Paris Chocolate Tour

Way back in 2013 we spent a fabulous few hours one morning on a Parisian chocolate tour from Context Travel. I don't often join tours, particularly in cities I know moderately well like Paris, but was so glad that we did this one. I had seen Carol of Paris Breakfasts description of her tour  in the months leading up to our trip, and knew that our group would be keen too. Six of us went along this morning. 

We met up with our guide, Laurel, outside Eglise St Germain de Pres one slightly cool and damp morning. Laurel was an American pastry chef who had been living in France for 19 years. She was an enthusiastic and knowledgable guide. 

Laurel explained that people have been eating chocolate for 4,000 years, although for most of those years their experiences were nothing like the gustatory delights we were about to experience that morning. The Incas had used cocoa beans for taxes. The explorer Cortes was the first European to taste chocolate- ingested as a drink back then. Cortes took it back to Spain and added vanilla and sugar to the drink. 

Spain kept their chocolatey discover to themselves for about 100 years, before two Austrian princesses adopted it and spread the practice outside Spain and into France. Marie-Antoinette loved chocolate, and employed her own pharmacist, Monsieur Debauve to make her particular chocolates. At that time egg white was whipped into the chocolate, and Marie-Antoinette favoured her pistoles, discs of flavoured chocolate, as her medicines. Possibly Marie-Aintoinette was the first woman documented to use chocolate to help her mood?

Monsieur Debauve was saved from the guillotine by Napoleon, and he was to become chocolatier to the emporer after the revolution. He set up a business with Monsieur Gallais in 1800, the shop still trading at the location at 30 Rue des Saints-Pères where they opened in 1806. Today we started our tour passing by their historic location. We were to visit houses showing us the historical and the modern approach to French chocolate. 

The French worked chocolate into their favourite pastries, viennoiserie, again brought to Paris by Austrian princesses, creating the now classic pain au chocolat. We then visited Josephine Bakery at 42 rue Jacob 75006, run by an ex head baker from La Grande Epicerie (our corner shop this trip) Benoît Castel. He makes an intriguing chocolate bread, apparently good with fois gras, and quince bread, sadly not sampled on this chocolate focused day. 

Nor were these, but they look so pretty

Next we visited a Ladurée Salon de Thé. Monsieur Laduree had opened a bakery at the same location, sadly it had burned down in 1870. Madame Laduree created the first salon de the when the shop was rebuilt. At that time ladies were not able to go to cafes or bars, which were the domains of men. Until the creation of the salon de the fashionable ladies were only able to meet their friends in their own houses. Laduree was family owned until 1993, and it was the grandson of the original Monsieur Laduree, Pierre Desfontaines, who continued the creative nature of the family by inventing the macaron as we know it in 1930.

It's not just macarons at Ladurée

This day we were to sample the three different chocolate macarons that were on offer at Laduree that day. Chocolat. Ghana. Venezuela. Each was quite a different, glorious taste, the chocolat basic, the Ghana more subtle and the Venezualan deeper. 

Laurel explained that tradition is particularly important to the French, they are not early adopters of new trends, which is why the pastries at different bakeries will often look similar, they are classics and generally not to be toyed with. Debauve and Gallais still make the pistoles as Marie-Antoinette liked them. Laduree still uses their original 19th century packaging design by Jules Chéret.

We took a brief detour from chocolate to visit France's only master caramelier Henri Le Roux at his amazing store at 1 Rue de Bourbon le Chateau. Henri is the man who invented Caramel Beurre Sale! He is well worth a visit to worship at his feet. We sampled both his amazing caramel and his exquisite chocolates, and I think all of us went away with a jar of his sensational CBS. 

And maybe a marron glacé or two

The last stop on our tour was at Pierre Marcolini one of the new forces in Parisian chocolate-even though he is Belgian. I had heard of Pierre before arriving in France and was very keen to visit. Clotilde Dusoulier had informed me that Pierre Marcolini uses reconditioned 150 year old machines to process his chocolate as he believes that this creates a superior chocolate even though the production is a little slower. We sampled four of his different place of origin blends- each quite different, each lovely, but the Equador was exquisite- it had beautiful floral notes like a flavour had been added- and yet it was simple chocolate magic.

Every morning in Paris is amazing. This one was particularly splendid. 

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from Paulita at An Accidental Blog 

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Pardon My French

I have a very soft spot for this book as I bought it in a book shop on Place Saint-Michel on my most recent trip to Paris in October last year. I started reading it while I was away, but then put it aside while travelling, and picked it up again recently. I've been reading it off and on for some time. It's an easy book to do that with. 

Charles Timoney is a patent lawyer. In the 1990s both he and his French wife were laid off in the same month. They took it as a sign, and applied for jobs in Paris. Charles got his job and they moved to Paris, he was then on a steep French language learning curve. While he spoke English at work, he needed to learn French to shop, to dine, to live. 

