Where I've BEEN!

Breizh Cafe: delicious crepes with unusual ingredients.  I especially recommend the crepes sucres!

Colette 213 rue St. Honore 75001: Concept store; great place to take friends as it's very trendy and fun!

Poilane (by st. germain): Hands down best pain au chocolat I've ever had in my life, and believe me, I've had a whole lot of pain au chocolats in my time...

To GO! cadeaux, presents, and more surprises to bring to les Etats-Unis!

Berthillon: Bring home many mini fondants pour papa!

French CDs from fnac or elsewhere

Mariage Frères: Famous french tea salon, has many locations; a central one is in the Carrousel du Louvre (99 rue de Rivoli)

French books and magazines

French cookbook

Dehillerin: (famous French cookware store, whole basement full of Le Creuset!) 18 rue Coquillière, 75001. 9am-6pm Tuesday-Saturday

A l'Etoile d'Or, Denise Acabo: Bernachon chocolate (Jour et Nuit (half milk half dark) bar, Cafe (cocoa and coffee beans) bar, Kalouga (salted caramel filling) bar; famous palet d'or bonbon)  AND must-try Henri Le Roux CBS caramels (beurre sale, tarte tatin, pistache, etc...) : 30 r Fontaine (9th, metro Blanche)
Jean-Paul Hevin: 23 bis Avenue de la Motte Picquet 75007. Also at 3 rue Vavin, which is quite close to the Jardins du Luxembourg! Open Monday-Saturday 10h-19h30.  The chocolates with fromage were a bit too expensive (14 euro for the smallest assortment, and you can't get them individually) for how picky I am about cheese, but I bet they would've been interesting!  I decided on 3 different chocolates, all of which were delicious, so I'm guessing the caramel buche and the pate a tartiner (which is like Nutella but better, and it's apparently made with salted beurre Bordier) are delish as well--next time!  I got one that was chocolate with cannelle (cinnamon) chocolate ganache inside, one that was dark chocolate with hazlenut, almond, and nougat pieces inside (like a rocher but with more things yum), and one that was a dark chocolate dome (the other two were diamond and square shaped, respectively) with a mix of pistachio paste and almond paste inside.  Y to the U to the M!  On some Saturdays in the Spring (and maybe other days as well?) there's a cute little flea market on Avenue Motte-Picquet, lots of Antique sellers (some quite old, some run down, some more modern antiques), a few clothes sellers, lots of vintage jewelery (not that I bought any, of course... ha), vintage scarves (ughh there was this beautiful Dior one but I decided to be a good girl and save my money... I miss it already), and lots of books and fun knick knaks to browse and look through with chocolate in your hand!

Fauchon: 26 place de la Madeline, 75008 (Madeline Metro)

Hediard: 21 place de la Madeline, 75008

Provencal soaps from the Market
da rosa (62 seine): bring home raisins sauternes, cocoa almonds, and more!

To SEA! (what can I say, I have sailing on my mind...)

Fnac Montparnasse Reporters Sans Frontieres exhibit

Paris d'Amour Hotel de Ville exhibit

Parc des Buttes-Chaumont
Cimetiere Pere Lachaise
Tour Montparnasse
L'Opera
Bibliotheque Nationale de Paris: Francois Mitterrand Library exhibitions are open from 10h-19h Tues-Sat, 13h-19h Sundays. Currently showing a film called "Rose, C'est Paris." Quai François-Mauriac 75013

Musée Rodin (by Saint Germain)

Musée Edith Piaf (reservation only; Belleville)

Musée Marmottan Monet (www.marmottan.com) 11h to 18h everyday except closed Mondays.  Open Tuesdays until 21h.  2 rue Louis-Boilly 75016

Versailles
Museé Des Arts Décoratifs (107, rue de Rivoli)  Amazing.  Especially the Les Lalannes exhibition--go before it ends (on the 4th of July--perfect way to spend your holiday!).  See Perfect Day post for more info.
The Raspail organic market (The Sunday Marché Biologique)--St. Germain

President Wilson Marche: Wednesdays (and some other day); 16eme, Metros Iena or Pont de l'Alma

Marche Aligre: Tuesday-Sunday

Fashion Museum (by Palais du Tokyo).... Closed until next year, boo!

Parc Monceau
Bois de Boulognes
Allison & Sasha: womens vintage store right by the Etienne Marcel stop, has some stellar finds--I went a little "fou" with the purses, as the salespeople told me as I was checking out... Closes at 19h30 or 20h.
Free'P'Star: Vintage store, 8 rue Sainte Croix de la Bretonnerie. Mon-Sat 12h-22h; Sunday 14h-22h 75004
Kokon to Zai: 48 rue Tiquetonne 75002. Crazy, out there fashion (carries stuff from the designer of the infamous Bjork swan dress, for example)
Episode: 12-16 Rue Tiquetonne; vintage clothing shop (chain); Mon 13h-20h, Tues-Fri 11h30-19h30, Sat 11h-20h 75002
Killiwatch: 64 rue Tiquetonne 75002. Monday 14h-19h, Tues-Sun 11h-19h.
Conseil d’État: 1, place du Palais-Royal 75100. See Perfect Day post.

To EAT! Goodness gracious I have a lot to do...

L'Opéra Lenôtre, a Scrumptious Baguette, and Flamingo-y Trendy Pizza! Otherwise known as another GLORIOUS day in Paris!

So, better late than never... my first blog post!

I've been in Paris since mid-January, but I'm always out and about exploring and wandering and getting lost I never even thought to start a blog!  But lately I've been coming across so many wonderful things and it'd be a pity not to share.  So here i go!

Lenôtre = an amazing French patisserie, specializing in CHOCOLATE! I went right after Easter, and they still had their cute little chocolate bunnies and easter eggs all around the store... and a special gold-gilded ginormous dark chocolate easter egg--YUM. I bought an Opéra, a dessert with layers of chocolate cake (liquor-soaked I believe?), coffee-flavored creaminess, and a delicious dark chocolate layer to top it all off (of course, the chocolate layer had another little chocolate piece on top of it, with "L'Opéra Lenôtre" written beautifully across it!). So decadent... and so good. I also ordered macarons--pistachio, chocolate, and caramel beurre salé (only because of my quest to find the best macarons in Paris, of course). The pistachio was better than Ladurée's, but the caramel wasn't quite as good (Ladurée's has a real gooey salted caramel filling, while Lenôtre used a caramel buttercream). The chocolate, however... Definitely more deliciously chocolate-y than Ladurée's, but only time (and lots of patisserie visits) will tell if Lenôtre's chocolate macaron is Numéro 1.


Baguette--there is this amazing boulangerie/patisserie called La Tradition du Pain by my Sunday Marché, the one on Boulevard Richard Lenoir. There are always huge lines outside at peak times of the day, and as half the time people seemed to come out with just baguettes in their hands, I thought I should give it a try! The baguette was as perfect as I could have imagined--not too fluffy, but not too firm, just the right amount of holes and the perfect chewiness to the crust. I'm going to make the trip out to the boulangerie that won the #1 Baguette in Paris award for 2010 soon, but until then, this one is number one in my book!


and on to the pizza... the PINK FLAMINGO!!!!!! Four words: Really freaking cute and delicious.