at Maison Claudel, a wine and whiskey store offering an incredible variety of labels. There we sat at tasting tables as Catherine selected three wines for us to drink. She also produced the cheeses, pates and chocolates she had picked up on our tour. We tried a Chenin Blanc from the Loire, a Vouvray and a Morgon (the kids got juice made from wine grapes). We also sampled some goat cheese, brie (real brie!), Roquefort and Comte cheeses (two different varieties).
PHOTO: The tour concludes at Maison Claudel, a wine and whiskey store.
And there, sadly, our tour ended. We had indulged in some of the incredible delights of French food. We had learned much about just what makes it so good. And, not surprisingly, we were full! No lunch needed now! I can't wait to go back to Paris to sample of the other wonderful food tours offered by Paris by Mouth.
For the latest travel news, updates and deals, subscribe to the daily TravelPulse newsletter.
Topics From This Article to Explore
