My Paris Food Agenda

Exactly four weeks from today I will once again be in Paris. I love Paris for many reasons but first and foremost I love the food. I love how the French honor food, how meals last hours, how they don't bring the check until you ask for it, how the customer is not always right, and how eating in a French restaurant is like being a guest in the chef's home. On every street and around every corner are endless restaurants, bistros, cafes, boulangeries, patisseries, fromageries, and markets. For the foodie, the endless selection can be overwhelming. And don't get me started on the quality, if you've been to Europe you understand completely.

So, to help me focus I've put together a Paris food agenda - a list of food experiences I must have this trip to Paris - some new and some old. Some of you may be thinking, "wait, she doesn't leave for a month, and she already knows what she is going to eat? Is she crazy?" The answer is yes, a little, but those of you who know me well, know I've been putting this list together in my head since June, when I last left Paris.

So without further ado and in no particular order, I present my Paris Food Agenda...

1. Dinner at Chez Marcel (7 rue Stanislas). Stacy and I found this unknown restaurant back in June. Open since 1919 Chez Marcel seats about 20 people. You are greeted, seated and served by one kind old man. Stacy and I had our best meal in Paris here (amazing coq au vin!), despite eating at the famous (and massive) La Coupole.

2. Croissants and butter cookies from Poilâne's boulangerie (8 rue Cherche Midi). Clotilde Dusoulier calls Poilâne "the Mona Lisa of bread", but I'm not going for the bread.

3. French macaroons (which are nothing like coconut macaroons) from Pierre Hermé's patisserie (72 rue Bonaparte). Pierre Hermé is the king of French pastry and these are considered the best macaroons in Paris.

4. Eat this year's Le Meilleure Baguette de Paris (Best Baguette in Paris). The 2010 winner was Djibril Bodian of Le Grenier à Pain Abbesses (38 rue des Abbesses). Don't laugh, this is a serious competition.

5. Because I'll be in Paris during the holidays, I must eat three classic French holiday treats: Bûches de Noël (Christmas cakes, sometimes called Yule logs), Galettes des Rois (frangipane tarts to celebrate Epiphany - if you get a porcelain charm in your galette you are crowned king or queen for the day!), and papillottes (chocolate candies usually filled with fruit cream wrapped in paper (hence the name) to celebrate New Years).

6. Eat roasted chestnuts from a street vendor.

7. Eat oysters, because it is the best time of the year to eat oysters.

8. Drink lots of vin chaud (hot, spiced wine) and Beaujolais nouveau.

9. Pick up a good sauce pot at E. Dehillerin.

10. Spend hours wandering the following markets: Lafayette Gourmet, La Grande Epicerie de Paris, Rue de Buci, and Hediard.