A food tour of Paris’ 7th arrondissement with Localers

Food tours when I travel. I’m a huge fan! You might remember, from Paris alone, this tour by Flavors of Paris on the Left Bank, the Context Paris Chocolate Walk, the Context “Bobo Palate: New Trends in Parisian Cuisine“, the La Cuisine Paris “Sugar Walk” of the Marais, the “Bellies on Foot” tour, again from La Cuisine Paris), or the Urban Adventures “Secret Paris” tour.

When I was planning this summer’s trip to Paris, I was excited to see a couple of newcomers (to me) to the Paris walking tour scene – local companies like Localers.  I am not sure how I came across their site but the amount and variety of tours they offer in France certainly had me lost in the site for the better part of an hour.  I was honoured when Romain and Thomas from Localers invited me to join one of their Paris tours this summer and suggested they choose something in line with my interests (err… food!) which is how I found myself on the Eiffel Tower food tour last week (€89 per person based on 4 people, very competitive compared to many food tours around the city).

Pitched as a gastro-historical tour of a carefully selected group of merchants and artisans with a passionate young French chef as our guide, the tour promised a behind-the-scenes tastings at artisanal food merchants, including foie gras, wine, macarons, patisseries and a private wine & cheese workshop at a “fromagerie” when the shop is closed, it sounded right up my alley!

Our guide was Maël, a chef who was raised in Brittany but who now lives and works in Paris. With experience everywhere from Michelin star restaurants to the set of a French television show where he worked as a culinary assistant, Mael also has a degree in history and sociology from the University of Rennes and loves to share his knowledge of the history of Paris and French gastronomy with foreign travelers.  On my tour, he did a great job of “reading” the group and tailoring the information he was sharing to our various interests.

What I really liked about this tour was that, while there was definitely a food focus, it was not just about the food. Maël also shared information about history, architecture and art, so there’s definitely something for everyone to learn about!

Of course, what’s a food tour without… food? Along the way there are plenty of tastings…

Lots of French classics like these madeleines, canelés and macarons to try (and even if you have eaten all of these before, it’s always interesting to compare different versions).

A new-to-me discovery, Michel Chaudun and his tasty pavés (ganache squares dusted with cocoa)…

Inside the tiny boutique on rue de l’Université, you’ll find all sorts of goodies (including chocolate saucisson!)…

More chocolate was to be had at Les Petites Chocolatières (where we sampled “raisins au Sauternes” – raisins soaked in Sauternes then coated in chocolate. Divine!)

And when you’re near Pralus, you simply HAVE to stop in to taste the praluline, right? I’ve written about my love for Praluline before, some of you might remember…

To my excitement, we headed to Jean-Paul Hévin, temple of chocolate – and macarons…

Another store that you really had to take a close look at inside to see what they sell – from the outside, it looks like a fancy jewelers!

The tour includes savoury tastings too – foie gras and wine at Canard & Co.

The tour pace is leisurely, though you will cover a lot of ground. Don’t forget to stop and smell the roses from time to time….

And sometimes it’s great to just stop and people watch…

Or step into what might seem like a mundane fruit and veg store to discover beautifully presented produce…

Or take the time to notice little details like the boiled eggs laid out on a café table (a traditional bar snack).

Towards the end of the tour, we stepped into the Fromagerie de Grenelle (closed at the time of our tour) for a private tasting of some Corsican wine and cheese with owner Luc Pascal.

Hint: if you take this tour, don’t make lunch plans. You’ll be too full of goodies by the end of it!

(see?)

What I really enjoyed about this tour was the amount of ground we covered. Though it felt leisurely, when I go back and look as all the places we visited (or that Maël talked about – quite often he would simply draw our attention to a noteworthy building or store), we certainly were given a lot of information so it wasn’t just our bellies that were full when the tour ended. We all had a handful of business cards, notes on our iPhones and the like and a list a mile long of places to go back to later in the trip!

No wonder they suggest taking the tour early on in your Paris trip – so you can fully digest all the information and head back to some of the places you want to explore more fully on your own…

And of course, what’s an “Eiffel Tower Food Tour” without the Eiffel Tower? This is the end point for the trip and I can’t think of a more fabulous way to end a morning of culinary adventures in the 7th arrondissement.

Need more convincing that you should check out Paris with a local guide from Localers?

Watch this:

Disclosure: I was a guest of Localers on the “Eiffel Tower Food Tour”.  I was not asked to write about this, nor am I being compensated for doing so. All opinions are 100% my own.

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