the best things i ate & drank in france

oui, wheeee

not actual food

bonjour! i just returned this past saturday from paris, where i was visiting my friend who moved there for work last year. it was my third time in france and second time in paris, but since both previous visits were as part of tours, i felt like i didn’t necessarily get to fully immerse myself in the incredible parisian food and drink world. i can confidently say that this trip changed that completely! here are a bunch of the delicious highlights.

food:

the escargot & beef bourguignon at polidor

after taking a red eye flight on saturday night, arriving in paris at 9am-ish on sunday, opting to forego a nap, and pushing through a whole day of wandering, i was very much ready to house an early, extremely french dinner before finally sleeping for a zillion hours (okay, 11). and it just so happened that polidor, a historic (circa 1845) restaurant that was a filming location for midnight in paris — my second-favorite movie of all time — was less than a half-hour walk from my friend cassidy’s apartment. done and done!

we kicked things off with some escargot (snails), or “vehicles for garlic and butter,” as cassidy so aptly described them. i’d never had this delicacy before, but figured when in france…they were delicious! the texture was oyster-y, in a good way.

and because i’ve watched julie and julia too many times to count, i had to get the beef bourguignon for my main course. it came with mashed potatoes and was out-of-this-world good. probably my favorite meal of the trip, and that’s saying a lot considering we went to a michelin-starred restaurant! the atmosphere was…well…as french as the cuisine; halfway through our meal, a mother and her two preteenish daughters were sat next to us. as in at our actual table next to us. it was…unnerving and slightly annoying to me, especially since we there was no explicit mention that we’d be at communal tables, but c’est la vie. the food more than made up for it!

the croissants at la parisienne

final croissant count pour moi : 3 — 2 plain and 1 almond — and i’m not counting the chocolate one that jetblue kindly provided me with just prior to landing in paris. they were all courtesy of cassidy’s trusty local boulangerie, la parisienne, which has a few locations around paris. flaky, fluffy, buttery, light, and delicious, just like they should be. and i *finally* got to have my “croissant-at-a-sidewalk-cafe” moment, albeit a makeshift one, because we stopped for cappuccino and while the cafe was already sold out of croissants, there was a la parisienne across the street, so cassidy went and bought a couple and brought them back to us at our lil’ table. success!

the crepe at malo creperie

so, this was cool! there’s this huge department store, printemps du goût, in the 9th arrondissement, that has a bunch of little stores and cafes within it. this includes malo, a creperie on the 7th floor that serves cider and boasts an incredible view of the eiffel tower. it offered a lovely, leisurely mid-afternoon break from walking around the city, and my crepe — with egg, artichoke, cheese, and mushroom — hit the spot.

the apple crumble at le malabar

don’t get me wrong — my fish and chips at this cozy, vibey little bistro were great, as was the jack amaretto sour cocktail (literally my dream drink). buuut the star of the show was actually the dessert, a crumble with apples from normandy that were just a bit firm but not too firm, a cinnamon-brown sugar-butter topping, and some vanilla cream sauce to pour over the whole thing. yum.

the mackerel and tuna tartare & monkfish at restaurant gaya

my first michelin star meal! we opted for a prix fixe lunch at gaya, where famous chef pierre gagnaire is at the helm (he’s also the head chef at sketch in london, which i adored when i went years ago). as y’all probably know, i love me some seafood, so i was in heaven. the tartare was light, fresh, and flavorful, and the monkfish was topped with something akin to prosciutto and whatever that green leaf thang was, served atop mushrooms with a cream sauce to finish it off. we felt so full and so fancy by the end!

the bristol burger at be burger

when i told my cab driver from the paris airport that i was going to lille for a day trip, he insisted that i get a burger there. i’m still not really sure why, because i couldn’t find anything super distinctive about the burgers in lille. but once i planted the seed with cassidy, we had burgers on the brain as soon as we got to the city, so there was no turning back at dinner time. this one had belgian charolais beef, lettuce, tomatoes, cheddar, fried onions, and special sauce. along with the fries (which were automatically amazing because we were extremely close to the belgian border), it was just the ticket.

the chicken fricassee at côté saint-germain

i’m actually a bit surprised at just how many classic french dishes i managed to order on this trip, but when i saw this on the menu at the cute bistro we ate at on thursday evening, i had to go for it. the meal, a traditional chicken stew with vegetables and rice, was comforting and cozy. huge fan.

the jambon beurre at chez aline

you KNOW it’s good when i, who does not consider myself a ham person at all, was raving about it. while the jambon beurre (which literally translates to “ham butter” because the sandwich is quite literally just…ham and butter) is a staple sandwich in paris and you can get it on just about every block, i read about chez aline on atlas obscura, as it’s a former horse butcher shop that the current owner turned into a cool little hole-in-the-wall sandwich spot.

she prioritizes fresh and natural ingredients, from the salted normandy butter to the nitrate-free, thinly-sliced ham and perfectly chewy baguette, and makes every sandwich to order. since there are only a few counter seats in the tiny place, cassidy and i took our sandwiches to a nearby park and dug in. the flavor and texture combination was *chef’s kiss* (no pun intended) and i’m craving it as we speak.

