On a food pilgrimage

Every time I'm in Paris, I wonder: how do the French stay so slim? Everywhere, really everywhere, you see incredibly delicious food. And having a glass of wine with lunch is quite normal. I asked a Dutch acquaintance who lives in Paris and she claimed that Parisians eat very healthily. Now I saw a lot of cake and foie gras everywhere, so they probably do that healthy eating mostly at home. Anyway, what I want to get at with this story is that you can eat the most amazing delicacies in Paris. You can even make an activity out of it. On a food pilgrimage in Paris:

Truffles

A little truffle quickly costs more than 500 euros per hundred grams. What makes them so expensive is that they only grow in the wild and you need a specially trained pig or dog to find them (and not eat them right away). But how delicious they are! My husband (and I too) was very happy with the shop and restaurant Artisan de la Truffe (Rue des Martyrs). We ate yellow-fin tuna with slices of black truffle on top and a croque monsieur with truffle that Chris still dreams about. The people who work here are incredibly enthusiastic and gave us extensive preparation instructions for the jar of black truffle we bought to take home.

Meringues

The perfect meringue is pristine white, crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. I sometimes make them myself and it's a matter of letting hard whipped egg whites cook at a low temperature, and even then it can go wrong. In the Rue des Martyrs, we came across La Meringaie, a shop that only sells meringues perfectly made with various fillings. Nothing else. Just that.

You also have that on the plane, but often you get that very strong, almost black tea. I don't find that very pleasant. Bring your own bags and ask for some hot water. Oh well, you have to make a bit of a party out of it, right?

The English are known as tea drinkers, but the French can do it too. At Mariage Frères, they sell more than 800 types of tea from 36 different countries. You can smell them all in one of the seven shops in the city. I personally find that a very nice activity: smelling tea. Do I sound like a crazy person now? Very special is the Thé Blanc Sacré. These young buds of the tea plant are hand-picked in Sri Lanka by virgins with golden scissors and cotton gloves on.

Macarons

Yes, that just has to be done. Also standing in line for a long time at Ladurée or Pierre Hermé (try the Mogador: milk chocolate and passion fruit) is part of the experience. You buy them as a souvenir, but in practice, they don't even make it back home on the Thalys.

Eclairs

We call them cream puffs, the French bake them elongated and call them éclairs. L’Éclair de Génie has four shops in Paris where they only sell éclairs. With pistachio cream, coconut, praline filling: everything you can stuff into an elongated puff. On Sundays, they serve brunch at a location on Rue Pavée.

Baguettes

The French take their baguette very seriously. The best baguettes are baked without yeast, but with sourdough. That sourdough is a living organism that is used every day and replenished. Sometimes a sourdough is passed down for generations from father to son, giving each baker their unique signature. And because the French love competitions, there is also an annual election for the best baguette. This year's winner is Mahmoud M’seddi. His father had a bakery in Paris for thirty years, so he literally grew up in the sourdough fumes. He is now allowed to provide the baguette for French President Macron for a year.

Toasties

I'm not talking about the Dutch version of factory cheese and ham on a slice of white bread, no, the French make their croque monsieur on brioche bread where the cheese happily bubbles through and gets a nice little burn. The very best, according to insiders, is at Vins des Pyrénées, definitely a very nice restaurant in Le Marais. Here they use Gouda with truffle. It may cost a bit (17 euros), but then you also have the toastie of toasties.