Christmas time in Paris

Paris  at Christmas is food, food and more food and what goodies there are to be had ! I started off at the Bio Marché on Boulevard Raspail, which was full of Christmas poultry– capons, turkeys, ducks and pheasants; then came mountains of oysters, lobsters, shrimp and crayfish ; followed by truffles,  mushrooms of every hue and shape , and finally delicious cakes and tarts. Not to mention of course the wonderful vegetables and fruit, all so beautifully presented.

From there on to the Maison du Chocolat on the rue de Sèvres. This was the first of the « grands chocolatiers » in Paris but in the last few years they have been given a run for their money by Pierre Hermé and Jean Paul Hévin, to name but two of the up and coming young competitors who have arrived on the chocolate scene. But we were not there (in theory) to buy chocolates but rather some of their marrons glacés, which have just been judged to be the best in Paris. But of course we came out with some ganache chocolates too !

Then  on to my favourite store in Paris, le Bon Marche. The theme this year is reindeers – white ones with a pink pattern, and they are scattered life size all around the store , as well as leaping from the ceilings and escalators. The shoppng bags are decorated in the same pattern, and there is wrapping paper to match.   They pop up too in the animated Christmas windows and even out on the pavement !

On the second floor there is a huge Christmas shop with about eight tall Christmas trees each decorated with a different theme – one was devoted entirely to little insect figures like scarabs, grasshoppers, and crickets fashioned out of glass and wire in very bright colours and they were so unusual.  Another tree was place-themed, with ornaments in the form of, for example, double-decker buses and Big Ben for London;the American flag, the Statue of Liberty, and the Washington Memorial for the States ; and of course the Eiffel Tower and the Arche de Triomphe for Paris – resulting in a most original tree.

Next  it was over to the Bon Marché food store, la Grande Epicerie, bursting with tempting  food and wine. We ate at a new Sushi bar, Ayamé, which has just opened and had their 25 Euro Menu Botan specially devised for the holiday season.   The starter was two Ayamé creations : Coquilles St. Jacques with crab meat and mango, and foie gras with Granny Smith apples. These were followed by a selecition of sushis : Salmon,   Coquilles St. Jacques , and bream ; and then salmon,and avocado,   and tuna and avocado and cucumber makis . A bowl of rice with grated egg , caviar and a crunchy brown vegetable that looked like seaweed but wasn’t, the name of which I have unfortunately forgotten.

The dessert was a Matcha green tea flavoured tiramsu and a cherry blossom scented Guimave. The suggested beverage to accompany the meal was Saké Mont Fuji , but we decided against that  as we still had » fish to fry ». By the way all the sushi is available as a take-away.

Our next stop was the coffee bean department, as we had heard about some new capsules for Nespresso machines, which you can fill yourself, or have filled in the store, with your own choice of ground coffee.. We bought 3 sachets of capsules prefilled with coffees from Costa Rica, Kenya and Nicaragua – and I have a feeling that the standard Nespresso capsules may not  figure much on our shopping lists in the future….

We then headed down to the basement and the Wine Department where there is an incredible selection of quality wines, as well as champagne, more than 100 malt whiskies and various other assorted alcoholic beverages. The staff are extremely knowledgeable and really seem to enjoy discussing various vintages with you.

To celebrate Christmas there was a whole section of not just bottles, but magnums and jéroboams of some of the great Bordeaux vintages  – Latour 1998, Le Corton 1990,   Sciando Millet 1999, Ausone, etc. etc. Some of the magnums were in the 1000 Euros price range so obviously there were no tastings…..

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But there were dégustations of champagne and we tried the Bollinger Brut and Rose, both of which were delicious, though we decided that we preferred the rose.

And then it was time to head home, but not before a final treat of a sample American marshmellow dipped in hot chocolate sauce .  The Christmas atmosphere was complete!

However the crowning glory of this pre-Christmas day in Paris was seeing a City tour bus advertising the fact that there was a gastro- bistro on board ! For me that really took the cake – what will they think of next to keep the tourists happy !