Un petit goût de Paris

A little taste of Paris...that is what I got today on a walking tour that took place mostly on rue Montorgueil, in the area of the old Les Halles market.  There are tons of cute little specialty shops there with beautifully arranged food in the windows.  I'm not very adventurous when it comes to going into these shops on my own (my horrible French is holding me back), so I was pretty excited to go on this tour.  We tried lots of things.  Some wonderful...others not so wonderful. 

First, we had a short lesson on what was in season at the markets right now.  The French are very particular about only serving what is in season.  For example, it doesn't matter if they can find strawberries right now, it would be embarrassing to actually serve them because they are not in season.  In November and December, you will find clementines, apples, pears, pumpkins, and a lot of seafood in the markets.  So, we started off eating a clementine while listening to the guide talk about other things that you can find in the market at this time of year.

Next, we tried pain d'épices, literally spiced bread.  It was a bit like a pumpkin bread, but you could taste a lot of honey and orange flavors in it.  It is very popular at this time of year. 

On our next stop, our guide passed out marrons glaces - candied chestnuts.  They were a little weird in texture (soft and gooey) and VERY sweet.  I'm not sure I would have one again.

After wandering along this cute street a bit more, we stopped at a fromagerie.  We got to try goat cheese (yum!), comte with candied quince (the combo was actually quite nice), and a bleu cheese (gross). 

A chocolate shop was next on our tour.  There we tried candied angelica (tasted like I was eating a dandelion), chocolate covered angelica (tasted like a chocolate covered dandelion), and a crème brûlée chocolate (I would DEFINITELY have that again).



Next on the agenda was one of the oldest patisseries in Paris.  They are known for their calissons - a small cookie made of ground almonds.  They were delicious!

We ended the tour with spiced hot chocolate, which was mixed with tiny pieces of peppers.  I was a little nervous about how spicy it would be, but it was actually quite nice!  Overall, the tour was great, but I was a little bummed that we didn't get to try foie gras.  I haven't had the courage to order it yet on my own.  Maybe I will devote a blog post to that in the future!

Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving, I thought I would end this post with a Thanksgiving Turkey that I saw today in Paris!  If you look closely, you can see it hanging next to the sign.  Happy Thanksgiving, all!