Earlier this month we took two different food tours in Paris (I know some here will say that’s excessive, but both doubled as neighborhood tours, and both ended up being high points of our visit). People often query the Forum about which company to choose, and since we chose tours with 2 different companies, I thought I’d share what each was like.
Paris by Mouth — original Saint Germain tour. There were 8 of us on the tour, and we enjoyed being the only Americans, along with a Scot, a Brit, 3 Australians, and a woman from Sweden. The diversity of the group made it really interesting, especially at the end of the tour when we sat down for a tasting together. This tour focused on pastry, chocolate, cheese, and wine. It definitely focused on quality rather than quantity, and we were definitely not feeling overly full when it concluded. Our guide taught us a lot, especially about what to look for when purchasing pastries and cheese. A highlight was spending time in a wine cellar at the end of the tour, where we had the opportunity to learn about what we were eating. We tasted 6 different cheeses, and our guide provided us with a great deal of information about each. Following the tour she emailed us with the names and locations of every shop we’d visited, and detailed information about each item we tasted (this was super helpful because we returned to the cheese monger at the end of the trip to have our favorite hard cheese vacuum packed to take home with us). I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t more information shared with us about the neighborhood along our walk. Also, at precisely 2:00 pm, the guide announced the tour was over. I’d read about other Paris by Mouth tours extending beyond the scheduled conclusion time, so was a little surprised by that. However, overall we had a very positive experience and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Paris by Mouth.
Eating Paris— Montmartre tour. There were 10 people on the tour, all American. The tour included a lot of different foods, and some tour members refused to eat some of it (for example, only half of us participated in the oyster tasting). Our guide was exceptional, and I felt we learned so much about Montemarte, and experienced a lot of the neighborhood that was slightly off the beaten track and not crowded with tourists, so it truly was a neighborhood tour as well as a food tour. There was a lot of food to try on this tour. We stopped at a bakery and sampled items other than the standard croissants, which was great. Then a butcher shop to try various charcuterie, a cheese shop, and a sit down counter at a seafood shop where oysters from 4 different regions were paired with wines. We also sat down at a bistro for sausage and aligot (wonderful dish of cheesy potatoes). This was followed by a fair amount of walking and touring the neighborhood. But there was more food still to come! We visited a store focused on artisanal citrus products, and tasted jams and liquors. After some additional walking, we stopped for macarons and chocolate. I thought the pacing of the tour was excellent, and the amount of food was a good value for our money. There were a couple of older people in our group, and our guide announced adjusted her pace to accommodate them, kindly letting them know that we were in no rush. The tour lasted a full half hour longer than the advertised time. Maybe it wasn’t as “sophisticated” as the Paris by Mouth tour, but it was thoroughly enjoyable. My only complaint would be that we didn’t receive a list of where we ate and what we ate — that would have been a nice extra touch. But we had a fantastic time, and I’d absolutely recommend this tour.
I learned a ton about French foods on these tours, but I wish they’d included more affordable chocolate. (I know that there are entire tours devoted to chocolate, so maybe I should have considered one) I would have liked advice on good chocolate that doesn’t cost €130 for a small box!