Paris Food Tour

Updated on June 17th, 2021

When we travel, the one thing that causes me more anxiety than anything else is “what/where should we eat?”  The indecision can sometimes be crippling, to the point that I have gone to bed hungry in places like Venice, Rome, and London because I couldn’t handle the choices.  On this trip, I was determined not to be overwhelmed by french gastronomy and thought the best way to handle it was to book us a Paris food tour as our first “meal”. Best decision I made on our whole trip!

Our tour was run by Secret Food Tours and was about three hours long.  We were a little late due to flight delays, but we met the group at the first stop after some really great assistance from the tour company.  We started the tour at the Anvers metro stop and walked all over the Montmartre area trying different foods and picking up goodies to eat back at the tour company’s wine cellar.

Chocolate–Maison Georges Larnicol

On our Paris food tour, we stopped at Maison Georges Larnicol.  Not only does this place have great chocolate but it is beautiful.  We tried truffles and a few other candies that were all delicious.

Macarons–Christopher Roussel

I love macarons.  Our stop at Christophe-Roussel resulted in two macarons each. We loved them so much we stopped on our way back to our hotel and bought 12 more.  The raspberry was a particular favorite with passionfruit with tarragon a close runner up.

Bakery–Au Levain d’Antan

We stopped at a bakery, Au Levain d’Antan, and had a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into making baguettes.  One of the bakeries bakers showed us how the ovens worked and how they shape the iconic bread.  At the bakery, we tried croissants, which were some of the best I’ve ever had in my life. We went back the next morning for more!  We also got a few other treats to try back at the wine cellar including baguettes, quiche aux poireaux, tarte fine, crepe, and eclair au chocolat.

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Interesting fact, there is a contest every year for the best baguette between the boulangeries of Paris called the “Grand Prix de la Baguette de Traditional Francaise de la Ville de Paris”. The winner gets a cash prize and a year long contract to supply the president of France with fresh baguettes. Au Levain d’Antan was the 2011 winner!

Cheese–La Butte Fromagere

I am here to say that dairy products in Europe are so much better than in the US.  I think it has to do with pasteurization but I’m not sure. Almost all of the cheeses we tried in Paris were from raw milk. Newsflash, I’m still alive and have tasted some seriously good cheese.  

We tried a sheep’s milk cheese at the fromagerie, La Butte Fromagere, and brought back five more cheese to try at the wine cellar: Comte, Selles-sur Cher, Camembert, Roquefort, and Brillat Savarin. The latter was stuffed with summer truffles, I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

I also learned a lot about one of my favorite cheeses, Camembert.  Did you know you can tell how old a Camembert is by how high it is?  The taller the cheese the younger it is. Older Camembert will “fall” and will have a slumping center.  I personally love the younger version so I was super excited to learn this!

Butchery–Boucherie Jacky Gaudin

Our last stop was at a butchery, Boucherie Jacky Gaudin, where we picked up several meat options to try back at the Wine Cellar.  The gentlemen working at the butchery were hysterical and posed for pictures, made faces at us through the glass and were generally a good laugh.  Andy loved all of the options we tried: rillons de Touraine (pork belly), Rosette (pork sausage), Jambon de Savoie (cured ham), pâté au poivre vert (Liver with green peppers) and saucisse a l’ail (sausage).  I tried everything but the pate because I’m a big chicken.

Back at the Wine Cellar

We brought all the food we had purchased on our walk back to the tour companies wine cellar, and we ate, and ate, and ate.  So much food. To be honest when we first booked the tour I had been thinking the cost was a little on the high side for a 3 hour tour.  Once we finished with all the food and information I couldn’t believe what a great value the paris food tour had been. In total we had tried:

• 2 glasses of wine
• 3 Chocolates
• 2 Macarons
• Baguette
• Croissant
• Eclair au Chocolat
• Tarte Fine
• Quiche aux Poireaux
• 6 Types of cheese
• 5 types of meat

We left the tour completely stuffed and with so much more knowledge about French and Parisian cuisine.  Our guide, Emmanuel, knew so much about each food we tried and the history of French food. He gave us tips that we used the rest of our trip, and it really helped ease my anxiety about what we should be ordering or buying at shops.  We would highly recommend taking a food tour in Paris, especially the Secret Food Tour Montmartre Tour.

Check out our Paris Food Tour Video!