Saturday Barbie had booked a Marais for walk for both of us. I’m thinking this is a bit expensive for a walk with someone showing us some boulangeries and fromageries, but being the compliant husband I trotted along. We hadn’t really explored Marais before, so got there early to identify our meeting point and generally have a look see.
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| A superior croissant after a surgical cross section cut |
Meet up was 10:30 and we were hungry as we weren’t sure if we’d get a ton of food on the walk. Marais is a cool area so an hours wandering was fun and interesting. Less interesting wwas when Barbie realised the meeting point was at number 124 and not 24 which meant a sprint to meet the little tour group of 6, four Americans plus us plus Catherine the Paris by Mouth blogger and tour guide. Armed with a degree in anthropology and masters in food history plus years in Paris reviewing and eating its food, we felt pretty confident.
First stop was a boulangerie which had just come in top 10 baguettes in Paris. We were told this was a really big deal and pushed elections and the like off the front pages of the paper. We were on a hunt and gather bought baguettes, croissants and sour cherry tart (barbies idea) and went to a park to eat. He also had prizes for the croissants. We learnt good croissants weren’t crescent shaped, croissant bueurre is made with butter vs margarine and the top ones always have a standard butter of special provenance . If you cut it with scissors, you will see craters rather than continuous layers.Of course a top croissant doesn’t need anything with it. I could write more but you may need to go to your bakery with a pair of scissors to do a test.
Next is the humble baguette , first,it should’t bend - you should be able to club someone with it. Another important attribute to look for is the bottom of it should be slightly rough, not like braille. The former has dough resting on linen, the latter is machine made.
We then ventured to a fromagerie and since I love all cheeses but have no real knowledge, she pointed out the more interesting facts that goats cheese in France is only made in breeding season and thus it is real mothers milk vs an artificially induced milk. What we cn never get in Australia is non pasteurised cheeses so will always have to travel to Europe to experience the more exotic cheeses
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| Famous bread/croissant shop |
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| look for the craters |
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| Spices |
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| Oils |
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| Not for the kosher |
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| See price of Jambon $299euro/kg |
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| Eating |
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| Fromage |
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We then ventured to a ham and meat shop with one ham at $300eur per kg. Again foraged more food before settling at a wine shop with a booked room. This was really weird as it was all cask or boxed wine as they call it. With pictures of apparently many of Frances top winemakers we are asked to believe this was the new cutting edge trent in wine.
We sat down with a big carafe of Rose, vin blanc and rouge to eat bread, cheese and jambon. the equivalent of 3 quarters of a bottle of wine each plus he food we were all satisfied.
That was before our visit to a specialist chocolatier and soft sweet maker - I’m not really into chocolate, but the soft june things - especially the carrot flavoured ones were amazing.
We expect an email detailing where we went etc from Catherine so I may post it later for anyone travelling.
Afternoon of fun exploring other parts of Paris and dinner finally had snails..
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