Paris Walkabout

“How can a nation be called great if its bread tastes like Kleenex?”

 – Julia Child on American food

One year for Christmas I received a large deck of cards, City Walks of Paris: 50 Adventures on Foot.  Each card maps out a walking tour of one section of Paris, with a summary of the attractions along the route. The walks all begin and end near a metro stop, which will be a very convenient way to explore this city. Yesterday after class, a few of my friends and I decided to take a walk through the St. Germain des Pres area, very close to our school.

We stopped at Poilâne, one of the city’s most famous bakeries. Their bread has a distinctive flavor, containing mostly grey flour (not quite whole wheat flour, with not all of the wheat bran retained). Poilâne is one of the most famous names in the baking industry, shipping bread worldwide every day. I bought a chausson aux pommes, which is similar to an apple turnover. It was delicious!

After we satisfied our stomachs, we continued our tour to Le Bon Marché, the first department store in the world. We spent some time here looking around like little kids in a candy shop. It was window shopping heaven. We saw clothes by designers like Diane Von Furstenberg, Marc Jacobs, and Chanel, and beautiful shoes by Prada, Jimmy Choo, and Balenciaga. Even though everything was WAY out of my price range, it was fun to see how a wealthy Parisian shops. Having successfully completed my first self-guided walking tour, I am eager to see what I will discover on my next Paris adventure!