Learning a foreign language is a long and exhausting business. 

It is indeed.

If you are not born into a bilingual family, it is going to take a good seven years' hard study to become more or less bilingual- if you are lucky. 

So there'll be many more years memorising of verb conjugations, passé composé and struggling with articles for me. I'm sure it'll take much longer on a part-time basis, puddling along in Australia. 

Pardon My French uses French words and phrases as a window into French culture as well as the mere words. It is organised in subject groupings such as- Food and Wine, How to Sound French, The Business World. Much of it is extremely practical advice for the visitor to France. Handy advice on every day tasks like buying bread- yes you can ask for 'une demi-baguette' at the boulangerie, and in a restaurant you can ask for 'une carafe d'eau' ( a carafe of tap water) when you are only offered mineral water (Eau plate ou gazeuse?/Flat or sparkling water). Australians drink a lot of water, and has been a real moneysaver for us over time, but it wasn't something I knew on my first trip. 

I've long been curious about going to the movies in France, but always been anxious about whether I'd understand enough of it to be worthwhile. Now thanks to Charles Timoney I know to look for VO/VF. Version Originale/Version Francaise.

'Version Originale' means that the film will be shown in its original language with French subtitles, while 'Version Francaise' means that it will be dubbed into French. 

So simple once you know! I want to go back to Paris so I can go to the movies. Well that's one reason... I walked past UGC Danton many times last year, and their website does indeed list VO/VF- another French mystery explained.

While Charles advises us to "never even think about attempting to explain the rules of cricket to a French person" he helps us understand the French obsessions with documentation, wedding cakes, suppositories and the places where things happen- where you were born, where a cheque was written. 

But it was Page 58 that literally stopped me in my reading tracks. 

There are two quick ways of telling whether a book is English or French. (We shall suppose, for the sake of argument, that you have become so perfectly bilingual that you no longer noticed whether words are French or English.) First, when books are standing upright in a bookcase: if you have to tilt your head to the right to read the wording down the spine, the book is English; if you tilt your head to the left, it is French.

Could this really be true? How hadn't I noticed?

French Gone series

Australian Gone series. 

C'est vrai! It's true! It's extraordinary to realise that the language you speak controls so many things even down to the way which you will need to turn your head to read a book spine. 

There are so many useful and fascinating nuggets of information in Pardon My French that I'm sure I'll reread it at some stage along my 7 plus year journey towards bilingualism. 

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from Paulita at An Accidental Blog 

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French Bingo 2015

Paris Revealed

Paris Revealed is a fascinating three part documentary detailing three of the most visited sites in Paris- The Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame and Montmartre. It's especially fascinating if you've been there, or useful if you're planning at rip. 

The first part is naturally The Eiffel Tower, Paris' most recognisable landmark. The Grande Dame is the most visited paid monument in the world, and remains the tallest building in France over 120 years after its completion. 

It was interesting to ponder how amazing an experience it would have been in 1889 to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. People at that time did not routinely take off in planes, and seeing their city from such a height was completely new. Eiffel Tower experts and staff become rather philosophic at times. 

Seeing things at 300m from the ground somehow brings us down to earth. We realise the ground beneath our feet is complex, maybe fragile.

The behind the scenes glimpses are particularly fascinating. The intricacies involved in repairs to the structure itself and the elevators- the youngest of which was installed in 1964. The structure of the Eiffel Tower is still 95% original 1899 construction of "puddled iron" and rivets. Most repairs need to be done to the newer already-replaced pieces. These repairs are done at night, whatever the weather, after the tower has closed for the day. Paris Revealed was filmed during the recent redevelopment of the first floor. 

The beacons that pierce the night sky were only installed in 2000, but Gustave Eiffel included a lighthouse type light on top of his tower too, so it was part of his original vision for his tower. 

I had no idea that the elevators had conductors until 1986. I can't believe that I'd never seen this detail before!

I can't believe that I've never noticed this guy!
Maybe because I'm always taking the private lift to
Le Jules Verne?

The nine gift shops are restocked every morning, with daily deliveries as there is no storage, and they sell up to 4 tonnes of souvenirs each day!

The procedure for food to arrive at Le Jules Verne was particularly fascinating for me. I've eaten lunch there three times now (and have shared two of those experiences with you, lunch in 2010, and lunch in 2013). It's amazing to see their vegetable and seafood deliveries to the Champs de Mars each morning, the produce is then taken to an underground preparation kitchen where they fillet and cook the fish, all to cut down on the weight and volume of produce that needs to be taken up to the kitchen in the restaurant. All flame is prohibited on the tower, so the cooks must use electric stoves and even candles on birthday cakes are forbidden. 

