My love story with Paris is not “love at first sight”. My first encounter with Paris was about ten years ago. I was traveling with my girlfriend (now my wife) in Europe. Among other places we were in Paris. We found a hotel room, which was the size of a bed (we could barely even open our suitcase). We hopped between some recommended and well-known places like Eiffel Tower, the Champs Elysees and the Louvre and the truth is we left quite disappointed. We couldn't understand what the excitement was about Paris.
About three years ago I discovered Sharon Heinrich's blog. Sharon exposed me to the world of Parisian patisserie just as I was starting to get into patisserie. The blog sparked in me a strong desire to visit Paris and personally taste all the amazing things Sharon shows on her blog.
Two years ago it finally happened. I visited Paris without my family. I built a crazy trip where I ate sweets from morning to night. The thing that amazed me the most about that trip was that I didn't even try to walk around Paris. I just took the metro from patisserie to patisserie. But every time I got out of a metro station, I was greeted by a wonderful view of an amazing city. The long avenues with trees, the amazing gardens, the buildings and monuments, the phenomenally efficient public transportation, and the patisserie, oh… the patisserie… it's impossible to describe. I'm not even talking about the top chefs like Pierre Armat or Claire Damon. In every neighborhood cafe or patisserie in the neighborhood, you see things that make your jaw drop.
On that trip I fell completely in love with Paris. Love at second sight. Since then I have been able to Learn French (At a very basic level!) And talk about Paris every day. And so, this year, in honor of the Passover holiday, my wife suggested that we take a family trip to Paris. Of course, I didn't refuse!
So, after all the introduction, here is the story of the trip to Paris, where I took my first love (my family) to meet my second love (Paris):
We planned and booked the trip quite spontaneously with the help of the excellent book "Paris – Family Trips“. We saw that there were recommendations for a hotel in one of the central areas but there was no family hotel available so we booked a hotel in the 15th district. The price was good and the hotel looked excellent. In addition, it seemed that the metro station was a stone’s throw from the hotel, which is a big advantage. The weather didn’t look promising but we said we would dress well and manage. When we got to the hotel it turned out that we had been upgraded to a suite, and so, we found ourselves in a hotel room that was very unusual for Paris. Large, spacious, and even equipped with a luxurious jacuzzi.
On the first day, we went out well dressed and went to the Science Museum in the north of Paris. We were expecting winter weather, so it seemed ideal to visit an enclosed place. Our first encounter with Paris was a bit awkward. The clerks at our metro station didn't speak English, and it took me a while to pull out the little French I know from the depths of my scalp. I had a hard time paying. It turns out that you have to insert your credit card into the machine yourself and type in the secret code. After I gave up and was sure that the card wasn't working, I decided to pay in cash, but then the clerk decided to slowly process each card separately. That means, payment and excess separately three times. In the meantime, a long line of locals and tourists had gathered behind me, all of whom shared the strong desire to kill me. After I managed to get through this obstacle, it turned out that my daughter's stroller wouldn't fit through the metro passage. Some more incoherent conversation with the friendly clerks until it became clear that I was supposed to hand over the tickets without going in and then open a side door intended for strollers and suitcases.
As mentioned, it was a rocky start, but from there everything went much smoother…. 🙂
First, we discovered that Paris has a tram. The tramway. It is super convenient with trolleys and comes quite frequently. It is highly recommended to travel as much as possible by tram and walk and as little as possible by metro.
We started the day at the Museum of Science and Industry, in the north of Paris. We went to the area designated for ages 2 to 7. They put us in a room with a few exhibits and we were pretty upset because we thought that was the whole area. After a few minutes we discovered that the area is very large with lots of areas divided into themes and we were only in one of them. It was really fun for the kids. Lots of exhibits with demonstrations of scientific principles. My kids weren’t that interested in the principles. For them it was also a special and different kind of amusement than what they are used to. The construction area and the water area are worth noting.
The complex also has a spectacular round movie theater, but when we were there they were showing a movie about The Normandy Invasion, which is not really suitable for children, so we decided to have lunch and move on to the next thing.
