christine anne photography: Shop By Shop

Our Silver Paris

Welcome to my Paris travel journal,

where I share our experiences of a special journey to Paris.

Please use these posts as a guide

for your own travels to this amazing and wonderful city!

Or simply sit, read, and dream...

If you are a regular reader of my blog, either you already guessed where Fernando and I went for our silver anniversary, or you just found out. The photo above obviously gave things away. :)

For this first post of our trip to Paris, I want to focus on shopping. Hey, I'm a girl, y'know. Besides, I don't mean shopping for clothes and souvenirs. I'm talking food here. :)

In Paris, there are a few "all-purpose" grocery stores, or les supermarchés. Upon our arrival in Paris, the grocery store that we found just steps from the building of our appartement was Franprix. We purchased some eggs, butter, cream (couldn't find half-n-half), and honey, and they were all good quality. The cream and honey were for my morning tea. :) But on to the details.

When in Paris, you need to know about the best places to shop for your food. You'll want to look for the smaller, individualized shops that are speckled along every street throughout the city. Here's a little guide to many of the shops you'll come across. Even though we purchased items at just a few of these, it was helpful to know the types of stores we would find, and which items they sold.

Raspberry conserves, bread, and butter

Épicerie. In English, we might call this a greengrocer. We found one just a few blocks from our appartement and bought some nice fruits and vegetables for eating throughout the week. I noticed that each bin of produce was marked with its country or region of origin, which I thought was very nice. Every time we passed by an épicerie, my steps would slow so that I could let my eyes wander over all the fruits and vegetables displayed on tables pulled out onto the sidewalk in front of the shop. Such a beautiful sight!

We made a simple stir-fry with these veggies and a de-boned rotisserie chicken

Boucherie. This is the butcher, where you'll find all sorts of meat, even some that are fully cooked, such as rotisserie chickens.

Charcuterie. Basically, a butcher shop that specializes in pork.

Poissonerie. If you speak a smidgen of French and know that poisson means fish, you'll know what a poissonerie sells. :)

Fromagerie. Sadly, we never bought cheese. Can you believe that? We're already planning a return trip to rectify that.

Boulangerie. This was by far our favorite food shop. This is where you can find bread, bread, bread. You carbo-vores, take note! Croissants, pain au chocolat, baguettes, palmiers. I blame our boulangerie for my lack of weight loss, despite walking several hours every day. You can also purchase sandwiches and other items there. Many boulangeries also have a pâtissier (pastry chef), and you'll be able to find sweet treats (pastries, cakes, and savories) as well.

The boulangerie (and pâtisserie!) literally 25 steps from the front door of our building

Croissant and pain au chocolat (the chocolate is hidden--trust me, it's there)

Breakfast on our last day in Paris included a crêpe, eggs, and sliced apples.

Pâtisserie. This is a pastry shop. Need I say more? I simply walked past these and gained weight. Or drooled. Guaranteed.

Yummies on display at a pâtisserie

A pâtisserie in le Marais

Crêperie. Mmm. They sell crêpes. This makes me happy.

This open-air market vendor made us a crêpe de poire (pear). It was awesome.

Le Chocolatier. Fernando and I had just one moment of weakness and went in to one of these. Of course, once one is inside, one cannot resist filling a crinkly cellophane bag with delectable chocolates to savor. No, we didn't eat them all at once.

A chocolatier in the St-Germain area.

Chocolatier in le Marais. Notice the shape of the chocolates? Yep--cicadas.

The above chocolatier also had these on display in the window.

Ladurée. Ladurée is a sweet shop, and they are in a category of their own. They are famous for their macarons. Their shop on avenue Champs-Élysées was closed for renovation, but they had a temporary shop open along the sidewalk. Of course we bought some macaroons; we may have missed the cheese, but there was no way we were going to miss those.

Ladurée along avenue Champs-Élysées

I snapped a picture inside Ladurée's sidewalk store (below) and got in trouble. It seems they do not want you to take pictures inside. :/ (At least I got one!)