Whenever I’m near the Louvre, I always head to the Rue Saint-Honore to visit one of the best chocolate shops in Paris—and actually in all of France: Michel Cluizel. You can’t go wrong with any of the distinctive products sold at Michel Cluizel, as they’re been crafted by world-class artisans drawing on nearly 70 years of chocolate-making expertise. Continue Reading →
One of the many French staples served at restaurants, bistros and brasseries throughout Paris is confit de canard (duck confit)—a leg of duck that’s salt-cured and then cooked in its own fat. It seems that it’s practically a requirement that every cook in the city makes and sells this dish. But truth be told, most Parisian eateries serve a poorly cooked canard. More often than not, you’re served a piece of duck with rubbery skin and super-greasy meat or one that’s so overcooked that it’s dry as toast. Fortunately, there are a handful of restaurants in Paris that know how to prepare a perfect confit de canard with crisp, crackling skin and moist, succulent meat, and one of the very best is Chez Dumont in the 6th Arrondissement. Continue Reading →
There are more than 150 museums in the City of Light, ranging from tiny exhibitions to huge world-renowned institutions like the Louvre and the Musee d’Orsay. But many Parisian museums fall between the obscure and the famous, and one of the most interesting of these is the Musee d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaisme/MAHJ (Museum of Jewish Art and History). The museum, housed in an historic 17th century Marais mansion, chronicles the rich and sometimes very complex history of Jews throughout Europe and North Africa—with a specific focus on French Jews—from the Middle Ages to present day through its world-class collection of paintings, sculpture, religious objects, manuscripts, textiles and historic documents. Some of the most fascinating artifacts are nearly 800 years old. Continue Reading →