Ruth Reichl and Nancy Silverton on the Tour de Fromage cheese tour

A few tastes from the Tour de Fromage cheese tasting

With Denise Acabo at L'Etoile d'Or

It used to be that, in addition to writing over at Paris by Mouth, I would occasionally find time on a spare and calm Sunday to post something over here, too.

Spare Sundays are now a thing of the past. Blame the food tours. We started offering them two months ago, and they’ve turned out to be rather popular (and time consuming). Who knew?

Word of mouth from happy clients has really helped, and that goes double when the happy client is Ruth Reichl. That’s right: the supremely knowledgeable Editor of Gilt Taste (former Editor of Gourmet magazine and restaurant critic for the New York Times) recently came on a tour with the awe-inspiring Nancy Silverton. I was, as you can imagine, in a state of panic about what to say to these two food stars. In the end, though, Ruth was kind enough to write that “I’d recommend these to anyone; in a very intense two hours we worked our way through Androuet and Barthelemy, and discovered a few cheeses that were completely new to me.”

I’m hoping to get back to blogging soon, but in the meantime you’ll find me cutting the cheese (and pastry and pâté) out on the sidewalks, rushing between one highly caloric stop to the next. It’s a lot of fun, and you’re very welcome to join us!

• More detail about the tour options
• Our schedule of upcoming tours
• What clients have said about the tours

Experience Paris… by Mouth

Tasting Paris is our passion, and it’s also our profession. As food writers for Paris by Mouth, it’s our job to devour delicious things and to understand what makes them special. The Wall Street Journal recently called us “the definitive blog on the city’s food and wine scene,” and we’re now using that knowledge to lead tasting tours through the most exceptional shops in Paris. Our tours run almost every day of the week, our prices are affordable, and we offer the instant gratification of online booking.

Best of Paris neighborhood food crawls

“By mouth” is the best way to experience the most gastronomically gifted neighborhoods in Paris. Whether you choose to explore Montmartre, Les Halles, the Latin Quarter or the Marais, these tours will introduce you to a wide array of delicious French treats – incredible breads, rare cheeses, luscious desserts, and other artisanal creations. We’ll show you our favorite tastes, introduce you to the delightful people who made them, and spend several hours stuffing our faces.

Price for a small group tour: 95€ per person, including all tastings. More on private tour options here.
Learn more and book a tour in Montmartre, Les Halles, the Latin Quarter or the Marais

Tour de Fromage – exploring the exceptional cheeses of France

If you’ve ever wondered why there are more than 500 different cheeses in France, how different cheeses are produced, what the impact of seasonality and aging are on cheese, and how locals typically enjoy cheese in restaurants and at home… this tour is for you. We’ll cover all this plus plenty of other cheese geekery while tasting our way through a wide variety of cheeses from renowned fromageries, all accompanied by that famous French bread and wine.

Price for a small group tour: 95€ per person, including all tastings. More on private tour options here.
Additional details and booking

Sweet Paris: the Chocolate & Pastry Extravaganza

Developed for genuine sugar freaks, this tour skips the savory stuff and dives deep into the sweet universe of chocolate, pastry and other classic French desserts. Whether we’re tasting artisanal ice cream from a man who used to make the stuff for Queen Elizabeth, learning about the art of chocolate while tasting the wares of master chocolatiers, judging the difference between top macaron producers, or digging into the creamy creations from our favorite pâtisseries, this tour is a veritable dessert storm.

Price for a small group tour: 95€ per person, including all tastings. More on private tour options here.
Additional details and booking.

Calendar of Availability

Because bunnies in France are for eating, the important task of holiday candy distribution falls instead to a bell. As far as I can work out, the local church bell stops tolling in Paris during the week before Easter and flies off to visit Rome. It hangs out with the Pope and other bells from around the world in a sort of ding-dong jubilee. It then flies back to Paris on the night before Easter, carrying souvenirs for the children.

These take the form of chocolate eggs, chickens and fish, which are way more delicious than any “my bell went to Rome and all I got was this lousy t-shirt” souvenir.

Here’s a selection of snaps from holiday window displays this week. Joyeuse Pâques!

Easter eggs from Le Grenier De Félix

Candy ducks from Le Grenier à Pain

Bunnies and eggs at Coquelicot

Today’s challenge as part of the Edible Advent Calendar:

Can you name this treat?

Leave your answer (product/location) in the comments section below. The reader who has accumulated the most victories by December 24 will receive an edible Christmas present from me. I’ll keep your guesses hidden until the answer is revealed tomorrow on Budget Travel, then I’ll publish the comments and name the winner for this challenge.

YESTERDAY’S WINNERS:
Ding ding ding! Lots of points today for naming “pain des amis” from the lovely Du Pain et des Idées. Bravo to Zeva Bellel, Anne, Sophie (close enough), Theresa and Lil. The full description of this delicious thing will be appearing later today on the Budget Travel Paris Page. ]]> http://megzimbeck.com/2009/12/edible-advent-dec7/feed/ 0 http://megzimbeck.com/2009/12/edible-advent-dec2-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=edible-advent-dec2-2 http://megzimbeck.com/2009/12/edible-advent-dec2-2/#comments Wed, 02 Dec 2009 08:00:57 +0000 Meg http://megzimbeck.com/?p=1648

Today’s challenge as part of the Edible Advent Calendar:

Can you name this treat?

Leave your answer (product/location) in the comments section below. The reader who has accumulated the most victories by December 24 will receive an edible Christmas present from me. I’ll keep your guesses hidden until the answer is revealed tomorrow on Budget Travel, then I’ll publish the comments and name the winner for this challenge.

Next Thursday (November 12), some of the city’s sweetest men will be presenting their chocolate creations and signing books at Galeries Lafayette. From 5-9pm, you’ll be able to steal samples from Sadaharu Aoki, Pierre Hermé,  Jean-Paul Hévin and five other master chocolatiers.