Unfortunately, I found myself eating lunch at a Burger King branch instead. I felt like a scoundrel! For this, I paid thousands of shekels and flew hundreds of kilometers??? So after lunch we went to the first patisserie on the trip: Karl Marletti. It turns out that there is a children's playground in front of it (adjacent to Saint Medard Square) and so both I and the children had the playground in the same area. There I also introduced my family to the real Paris. Paris of the endless boulevards, the parks and the food, and especially the patisserie..
At Karl Marletti, the desserts are not (relatively) complicated or sophisticated, and appeal to a wide range of tastes. I highly recommend coming and tasting them, especially the one on the bottom left (LE CENSIER), which is an amazing chocolate cream over a disk of rice crackers, pralines, and popping candies.
After Karl Marletti, we strolled a bit on adjacent Moffatar Street and then continued on foot to the other end of the scale: AOKI. A pastry chef who really doesn't try to appeal to the tastes of the general public, and goes in a Japanese direction, with desserts that contain green tea (matcha), sesame seeds, and other surprises.
I bought some desserts and some interesting pralines. Among them, a chocolate-wasabi praline. The latter is interesting, but I have to admit that in my opinion wasabi really doesn't go well with chocolate. The flavors are contradictory and too strange together….
I especially recommend the ZEN, which on the one hand tastes different from anything you've ever tasted (at least in dessert) but is excellent (in my opinion).
After Aoki, we went to the Eiffel Tower. The first thing you encounter when you exit the metro station is not the Eiffel Tower, but dozens of vendors selling small Eiffel Towers in fives for euros. My son was very enthusiastic about them and we bought him and my daughter all kinds of Eiffels in all sizes. We continued through the swarms of tourists until we finally saw the tower, tall, spectacular, and below it an unreasonable number of tourists. My son was very enthusiastic about the tower, but we preferred to escape the crowds, so we bought the kids an overpriced scoop of ice cream and crossed the road towards the Trocadero Gardens.
In the Tartacadero Gardens, we found the almost certain indication that we had arrived at a tourist attraction in Paris: the Ferris wheel. Later in the trip, we came across a few more of them, but since this was the first one, the kids were excited, my wife and I were easy to convince, and so we made two rounds with the kids. We ate the famous Parisian dish: pizza, and from there we drove back to the hotel to gather strength for tomorrow.
The next day, we drove in the morning toDisneyland ParisDisneyland Paris is basically an American enclave within Paris. Americanization is blaring from all sides and the only thing that hints at the country is the language on the signs and the language spoken by the employees. So on the one hand, we had a great time, but I can't consider it a visit to Paris. It could have been any other country….
Disney is a wonderful place where the main activity is standing in line. Since it's very difficult to stand in line all day, there are occasional breaks to rest from standing, where you sail on boats, constantly reminded of the smallness of the world, enter various and strange torture devices that take care of pain in all sorts of places on the body in a way that makes you forget the pain from standing, and of course, a variety of stores that help empty your pockets quickly, which reduces weight and probably helps with standing in line.
The evening show is especially noteworthy. The show projects a special film about the castle and the water fountains next to it in a way that turns the castle into a variety of buildings from well-known Disney films. For a moment it was the castle from Aladdin, then suddenly the ice tower from Frozen, then the Hunchback's Notre Dame... And since the park is full of speakers, the music surrounded us from all sides. It's not easy to keep the kids up until late, but it's worth the effort and highly recommended!
The next day we woke up late, with terrible leg pain, and headed for the Place de la Concorde. The size of this square is simply unbelievable… J We decided to start the morning at a well-known Parisian institution: Café Angelina. When I looked up where there were branches of Angelina in Paris, I saw that there were a lot of branches, so I assumed that the branch near the Tuileries was just some branch that they opened to trap tourists. I was very surprised when we got there and saw a huge branch, people in suits sitting at tables, fancy waiters serving them, and there was already a line at the entrance. My wife suggested that we sit anyway. After a short wait, they politely sent us upstairs. It turns out that we weren't the first cheeky tourists to come there with children, and they simply use the upstairs as a place where they can accommodate those who can ruin the prestige of the place. To their credit, they also send the most patient waitresses upstairs, and the service we received was excellent. We ordered a dish of truffle ravioli, risotto, and chicken. The chicken dish wasn’t amazing, but the risotto and ravioli dishes were excellent. After finishing the meal, we had Angelina’s famous Mont Blanc. I had heard bad reviews about it, but the truth is that I was very pleasantly surprised. A sweet chestnut cream (not too much) with a subtle chestnut flavor, placed on top of a soft meringue and whipped cream. Overall, very successful! We left a nice sum of 150 euros there, but we enjoyed every moment!
