France Archives - Hungry Travelers

France

Dining in the Dior fashion in Paris

Posted on May 1, 2024May 1, 2024 by Pat and David

We'll never rise to the style of Mathilde Favier, the focus of the lovely new book Living Beautifully in Paris (Flammarion, $75). It's really no surprise that Favier, PR manager for Dior Couture, has cultivated a unique sense of style in her wardrobe and home and surrounded herself with talented, chic friends. The book is filled with photos that capture the grace and allure of the City of Light. It's all we can do not to book two tickets for the next available flight. And it's encouraging to know that whatever our sartorial deficiencies, we could eat like Favier in Paris. At least some of the time. Her friends may include Michelin-starred chefs (below, at left), but she's also fond of simple, honest bourgeois French...Read More

Summer bounty summons taste memories

Posted on August 16, 2023August 16, 2023 by Pat and David

Unlike many Americans, we decided to stay home this summer rather than crowd the plazas of Europe. We've been enjoying the farmers market and garden bounty of a warm and wet stateside year. The rolling harvest reminds us of some of our favorite dishes we ate overseas. They taste as good at home, even if the ambiance is different. Cherries from the Pacific Northwest have been incredible. They are sweet, large, firm, and more inexpensive than we've seen in years. When we have a lot of cherries, we can't help but think of making clafoutis, a rustic dish we associate with French country inns (like the one above). Most of the recipes we've encountered were geared to rather large baking dishes and made enough clafoutis...Read More

Why we miss Paris—and what to do about it

Posted on November 21, 2021November 20, 2021 by Pat and David

Two new cookbooks from Flammarion just might be the next best thing to being in Paris. We were last there in early February 2020. We cherish those last few days in the City of Light as the waning hours of our pre-pandemic innocence. Those poor Chinese people, we thought as we watched BBC's reporting from Wuhan. Poor world, we think now. There was no way we could fill our luggage with croissants, gateaux, baguettes, éclairs, and all the other delectables of French bread and pastry making. If only. Our photos remind us how ubiquitous great breads and pastries are in Paris. Getting chilled stalking the winter streets during the end of the Paris sales? The obvious solution is to pop into a cafe for a...Read More

Imagining a legendary dinner with Monet at Giverny

Posted on June 19, 2021June 18, 2021 by Pat and David

Long before there was Instagram, there was Claude Monet. His 1883 painting of peaches could make any art lover's mouth water. The only things Monet loved as much as painting were his family and his meals. Once he tasted Yorkshire pudding at the Savoy Hotel in London, he badgered his cook Marguerite until she could replicate the version. But mostly he indulged in fresh vegetables, many of which he grew in the gardens of Giverny. (‶I am good for nothing but painting or gardening,″ he reportedly quipped.) Monet is just one of the celebrities featured in Legendary Dinners: From Grace Kelly to Jackson Pollock edited by Anne Peterson (Prestel 2021, $40). Dinner guests ranged from painter Paul Cezanne to novelist Guy de Maupassant to the...Read More

Pastry can whisk you back to Paris

Posted on October 13, 2020October 12, 2020 by Pat and David

We love to visit Paris for the sales, for the museums, and for the sheer ambiance. But as long as we're being honest, we love to visit Paris for the patisseries. Small French pastries are always a highlight of any trip to the City of Light. Combine our love of French pastry with our longing for far-too-distant Paris, and Petite Patisserie couldn't have crossed our desk at a better time. It gives a shot at baking our way back into the Bois de Boulogne—or at least one of our favorite pastry shops in the Marais. Petite Patisserie: 180 Easy Recipes for Elegant French Treats by Christophe Felder and Camille Lesecq (Rizzoli, 2020, $45) is a 350-page guide to financiers, madeleines, Napoleons, petit fours, tartlets, and...Read More

In praise of the humble French classics

Posted on March 11, 2020March 10, 2020 by Pat and David

We didn't eat at any creative new restaurants on our recent trip to Paris. But we weren't disappointed. This wasn't that kind of trip. We went for the Paris sales and decided to save our euros for our purchases. We limited meals to somewhat casual establishments, grabbed breakfast on the go at a pâtisserie, indulged once a day in a modest bistro meal, and made lunch or dinner a hot-to-go option. The humble classics of French casual cuisine never let us down and never left us hungry. One of our standbys is the kind of croque monsieur shown at the top of the post. Is there anything more honest? It's little more than a slice each of ham and cheese—either Emmenthal or Comté—between thin slices...Read More

From the market’s parish church to the tastiest street in Paris

Posted on March 3, 2020March 2, 2020 by Pat and David

In Paris this winter, we visited Saint-Eustache as consolation for the closure of Notre-Dame cathedral. With its soaring spaces and grandest pipe organ in Paris, Saint-Eustache (saint-eustache.org/) provided a real spiritual uplift. Although the church's present structure dates mainly from the 16th century, part of the plan was loosely modeled on the 12th-13th century French Gothic cathedral—a hint of glory by association. Saint-Eustache was originally the parish church of the market district, known as Les Halles since medieval times. When Paris moved the central fresh market to the suburbs in 1971, many people viewed the destruction of the old market buildings as a crime against the spirit of the city. One of the side altars in Saint-Eustache memorialized the loss in a mass of statuary...Read More

Shopping for cookware in the shadow of Escoffier

Posted on February 28, 2020February 26, 2020 by Pat and David

When it comes to making food, the right tools make all the difference. A dull knife, a thin pot with hot spots, and trying to make do with a microwave when you really need a conventional oven are the kind of inconveniences that keep Grubhub and DoorDash in business. To cook with enthusiasm and joy is much easier with the proper batterie de cuisine, as the French call the arsenal of kitchen utensils, pots, and pans. And, let's face it, dinner tastes better when eaten on something other than paper plates and plastic cups. So save some extra room in your checked bag the next time you visit Paris. Two shops within steps of each other in the former Les Halles district of Paris sell...Read More

SOLDES! Chasing Parisian style at the winter sales

Posted on February 21, 2020February 18, 2020 by Pat and David

Of all the mellifluous words in the French language, none has a better ring than ‶Soldes.″ Usually written in all capital letters, it's the term for the twice-annual sales in Paris. We don't really know why the government regulates markdown seasons. But whatever the reason, the winter and summer sales are a real boon for travelers who want to score a bargain and bring home a little memento of Paris style. This year, winter sales took place January 8 to February 4. (Summer sales will be June 24 to July 21.) When we arrived in the City of Light during the third week of January, SOLDES signs were everywhere. We had admittedly missed out on the frenzy of the opening days when the sales racks...Read More

Chicken Pastis: Liquor cabinet cookery

Posted on November 14, 2019November 9, 2019 by Pat and David

As most of our readers have already surmised, we are first and foremost wine drinkers. But we are also travelers, and sometimes the taste of place comes from a headier libation. Over the years, we have accumulated a liquor cabinet of spirits, apertifs, cordials, and what David's father used to call “snorts.” (When the last of the sipping whiskey was gone on a Sunday afternoon and the stores were all closed, he'd invariably go to the mixer cabinet and announce, “Let's have a snort!” Sometimes that meant an evening of Drambuie or anisette, but too sweet was better than dry.) Some of the bottles shown above are more than mere snorts. They make excellent sippers by themselves. It's just that we don't sit around sipping...Read More