Roadboys Travels: Baguettes & Bistros

Refocusing Life

Around December I experienced blurred vision. My doctors quickly diagnosed me with type 2 diabetes. For me this crossed a red line and I decided to make serious life changes.

Friends got me into a daily gym routine in January and I now look forward to it.

But as they say, you can't outrun a bad diet, so I began by completely refocusing the way I approach food. No more number counting "diets". I started purging processed foods, grocery shopping and meal planning changed forever. I now zero in on fresh local fruits and vegetables. I buy smaller quantities and shop more often. I never go hungry and have reduced meat intake. I cut back all that sugar.

Well, the pay off came in September when, after slowly losing 23 lbs, my doc informed me that all my tests came back great with a glucose reading that no longer classifies me in type 2 diabetes.

So what does this have to do with Paris?

Kinda everything.

When I think of attitudes to lifestyle, I immediately think of Paris. Here is a major world City where people are historically thin, yet eat good food, drink wine and have no fear of butter.

So a goal for this visit was, in some small way, to discover a little bit more about how Parisians approach food.

To accomplish this I booked a small group "Baguettes and Bistros" walking tour. The tour description described an introduction to the way Parisians think about food.

Our morning tour was led by a multi-lingual docent named David. He was a young Parisian who works 10 hour days between tours and his primary profession as a sommelier in a fine restaurant.

We immediately knew we were in good hands.

David began the walk by having us look into the window shop at Chocolat Debauve et Gallais. The origins of this shop date back to 1779 when Sulpice Debauve created a chocolate medallion for Marie Antoinette to mask the awful taste of her headache medicine. Sadly, for us, the shop was closed during our early morning tour.

Chocolat Debauve & Gallais

The next stop was the tiny Maison Goyard where we were introduced to various cured meats, pate's, terrine's and confit. This third generation shop is operated by a brother and sister team who enthusastically describe their foods.

Learning About Terrines at Maison Guyard

Terrines in Front and En Croute in Back

Then we were off to see (and smell) the dazzling array of cheeses at Androuet. This famous cheese shop was founded by Henri Androuet in 1909. He opened it with the idea of assembling, in one location, the vast variety of fresh cheeses from all over France. The shop then went on to cure its own cheeses, open a restaurant and offer tastings. Its customer list has included: Orson Welles, Collette, Hemingway, Toshiro Mifune and Maria Callas (who'd go into the restaurant's kitchen and cook up her own breakfasts with Androuet's cheeses).

A Loyal Pup Awaits at Androuet

Cheeses are Organized by Goat, Sheep and Cow

The Smell at Androulet was Amazing

With all of the products in hand we walked to the boulangerie of Eric Kayser. Here we gathered around a table as David presented us with fig bread and (of course) some fresh baguettes. He illustrated the differences in baguettes. We learned how to examine a baguette's shape, color and areation.

Our Docent David

We then sampled the breads, cheeses and meats picnic fashion. David's descriptions were clear and precise.

After our tasting we set off to learn about modern French chocolates, caramels and fruit pate candies in Jacques Genin's chocolate shop. Here again, the emphasis was on quality not quantity.

Fruit Pates at Jacques Genin

The fruit pates (jellys) were flavored with seasonal fruits and vegetables. And a bite into one of the tiny fruit delicacies produced bright expressive flavors. We also sampled a chocolate (mine was flavored with thyme) and lastly tasted a Genin caramel. Mine was flavored with mango and passion fruit. The shop packs selections in square silver tins that evokes how precious are its contents.