I know, I haven't been updating this blog as regularly as I'd like to, but I have been busy enjoying the first warm days of spring in my garden, tilling the soil and planting vegetables. We were able to harvest our first radishes on Sunday! I have also been cooking and photographing, but not for the blog so I don't have anything new to post in that department.

I do have a trip to post about and it's all about a sweet stay in Paris. Last week my aunt and my sister boarded the TGV to Paris and had a wonderful time. The last time I was in Paris must have been in 1997 when I went on a student exchange to learn french. Since that was a long time ago, this trip was almost like going to Paris for the first time. The only "bad" thing about the trip is that is was very cold, windy and rainy. But we spent time in pastry shops and department stores to make up for it.

First stop after we checked into our hotel was the La Maison du Chocolat which was conveniently situated a few blocks from the hotel. What really struck me when I walked in was the sleek and pure style in which the store was decorated in. Dark browns and black and only a hint of color coming from the chocolate wrappers. We were so excited to visit our first stop, we nearly didn't know what to look at first. So we walked all around the small store and decided to buy our first of many chocolates. We each picked a few chocolates to try. Among them were Anastasia, Petit Rocher, Salvador and Cannelle. We ate them while standing on the Place Charles de Gaulle, watchin cars merge from 12 different streets and winding their way around the Arc de Triomphe. How the Parisians succeed without crashing is a mystery to me.

 After walking down the Champs Elysées, we decided it was time to start decided what we wanted for dinner. Next stop: Galeries Lafayette Hausmann and most importantly the food department. What a selection- what to have for dinner? Should we go with the Italian, the Chinese, the bread and cheese, the quiches or? We settled on quiche and salad. One salmon and spinach quiche, one ham quiche and one goat cheese and zucchini fougasse. Salad was an arugula salad with sundried tomatoes, parmesan and marinated artichokes. After dinner my sister needed to walk off some excess energy and walked right over to a huge Haagen Dazs store (4 floors!) she spotted earlier on the Champs Elysées. There she bought three flavors back: pralines and cream, mango sorbet and chocolate. We finished them all off and voted pralines and cream was by far the best.

The next morning we headed right into town and to Pierre Hermé. Sure, he's the God of macarons, but since I don't really love them, so what? But I did want to see his shop and see what other goodies he had and I wanted to be able to say I went to Pierre Hermé. He is famous, after all! We walked in and I knew he had lots of different macarons, but I didn't quite expect them as they were. Colored but not too bright and flavors that weren't too far out. And then we couldn't decide. It was to be a macaron for each of us. The man in front of us was filling to boxes to take back home and recommended the jasmine macaron. So we decided on Jasmin, Arabesque (apricot and pistachio) and Chocolat. I mentioned I don't really care for them and after our sweet day in Zurich, I was about to give up on them. But Pierre Hermé changed my mind. He must be the God of macarons. I loved the subtle taste of jasmine, the full-bodied chocolate and even the sweet and slightly sour apricot/pistachio macaron the others didn't, as it was somehow refreshing. Those macarons changed my mind and now I'll only eat his (or my own). I have heard Paul makes good ones, though. I'll have to try them the next time I'm in Strasbourg...

Boutique Cambon

Next stop was a few streets on at Jean-Paul Hévin. This place is my chocolate heaven. Another sleek store in navy blue and brown and the wonderful smell of chocolate. There were macarons, chocolates and cakes to choose from. The boutique we went to was in the rue Saint-Honoré and also had a tea room. We decided on getting something to go and ended up getting cake. Two beautiful slices af sinfully delicous chocolate cake. One was called "Tonka" chocolate cake with a tonka flavored chocolate mousse and chopped hazelnuts and almonds and the other was "Chocolate fromboise" chocolate and almond bisquit with raspberry syrup, chocolate mousse and topped with raspberry preserves. My sister didn't care for the Tonka, saying the oily vanilla/almond flavor of the tonka bean bothered her. I thought both were equally delicious. My new favorite place for chocolate cake is definitely Jean-Paul Hévin!

 After stepping into a Zara and coming out into the rain loaded with bags, we decided it was time for lunch at Fauchon. Fine with me, but first we stocked up on gifts to take home. The shop was a busy place, decorated in their signature colors hot pink and black, with tourists oohing and aahing over their sweets. I headed over to the coffee and tea department to find some coffee for my husband. Next I went over to the area where they had spices, herbs, salts, mustards, oils and vinegars stocked. What to choose from? I debated for a very long time about buying the pink salt from the Himalayas or the black salt from Hawaii, but decided against them and reached for a balsamic vinegar which had been aged 5 years. Why balsamic vinegar? It's very hard to find good balsamic vinegar which doesn't have sugar or coloring or flavoring or preservatives added to it. There is a huge difference in taste when using pure balsamic vinegar and I love the flavor. Meeting my sister and aunt back at the sweets, I decided on a goodie for me: cocoa powder. In a pretty tin, also without additives, I thought it would be good for either making hot chocolate or for baking. And when it's empty I can refill it and still have the tin.

