Context Paris - Holiday Culinary Walk

On the recommendation of a colleague, I looked into a guided Paris tour by Context Travel. http://www.contexttravel.com. She said this company offers especially good tours in groups no larger than 6. I liked that! During my research I found that the docents working with Context Travel were very highly educated individuals, successful in their own rights as published authors, historians, and even documentary filmmakers. After looking into what tours were available during the time I would be in Paris, I decided to sign up for a Holiday Culinary Walk for the morning of New Year's Eve.

The tour was one of the best things I did while I was in Paris! I loved learning from a local Parisian, hearing about delicious restaurants and patisseries. This is information you do not get from a travel guidebook! Our guide was Camille Labro. I kept wanting to mention how much she looked Susan Sarandon, but I decided to not be a complete dork in front of her. Camille was lovely, so nice and welcoming. I enjoyed hearing her history, she was actually born in Berkeley, CA to French parents (she has duel citizenship), but has lived most of her life in France. She lived in NYC for 10 years as a correspondent for French Vogue. Of course, I was the first person to arrive to our starting point. Next was a man in his 50's (pretending to be much younger) who showed up with his 20-something Japanese "friends," one of which, I gathered, he was hosting on this trip. O...K... Before we set out, we learned a couple from North Carolina got the time mixed up and would be joining us later in the tour.

The tour began at St. Germain-de-Pres Church. This church was built in 1163, yes, 1163! It's hard to fully grasp the age of this church. Many centuries old, having survived several wars, just incredible. We all began the morning at Le Bonaparte cafe, just down the block from Les Deux Magots, where I had been earlier in the week. Hey, I was getting to know my way around the city! We all chatted over coffee and hot chocolate and I learned more about this eclectic group. The 50(ish) man was a fashion designer from Los Angeles, but was originally from South Africa. The ladies from Japan turned out to be friends from grad-school in Montreal, Canada, and live in Tokyo. They each spoke at least 3 languages. Sigh, I felt so un-cultured! While I was a little concerned about the relationship the one lady may have had with this man, well hey... first, it wasn't any of my business, and two, she was an adult. To-each-their-own, right? Still, it seemed kinda weird. Anyway...

So, we ate and we ate and we ate! From aged tender meat shaved off of a leg of a boar (yeah, I tried not to fixate on that part), to Nutella crepes, mulled wine, saucussion with mushrooms (slices of cured, dry sausage, similar to salami) and finally French chocolate and macaroons. We even met a Master Chocolatier! Camille seemed in awe that Jean-Charles Rochoux was helping his customers directly. She said, typically, he would be in another part of his shop working on his chocolate art. I never though I would be star-struck by someone who makes chocolate. I pulled this photo off the web since I didn't want to be the strange person who pulled out my camera in his tiny (but impressive) shop.

To be clear, French macarons are not American macaroons, not in the slightest. They come in many flavors, everyday favorites and seasonal (don't try the Foie Gras macaroons, who thought that was a good idea?) delights. They are lightly crisp around the outside with delicious, rich fillings. My favorite was Caramel with Salted Butter from Laduree, with Chocolate and Lemon falling close behind. I'm proud to say that on my last day in Paris, I bought a collection of macarons that just made it in home in decent shape to share with my parents and my friends at work.