One week wandering the streets of Paris… no museums or long lines, no Eiffel Tower, just food.  I returned home mid-August but was in denial that I had really left a city that I fell in love with.  The idea of blogging and writing in past tense would only emphasize the fact that the trip is OVER.  But alas back to reality.  I am however, very excited to share my Paris with you.

As you can see, I walked quite a bit.  Every night I highlighted streets and added address numbers on the map of places I needed to go. By the end of the trip, the map was speckled in pink highlighter and well..very worn down.  My way of organizing how to walk each day was by arrondissement or Parisian neighborhood.  Central Paris is divided up into 20 arrondissements.  The first 9 are most visited by tourists.  The double digits surround the core 9 and are still worth a venture out.  It is less crowded.  Plus I like that the metro is above ground so you can see the scenery.  I will later post all the addresses by neighborhood.

I came back with as much as I could fit with 20% souvenir space saved in my luggage.  Its funny how so much of what I wanted comes in glass!  It was not a fun packing party.  Luckily everything was in tact.  One of my things I made sure to do before leaving was to research “food items to bring back from Paris.”

Below is my list of goodies, where to get them and tips for traveling with food items.  I will go more in depth about everything in later posts.

My Paris Shopping List

1. Bread loaf from Poilane boulangerie- oh was this an interesting one to carry back.  I bought it two days before my flight so I actually asked my extremely hospitable and gracious hotel owner to keep it in the freezer.  The day of my flight I took it out, put it in another bag to protect my backpack from getting wet from condensation. It was worth it.  I’ve been defrosting slices and they taste so fresh.

2.  Macarons from Pierre Herme and Laduree- can’t leave Paris without these little sandwich cookies.  It is very difficult to carry though.  Several of mine ended up cracking.  If there is extra room for them to move in their boxes, use tissue as padding to keep them secure.

3.  Pastry scrapers from E.Dehillerin- I got this idea from David Lebovitz and thought it was a great suggestion for an inexpensive souvenir to remember my visit to the shop.

4.  A jar of caramel au beurre sale from G. Detou- a sauce of caramels with fleur de sel.  Italians have their Nutella and French have this.  They put it in cookies, macarons, and crepes.

5.  Fleur de Sel de Guerande from G. Detou- so that I can make my own salted caramels with finishing salt from southern France.

6.  Violet mustard from G.Detou- a deep purple mustard that I can’t wait to try

7.  Christina Ferber jam from Le Grande Epicerie- I have yet to try but have heard it is good.  The polka dotted cloth lids are cute.

8.  Le Bon Lait milk jars from Le Comptoir de Famille- I first spotted these from the wonderful blog, Cannelle et Vanille and had to get them.

9.  Fragonard face and body cream with royal jelly- fantastic moisturizer and makes your skin so smooth.  Lightly scented for those, myself included, who cannot handle strong fragrances.

Packing tips:

• An extra duffel- I used it for the macarons so I could carry them on the plane and keep an eye on them.
• I put all the jars in freezer bags and wrapped in clothes or bubble wrap.  If there is any breakage hopefully it would only leak into the Ziploc.  The jars need to go in the luggage due to liquid restrictions.  I positioned all my clothes around all the jars so they were secure.
• I declared every one of the items above on my form and had no problems going through customs.  They didn’t go through any of my things.
• If you want to bring wine, you can purchase a WineSkin.  It’s a bubble wrapped pouch in the shape of a wine bottle.  It should prevent the bottle from breaking, but if it does, it supposedly will not leak.