On the same square Hédiard, a most exquiste, luxury delicatessen can be found. Everything is covered with red and black stripes, the signature colors. There was a huge tea, coffee and wine selection, but what got me most were the large glass jars filled with spices: curries, white cardamom, poppy seeds, pink peppercorns, etc. I wanted to lift the glass tops off, close my eyes and sniff the scents. I'm sure the young man in change of those jars would have politely shooed me away if I had tried to do that. So instead I asked him if he had any tonka beans in the jars and I didn't want to buy a whole pre-packaged bottle of them. I only wanted two or three. He smiled and shook his head, saying they only had them in the bottle. Too bad as I would have loved to have some. I settled for some curry instead.

And now it was time for lunch, so we headed back over the square to Fauchon for lunch where my sister and aunt picked out a green bean salad with a sesame dressing, a puff pastry tart topped with tomatoes, cheese and turkey and I grabbed a green pea soup with basil and a roll with Parmesan, sun-dried tomatoes and black olives. I was given a plastic teaspoon with which I was to eat my soup. It took forever, but the soup hit the spot as it was pouring buckets of rain and was cold. The food was all very good, but the large amounts of plastic used to package and serve the food really bothered me. I understand that a container is needed if the food is to be taken and eaten somewhere else, but most of the food bought in the dining area is consumed right there and it wouldn't be hard to not use as much plastic.

After dropping all our shopping bags off at the hotel we headed to the Palais Royal and the shops situated around the garden area. My aunt wanted to go to the Joie store there and I was interested in the vintage second hand store. Then we decided to go to two stores (MORA and E. Dehillerin) which sold baking utensils, but they both were like warehouses and a disappointment. They would be perfect if you know exactly what you are looking for. But to just go and browse, they are too impersonal. 

Palais Royal

To escape the rain we headed over to the Galeries Lafayette Hausmann and had dinner at the Italian counter before stocking up on more gifts to take home.

The next day took us first up to Montmatre and the Sacre Coeur. Sacre Coeur hadn't changed since the last time time I was there, except that there weren't as many tourists. When I was there last, it was during a summer heat wave and a friend and I spent an hour in the church to stay out of the heat. This time I lit a candle and walked around. We then walked over to the painters' square to see what the artists were working on. Again, I remember it being hot and full of tourists. But it was cold, but luckily not rainy.

Sacre Coeur

There was a tiny candy store my sister wanted to go to which is located in Montmatre: A l'Etoile d'Or. The proprietress, Denise Acabo, is quite a character with blond braids, a kilt and lots of energy. She is the only person who sells Bernachon chocolate outside of the factory. So we bought a few pieces of chocolate. I have no doubts that the chocolates are good when fresh, but the ones we had were old and tasted accordingly. We were very disappointed.

Lunch time. Where to go? We headed over to Bon Marché and up to their restaurant, where my aunt had steamed vegetables and my sister and I had the chèvre chaud with grilled vegetables and a salad. Very good. The ice-cream we had for dessert wasn't. After lunch we walked around the department store, admiring the clothes by French designers. Walking though the Saint Germain area, heading towards another Pierre Hermé shop, allowed me to see all the beautiful buildings I never saw on earlier trips to Paris.

Tiered after a day of walking around town all day, we stopped in a store selling food from Dallayou, another famous gourmet store. We bought a sandwich, a ham quiche, salad and from the pastry selection a chocolate éclair, an apricot and almond tart and a religieuse au chocolat (dark). The almond tart was spectacular, but the religieuse au chocolat was amazing.

On our last day the sun finally came out, but it was still freezing. We went back to Pierre Hermé for a selection of chocolates to eat on the way home. The Azur (lime and yuzu), Ispahan (raspberry), and Pietra (caramelized hazelnuts) were outstanding. I'm returning to Pierre Hermé when I go to Paris the next time!

Then we walked though the Tuileries, past the Louvre museum, along the Seine and to the Ile de Saint Louis for a view of the back of the Notre Dame.

Place de la Concorde

Notre Dame

Luckily my husband is attending a conference in Paris this fall, and I will be joining him for the weekend afterwards. Thanks to my sister who kept on insisting we try one more ice-cream place and one more chocolate store, I now know where I will be returning to. A big thanks to our aunt who took us to Paris and tried all the goodies with us.