After dinner we went for a walk in the Tuileries Gardens. An amazingly beautiful garden with a playground for children. One of the amazing things is the exemplary cleanliness and order. The children were less impressed by the statues and spaces and more enthusiastic about the playground.
After they finished having fun, we moved on to the main course. The place where, according to Joe Dessan, there is “everything you could want.” The Champs-Elysees. We drove to the Arc de Triomphe and walked towards Place de la Concorde. My wife and I were impressed and enjoyed ourselves, but my children were waiting for the most important thing on the boulevard: the Disney store. And here again the United States is pushing its rude foot into the grandeur and splendor of Paris. We bought all sorts of goodies at the store and headed towards another famous institution: the Galerie de la Paix.
The Gallery is a huge department store consisting of lots of shops and areas. We didn't spend much time there because I was more interested in the Pushkin Patisserie, which is very close to the store. On the way to Pushkin, I suddenly see a LES FEES stand. This is another place that Sharon Heinrich wrote about and suddenly it appears in front of me without any prior planning. So of course I had to try two things. The La Fée BONBON, which consists of strawberry mousse, strawberry marmalade and strawberry marshmallow. It was really excellent and the La Fee PARIS BREST, which was nice but nothing more.
From there we continued to a branch of Cafe Pushkin. Pushkin combines Russian flavors with classic French dishes. Two things I ate there are worth noting: Eclair Taborug. This is an eclair filled with cream Cheese Russian. In my opinion, it's unusually delicious. Very unusual because no sane pastry chef would put cheese into an eclair and for me it's a joke. I'll try to play with the concept on Shavuot. Maybe Saint Honore with cherries and Taborug. Another thing worth noting is their baba (the white ball in the picture below). Baba is a yeast dough soaked in alcohol and is supposed to be very tasty. But what, Pushkin's tasted like a dentist's anesthetic. And the truth is, maybe it's psychosomatic but I really started to feel a slight numbness in my palate... in short, don't come close!
Loaded with shopping and happy, we returned to the hotel.
The next morning we set off for the white train that leaves from Blanche Station near the Moulin Rouge. I remembered this area from my previous visit as being quite disgusting, but it seemed like the white train was an experiential way for children to get up to the cold Skarre. When I parked, I saw that I remembered correctly. Sex shops galore and a multitude of pictures of women who must be really hot peeked out from every corner. After safely making it through the colorful route, we arrived at the white train, which after the ride I suggest you change its name to the “Raging Bull Train.” The train has no springs whatsoever, travels quickly through the alleys of Montmartre, and the passengers jump in the air most of the trip. While listening to explanations in French that, as far as I could understand, explained where all sorts of “celebrities” of the past lived, such as Van Gogh. Still, the trip was quite fun, and at the end we found ourselves by the cold Sacre Coeur.
הIt's cold. It is a rather impressive church, but the thing that impressed me most was a harpist who took up his position in the middle of the steps and played melodies that dropped my blood pressure to almost dangerous levels… After admiring the view, we walked to the nearby Tartre Square. The square has a large concentration of painters, some of whom paint Paris and some who paint portraits. The most fascinating thing for me was seeing the different differences between the styles. Each painter has his own unique style, some very realistic, some more abstract, and all of them are exceptional to my taste. We finished our tour and went back down. The distance on foot is not long, but impossible with a stroller. Luckily, there is a train car on the hill that accepts metro tickets and transports passengers down the garden at the foot of the Sacré-Cœur.
Very close to getting off the train car is the Cure Gourmande candy store, which we went to on Sharon's recommendation. The store has lots of candy, most (all?) handmade, not industrial. Colorful and delicious. The kids chose huge candies for themselves, and my wife and I picked up a collection of caramel squares and nougat squares in a variety of flavors.