the carbonnade flamande at my editor’s apartment

on my final night, my book editor — who happens to live in paris — was kind enough to invite us over to her lovely apartment for dinner, and her husband made this flemish beer beef stew. it was exactly the hearty, meaty meal i needed soak up the glass of riesling and the grand marnier cocktail (below) that were coursing through my veins.

drink:

the barbados fizz at harry’s new york bar

harry’s is allegedly the oldest cocktail bar in europe (circa 1911) and also claims to have invented the bloody mary! as legend has it, the bar was dismantled and transported from 7th avenue in manhattan to its current location in the 2nd arrondissement. when we popped in around 3pm on a monday, the vibes were immaculate. a few quiet solo sippers, vintage collegiate pendants all over the walls, and a general “well-kept secret” vibe — though i’m sure it pops off later on in the evening. my drink had mount gay black barrel rum, pineapple, lemon, cardamom, cacao bitters, egg white, and soda. refreshing and just sweet enough!

the le freak, c’est chic at sister midnight

this glammy disco-and-drag-inspired lil’ cocktail bar on a side street in the pigalle neighborhood (not too far from moulin rouge) was the ideal spot for an elevated boozy beverage prior to our slightly tacky fondue adventure below. my drink had rye whiskey, amaretto, maraschino, lemon, orange blossom, and absinthe. yessirrrr.

the wine in a baby bottle at le refuge des fondus

i love combining highbrow and lowbrow anything, and this quirky, campy, fondue restaurant was the perfectly contrasting counter dinner to our michelin star lunch. les refuge des fondus is a beloved, funky spot in montmartre where the food and wine (which, yes, is served in baby bottles) are certainly not sophisticated, but the experience is one of a kind. once you settle in— often having to climb over the table to get to the wall seat, everyone’s packed elbow to elbow, sipping and dipping, eating and drinking and being merry. it was such a memorable, fun evening!

the hot chocolate with chantilly cream at carette

the weather on tuesday was a bit chilly and rainy, so some indulgent hot beverages were in order. we popped into this takeout-only outpost of carette in montmartre, got our hot chocs with all of that sinful chantilly cream on top, and took them for a little wander through the neighborhood.

the cold brew at cafe kitsuné and kawa

okay, so it was no dunkin’ iced, but if you’ve been to europe, you know that iced coffee is RARE at any place except starbucks. and who wants to go to starbucks in europe?! fortunately, cassidy is both an ex-pat and in the know, so she had clocked this sleek cafe near the louvre that slings a mean cold brew and we went there twice during my visit. i also checked out kawa because i noticed cold brew on the menu while walking by, and i have to say that flavorwise, it might have been my favorite.

the cardamom latte at CUP magic tiny cafe

“magic tiny cafe” was the PERFECT name for this place because it was sooo magic. and sooo tiny! during our day trip to lille, we wanted to stop, sit, and caffeinate for a minute. we stumbled upon this shoebox-sized coffee shop that seemed like it would have fit just as perfectly in somewhere like the netherlands or denmark as it did in france, and got these lattes that warmed us right up. loved the view, loved the vibe, loved the drink.

the orange mecanique at la clique

it’s so hard to choose because all of the drinks i had during my trip were truly stellar, but i think i have to give the edge to this one (on the right above, natch) because it could best be described as “an alcoholic creamsicle with amaretto” — probably because its ingredients were amaretto, aperol, orange juice, lime, simple syrup, and egg white. how can you go wrong? it was the ideal post-dinner, pre-train treat to end our evening in lille.

the dolly parton and boogie oogie at grouvie

i mean, bonus points for the names alone (and the far-out decor, above). but both cocktails i had at this fairly new bar tucked above brasserie des prés were very, very good and very, very different. you had the dolly parton, which had apple juice, hazelnut syrup, lime, brandy cider with toasted hazelnut oil and emulsion of vanilla liqueur (those last two things might be translated wrong, but you get the idea)…

and the boogie oogie with white grape juice, orange blossom tea syrup, verjuice, cognac, and some sort of aperitif. refreshing!

the riesling at septime la cave

right before i left for my trip, my recipe guru alison roman, whose taste and suggestions i trust implicitly, sent out a newsletter with recommendations for the city of lights, as she had just returned from a visit herself. while this spot was the only one on her list i made it to, it was excellent. the space is compact and the vibe is a bit tragically hip in the best sense. we both relaxed with our glasses of dry riesling and pretended we were cool, bohemian french girlies.

the pop parrain at moonshiner

if the orange mecanique was #1, i gotta give this second place. i mean, it had POPCORN on top that they popped specifically for the drink AND “washed” with whiskey! it also had grand marnier, amaretto, and campari. the bar itself, as its name might suggest, had a total dimly-lit, secret speakeasy vibe — and was in fact hidden behind an unassuming pizza shop. my kind of place!

p.s. just because music is equally as important to me as food when i travel, i’ll leave you with some of my trip theme songs that narrated my vacation, if you’re so inclined. bonne journee!

a country western - “magnetic”

kasador - “R.I.P. me down”

beyoncé - “bodyguard”

sword ii - “silver”