Weekend Cooking: Foodie Walking Tour of Le Marais

For this week's Weekend Cooking post,  I am once again reminiscing, this time about the food walking tour that we did of Le Marais. Spoiler alert....I am going to be reminiscing next week too!

While we were in Paris we stayed at a hotel on Ile St Louis, which meant every morning we got to see a view like this. Some days we went to across to the left bank and others to the right, but always starting and ending the day looking at the Seine.

On the day that we did our walking tour, we caught the bus to the place where it started, which our guide says was very brave of us. Apparently he wasn't a fan of the bus service in Paris. Not sure if that is just his opinion or if that of Parisians in general.

We got to the starting point a little bit early, so we took the time to have a hot chocolate and some baguette with jam. We knew not to eat too much as we had many stops to make over the next few hours.

Our guide was Juan, a former chef who has turned his hand to leading foodie walking tours. He had grown up in this area and so had lots of great information about the history, the food and the area in general.

The first stop was at a boulangerie where we got to try bread which has been baked the same way for many years using traditional methods. It smelt beautiful. The owner is now the third generation baker in her family.Whilst on the tour, we learnt that in order to call yourself a boulangerie, you must bake bread on the premises, you can't buy it in from someone else.

Next, we visited Marché des Enfants Rouges , the oldest covered market in Paris, which has been in existence since the 1600. Below you can see the entrance with the sign all decorated for Christmas. I would love to have spent more time at this market. There was a wide variety of food available, a lot of which reflects the multicultural diversity of the people who live in the area. We tried a savoury crepe which is made from chickpea flour, which originally came from the south of France.

The next stop was for chocolate and macaroons. I must have been very excited at this stop because this is officially the least blurry photo I took at that stop!

As we walked through the area it was always interesting to look through any open gateways, into the courtyards of the elegant houses and mansions that are hidden behind them, as well as seeing what else caught your attention.

Moving house must be a trial! But I guess if you are used to it, it is just what you have to do.

We then ventured into the Jewish quarter where we visited this bakery. There we had a meat pirojkis and spoke about Paris during the war. There was also some really nice art in the area, through the whole walk really. There was also some "stumbling stones" in the paths. These are something we first saw in Amsterdam, but are apparently all throughout Europe now. They are little plaques in the footpath that give you brief details of Jewish people who disappeared from this place.

Next.....cheese!! So many delicious cheeses and smallgoods! There were a couple of cheeses that we really liked but unfortunately you can't get them in Australia because they are unpasteurised. One that we particularly liked was called Laguiole, not to be confused with the knife of the same name, which we also learned about

We then went to a local restaurant where we had a delicious french onion soup. Perfect on a cool day for lunch.

I mentioned before about the multicultural nature of the Marais. The next stop sells a unique item which represents this perfectly. These beautiful little morsels are nests made of angel hair pastry, filled with a fruit confit and then topped with flavoured cream. I chose lemon!

The final stop was at a wine shop

That was the end of a very enjoyable tour, but it wasn't the end of our foodie adventures on that day! I knew that I had to try Berthillon icecream while I was in Paris, so we sat outside and watched the world go by for a while

We then met up with my friend Beth at Shakespeare and Company (which I posted about here) and then we went for a fun dinner, but I will tell you about that next week.

This was a fascinating way to spend time getting to know a specific neighbourhood. We ended up doing another foodie tour when we were in Naples, and this kind of tour is definitely part of our plans for our upcoming trip.

I am sharing this post both as part of Weekend Cooking and Paris in July, hosted by Emma at Words and Peace.

Weekly meals

Saturday -  Chilli con Carne

Sunday -  French chicken        

Monday - Chilli with potato

Tuesday - Chicken Shwarma

Wednesday - Pork Nachos 

Thursday - Meatballs

Friday - Takeaway

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page