From there we continued towards the Nelson Mandela Gardens. Even veteran Francophiles might raise an eyebrow. Where did I get these gardens from? So they themselves are not very interesting, but they are unusually close to the confectionery stores G.Detou MORA, and Deco Relief. On the way, we came across a store that might shock innocent tourists but it really made me happy. The store’s window had dozens of stuffed mice hanging in it. Well, it turns out that one of my favorite movies is Ratatouille. And in the movie, there is a scene where the hero’s father (the hero is a rat) explains to him that humans are not as nice as he thinks, and to prove his point, he leads him to a storefront, which turns out to be based on a real storefront, the one of the store we passed by.
From there we continued to the Nelson Mandela Gardens. The kids played in the playground and I went on a quick shopping spree. I managed to spend 500 euros in 90 minutes. Which is by all accounts a very nice bargain!
From there we decided to try to catch another glimpse of Notre Dame, which is not far away. We managed to admire the huge cathedral and even tried our luck with the nearby Sainte Chapelle Cathedral. Unfortunately, it was already too late (they close at 17:00 PM). Tired, satisfied, and loaded with pastry equipment, we crammed into the metro and headed back to the hotel.
Our last day in Paris was cold and even a little rainy. But there were two important places we didn't want to miss. We started the morning at the Luxembourg Gardens. We started at the playground in the Luxembourg Gardens. Surprisingly, despite the unsympathetic weather, the garden was full of runners, and the garden also slowly started to fill up with children and their parents. It didn't interest me that much. I headed towards the architect of desserts, the greatest patisserie archbishop of all, Pierre Armat. A five-minute walk from the Luxembourg Gardens is Pierre's flagship branch, on Rue Bonaparte. 70 euros disappeared, and were replaced by a huge pile of desserts. I must say that unlike last time, many of the desserts were not to my taste. They were precise and interesting, but it seems that there was a strong tendency towards sourness, which I like less. I didn't give up a dessert that I had already had last time, and it is, in my opinion, the most delicious dessert in the world: Isfahan. A crazy combination of sweetness and sourness, freshness and heaviness, softness and crunchiness. All in one bite of heaven.
At the end of the tasting celebration, we went to the pond with the boats. This is also a great attraction for children. When I read about this pond, I was sure that they accept motorized boats and signs, but it turns out that they don't. The boats have no motors. You rent a small boat, put it in the lake, and follow it until it reaches the other side. Then you run there, and push it in a different direction. In a completely illogical way, the boats manage to sail perfectly with the wind, against the wind, and even with the wind. On the surface, this is complete nonsense. But for some reason, it's abnormally fun. We all ran around the pond in the freezing cold, cheering on our boat and pushing it from side to side. There were at least six other families from Israel with us, and Hebrew could be heard from every direction.
After we exhausted the concept, we decided to go back to the hotel to get ready for departure. On the way, I suddenly see Delavoy in front of me, another famous patisserie known for its Opera cake. So it's true that I was seriously pumped after eating at Pierre's, but there's no way I wouldn't be full from the rest, so I took a takeaway to the hotel for a Prezi and an Opera. Two famous dishes of the place. The Prezi was nice, but the Opera was really excellent. This is the ultimate coffee dessert. Coffee buttercream, a sponge full of espresso and liqueur, and topped with thin dark chocolate. The portion is very small and it's exactly the perfect dose for a bite. Highly recommended!
In the evening, before we even got in the taxi to Charles de Gaulle, I still managed to make another stop and eat escargot at the bistro next to the hotel. My wife settled for chicken.
I can summarize and say that a trip to Paris with the family is not easy. Especially with a stroller. But this city is simply amazing. Both the people and the weather were kind to us. In the evening in the taxi my wife asked me: “Well, we won’t hear any more about Paris?”, so I answered her, do you know when you will hear about the planning of the next trip to Paris? “When?” she asked, “On the flight back.”
Zvi Avidor works at Microsoft and dedicates his free time to his family and creating amazing desserts. Don't miss theFinesmaker His Facebook page where you can find his amazing desserts and information about dessert workshops that he teaches from time to time.
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Nice article.
It is a good idea to write down the addresses of the places.
I tried to find the places you listed on Google Maps, without success.