PARIS, DAY 1:

We arrived in Paris early on a Saturday morning and headed straight to our hostel where we dropped off our luggage. (We wouldn't be able to check in until 3pm, so we had lots of time free). Of course, I'd already had this entire trip planned out. We had a lot of ground to cover, and not a huge amount of time. So we hopped on the subway and started out on my plan to visit 9 different chocolate shops that day. I'm not going to sit here and actually record all the chocolate shops we went to, since all of that was pretty much work related and I've decided to create a Tabblo for that stuff. So I'll focus more on the things we ate.

We had visited 2 chocolate shops and decided that we needed a break and some late breakfast/lunch. Luckily, we were near the famed department store, Le Bon Marche and the Grand Epicerie, which is the huge marketplace located within the department store. We initally got lost looking for the marketplace, but soon figured out that it was in a second building and headed over there. And when we walked in, it was teaming with activity. Not only was the place huge, it was also full of shoppers and staff, and it was kinda overwhelming for both of us. (Having gotten off our flight recently and only having a few hours of sleep with no caffeine, it was hard to focus on much). I looked quickly at the chocolate section, but we headed straight for the back where we found the prepared foods section. We grabbed some food and drinks and checked out and headed to a nearby park where we sat and enjoyed our first bites of Parisian food. (Actually Tom had purchased some ridiculously expensive financiers while at Christian Constant, but this was our first real meal).

We each had one of these little Thai shrimp thingies. I didn't think they were that great, cause they were cold and the skin on the packets was pretty tough. And they were kinda greasy. At least they were pretty, though.
And we moved on to our sandwiches. I had a simple sandwich of grilled veggies, which was pretty good.
And Tom had also had a simple sandwich of ham and cheese on a baguette. As soon as we took our food out, the pigeons began to gather, and you can see one in this pic, near Tom's knee. Turns out that that sandwich was Tom's favorite thing he ate the whole trip. He says it was due to the quality of the bread.
After our quick lunch, we headed back to Le Grand Epicerie, cause I wanted to get a better look at the chocolate section and everything they had inside. It really was amazing, with its own pastry counter, bread counter, meat section, cheese section, seafood section and everything!
Here are crates of fresh oysters.
And the aforementioned seafood counter.
There was so much yummy food, I think I could've happily spent the entire day there, but we had things to accomplish.

But moving on, we visited another 3 chocolate shops before we stopped at Pierre Herme, the famed French pastry chef. He has only one store in Paris, and I was surprised at how tiny it was. There was a line out the door, which we dutifully waited in, until it was our turn to buy some pastries. Here's a pic of the pastry case. And yes, that really does say 26E (about $30) for a quart of ice cream.Suffice it to say, this place was shockingly expensive. It was also so full of people and staff dropping off more inventory that I didn't have much time to linger and think about what I wanted to order. I settle on buying two chocolate bars and this little bag of 6 macaroons. Aren't they pretty?
Pierre Hermes changes his macaroon flavors every year. But here's my favorite one and the best thing that I ate in Paris, the Passion Fruit Macaroon.The filling was so passion fruity and tart and wonderfully flavored. It was great. I also really liked my salted caramel macaroon. Unfortuately I couldn't eat them all at once and stuck them in my back pack. By the time we got back to the hostel, they were a bag of crushed macaroons. I ate them anyway.

Next up, it was time to visit some more shops and head to the Ile St. Louis for some hot chocolate and ice cream. Turns out that the Ile St. Louis was my favorite area that we visited the entire trip. I would happily stay there in the future. It's a more residential island, just next to the Ile de la Cite (where the Notre Dame is located and where the city of Paris started). The main street is filled with great shops, some quirky and many filled with food. We made our first stop at what I thought was Berthillon, the famous ice cream store. Tom bought an almond ice cream, which I think he liked. I thought it tasted like marzipan and was too sweet for me. I was holding out for some hot chocolate, anyway. Turns out that place was just a cafe that happened to sell Berthillon ice cream (like every other cafe on that island), but that was ok since the actual Berthillon was closed (I'm not sure why).

We eventually made our way to our last stop for the day, a tiny, adorable place called La Charlotte de l'Ile. It's owned by an older woman and was pretty empty when we arrived. Just imagine if you had an old eccentric aunt who kept everything and had funny nicknacks everywhere, like strange teapots and such, and that is exactly what this place is like. We sat in the front room, next to an old piano, and I ordered a hot chocolate, reportedly the best in Paris.My chocolate was brought to me on a little tray, and I loved that it was served with a tiny pitcher of water with its own little shot glass. And the chocolate itself was amazing. I told Tom that it was even better than the chocolate at my own store. It was dense and dark and had a lot of depth to it. But it was too much! I couldn't finish it all and had to make Tom help me.

Finally we were done with chocolate shopping for the day and we returned to our hostel where we crashed for an afternoon nap. When we got up, we were kinda hungry, but first made our way up to the Sacre Couer, which was right near our hostel. We descended on the other side of the hill in the 9th district, an area famous for the presence of the Moulin Rouge and I went off looking for a take out place called the Chicken Family, which I'd read about in a blog called Chocolate and Zucchini by a blogger named Clotide who lives in the 9th.Chicken Family is famous for it's roasted chicken, so I bought one along with some kind of seafood salad. We were hungry and tired by this point, so my plan to have a picnic near the Sacre Couer didn't happen. We returned to our hostel instead. Tom wasn't a fan of Chicken Family, nothing appealed to him, but I did enjoy my roasted chicken. It was super moist and tasty and they'd even seasoned the interior. Another one of the best things I ate during the trip. And that's it for dining on Day 1.