Musee d'Orsay holds the Eiffel family archive. There is a fascinating segment about the early construction of the tower- opposition from the few nearby residents (NIMBY early adopters), how it was built in prefabricated sections. Gustave Eiffel held the concession for 20 years until the tower was given to the city of Paris. Gustave kept a guest book of all the famous people who visited. 

The Eiffel Tower segment ends with Bastille Day celebrations, which made me reminisce our Bastille Day 2013 spent on the hot and sweaty Champs de Mars waiting for nightfall.

In Eiffel Tower news this week they have installed wind turbines as part of Paris' impressive goals for greenhouse emission reductions.

To The Heart of Notre Dame is equally fascinating. Notre Dame is the most visited monument in Europe. 

A prayer in stone. 

I have visited quite a few times, but last year I climbed the tower to enjoy the view, an absolutely incredible experience, and one that I should share with you some time. The gargoyles that are so famous to us now are a mid 19th century addition.

Documentaries like this can access places we visitors can only dream of. They visit the spire and look down on Viollet Le Duc (who restored the spire in the 19th century) looking back at them.

They show us the making of the holy oils in the cathedral basement, choir practice in the lead up to Easter, the inner workings of the organ (they have lungs!) 8000 pipes and 115 stops. It's astonishing to see the 13th century wooden roof structure is still there.

Big doors have big keys!

The incense for Notre Dame is made in house by the sexton, he varies it for the season and the occasion, and it is much more like a perfume than I had ever imagined. 

They visit the Treasury, a particularly fascinating section of Notre Dame, and well worth the small entrance fee (entry to Notre Dame itself is free). The Treasury recently found a 13th century jaw bone that they hope may belong to Saint Louis.

Montmartre. Sacré Coeur Basilica is the second most visited monument in Paris with 10.5 million visitors per year.

They always all seem to be there at the same time as you are.

Largely completed in 1914. 7 architects and 44 years to complete. The location was decided in 1873 at the site of the martyrdom of Saint Denis, the first Bishop of Paris who famously walked carrying his head for 6 kilometres. Underground pillars were needed for preparatory work as the area is riddled with old quarries.

The stone is "self cleaning" and secretes a white substance when rained on. Sacré Coeur's bell tower (which somehow I seem to have never noticed before) holds the largest bell in France, Le Savoyarde, weighing 19 tonnes. Sadly it is cracked and can't be rung at the moment.

A particularly fascinating aspect of life at Sacré Coeur that was new to me is nocturnal worship. Up to 170 pilgrims can stay at The Guesthouse of the Basilica and commit to spending at least an hour of prayer during the night, these prayer sessions are rostered to give continuous worship round the clock, and over the years.

But you get cracking views from the bell tower.

Montmartre is not my favourite area of Paris, and I now realise that I've never visited Place du Tertre, the famous open air art market where Picasso and Renoir worked at one time. I've felt uncomfortable on my two visits to Montmartre, both were brief it's true and we didn't really stray beyond the very crowded, awful area around Sacré Coeur- the only place I've ever felt the crowds to be too much in Paris.

Paris Revealed visit several Montmartre characters, Michou who is all decked out in blue and a collector who only collects objects related to Place Pigalle.

An old stained glass window from Le Rat Mort

I found each of the 50 minute episodes very enjoyable. Of course my favourite was the Eiffel Tower, but all were enjoyable and informative. Paris Revealed is well worth seeking out.

Dreaming of France is a wonderful Monday meme
from Paulita at An Accidental Blog 

All About France a monthly
love fest for France

Shakespeare and Company

Rather incredibly it took me four trips to Paris to make it inside Shakespeare and Company, one of the most famous bookstores in the world. I can't believe it either, but I guess I usually manage to buy enough books accidentally when I'm away, I don't need to go deliberately searching out more books that I would naturally want to buy to stuff into my suitcase that will at some stage burst at the seams.

I knew exactly where it was of course. I've walked past many times, once this past trip there were people filming a movie maybe, or an ad, although there were only a few people, it wouldn't have been a big movie, but they did have one of those clapper things.

I always scan their events page before any trip to Paris. They have scads of great writerly events but these always seem to be just before I arrive in Paris, or just after I leave. I guess the Wicker boys were never keen to go either, although they wouldn't have discouraged me. Whatever the reasons for the delay, last year I finally made it inside. And it was fun.

Tempting books outside

and in

Of course I popped upstairs to the children's section. Just to check out what was on the shelves.

Noticeboards and Shaun Tan

I need to read this one. 

They don't like you taking photos of inside the shop apparently because of customer privacy, so I was careful not to include any customers. I did manage to escape without buying anything this day. Sadly I didn't come across their famous cat, Kitty, but there's always next time.

Some lucky folks get to stay in the shop (check out this link, it's amazing).

Dreaming of France is a wonderful Monday meme
from Paulita at An Accidental Blog 

All About France a monthly
love fest for France