Monday, December 22, 2008

Walking in Paris

I decided to take a walk in Paris. I started in the 17th arrondissement (Port Maillot) and walked to the 6th arrondissement (St. Germain). My goal was to end up at the Le Bon Marche (my favourite department store in Paris). I started walking on Avenue des Ternes.


I turned on the Avenue des Champes-Elysees and passed by the famous Le Fouquet's front facade. It really beautiful and festive. Of course, I would never consider eating here since its a tourist trap. But its lovely non-the-less.


Very close to Le Fouquet's is the very famous and very popular Laduree. If you love pastries and chocolates like myself. Laduree is one those Parisian mythical places for the macaron. Laduree's macaron was one of the pioneers before the macaron became as popular as it is today. Laduree's tea room is not only filled with wealthy Parisians but with tons of Japanese and other tourist lining up every day just to get a box of macarons that come in practically every flavour.


On the way to St. Germain, I saw the La Maison Chocolate. It is not my favourite chocolate shop in town, but I thought their window display was quite nice and tempting.


While on rue de Rennes, I passed the very new and chic chocolate shop from Patrick Roger. Incredible imaginative window displays; chocolate trees made with hundreds of pieces of chocolates. Very simple yet lovely. But, you must be very rich to buy chocolate from Patrick Roger. A chocolate bar made with 85% cocoa cost 6 euros. Choosing 6 individual chocolate filled with interesting flavours cost 9 euros. But as usual, I was weak.


Walking on Boulevard St. Germain and passing the grande dame of cafes...Les Deux Magots. I remember my very first time in Paris, long, long, long time ago. My very first breakfast of a croissant and hot chocolate was at Les Deux Magots. So, I have a sentimental love affair with this cafe. Its always buzzing with the who's who of town as well as millions of tourists. Its a great place to people watch.

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