Every time a Paris map or letter gets finished and shipped out I want to celebrate 🥂🍾!
Two letters out every month means two celebrations 🥂🥂. One can't complain. Last night I rewarded myself with l'escargot + pistache gelato from Picard - a green dinner. If you come to Paris and don’t taste any Paris chocolates you’re missing out. There is no better place for top chocolate shops than the 6th.
Three on rue de Seine + three on rue Bonaparte. The February Paris chocolate map IS your guide.
Here's a well-kept Paris secret - it’s perfectly OK to walk into the best chocolate shops in town and BUY ONLY ONE CHOCOLATE! I kid you not.
At Pierre Marcolini it will set you back 1€. The French, more than anyone, understand the concept of a 'peche mignon' (a guilty pleasure). Indulging yourself with one perfect chocolate is applauded and respected. Make the tour of the 6eme chocolate shops collecting single samples and no one will look down their noses at you. At all. Considering the heights of snobbery here this is something. on Valentine's day at Galeries Lafayette there were Free chocolates to taste at the Pierre Hermé! Someone's hand grabbed one. Yum
Another secret - the density and richness of a single French ganache bonbon is equal to your average steak IMHO...though some meat-eaters might not agree. You don't need to wolf down the entire box either at one sitting. It may be near impossible. Better to fait attention and appreciate. I knew someone who ate a single chocolate every night. Of course they were French chocolates.
