paris diary: fauchon

fauchon is a super upscale food store located at place de la madeleine in paris. it is such a popular attraction that it often gets mentioned in the same breath as architectural marvels such as the eiffel tower, arc de triomphe, notre dame, hotel de ville and the obelisk of luxor to name a few! a few people mentioned that it has become too touristy and that i should avoid it at all costs but i ignored their advice and having experienced this 117 year old food store firsthand, i have to say that a pligrimage to fauchon is an absolute must, especially for those of us new to the food scene in paris.



the signature bright pink colour of fauchon is well integrated in the design of the store which is divided into several sections stocking everything a foodie would want from the finest pastries and chocolates to teas and coffees, from preserves and spices to cheeses and spreads.



i spent a lot of time just soaking in the atmosphere of the store and taking a good look at the thousands of fine products that fauchon stocks. i wanted a little bit of everything - it was just so hard to prioritise what to buy and take back to london given we had only brought carry-on luggage.



the chocolates and other sweets were by far the most tempting. i decided to buy nothing but chocolate to take home to london. i bought many flavours of jujups (fruit puree covered in sugar) simply because they tasted like heaven. i also bought a few bars of chocolate - chocolat noir aux ecorces d'oranges confites (dark chocolate with candied orange peel) and chocolat aut lait au cafe d'amerique latine (milk chocolate with latin american coffee). i also got a big cube of coffee beans covered in dark chocolate as well as ginger sticks covered in dark chocolate.

after tasting so much chocolate, i needed something salty. so we headed upstairs to brasserie fauchon for lunch.



i eat the most divine vegetable club sandwich ever. the bread was toasted just right, the vegetables grilled to perfection, the greens dressed to seduce. the sundried tomato and the yogurt dill sauce added the top notes to this fabulous dish.



dessert was raspberry sorbet and earl grey tea. the tea was served with a few chocolate covered ginger sticks that quickly become terribly addictive. to say that the raspberry sorbet was the best i've ever had would be an understatement. i simply have no words to describe the pure goodness of the fruit. the french really do get food like no other country in the world.

as you can see from this overly glowing praise of fauchon, i was quite smitten. do check it out if you find yourself in paris. it's worth every extra euro you spend just because it's fauchon.

ps - just found that manhattan has a fauchon. too bad that i didn't know about it when i lived in new york!