Tag Archives: Paris

Hot on the Highstreet Week 174

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Merci is a fashion bloggers delight, a Parisian concept store sensation, and a fun place to spend a morning browsing. Housed in an 1840 textile factory this building has been elaborately reinvented by Bonpoint creators Marie-France and Bernard Cohen. With Merci they offer furniture, jewellery, stationery, fashion, household products, childrenswear and a haberdashery, all stylishly crammed onto the three floors.

Guests can dine at the nextdoor cafe or sip a cappuccino whilst perusing the 13,000 second hand books in the bookshop. It is an ambitious shop, and a real asset to the upper Marais area. We spent a good hour wandering round admiring the French fancies and intriguing items. My favourite purchase was my miniature bottle of Merci-Annick Goutal perfume, suitable named eau de Camille.

Most impressively, Merci take retail responsibility seriously, donating all profits from the shop to charity.

Nearby burger bar Blend is perfect for a quick meal post shopping.

www.merci-merci.com

Thanks to the Paris Tourist Board, more information here.

parisinfo.com

Hot on the Highstreet Week 172

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Known as the ‘Picasso of Pastry’ Pierre Hermé is a master of macarons. I feel very lucky to work just round the corner from his only London shop on Lowndes Street and regularly peer in to see the coloured cakes while out on lunchbreak.

Hermé’s quest for the finest ingredients has led him to coffee and his latest special collection, Fetish Infiniment Café is a discovery and celebration of the best beans. It is the result of his meeting with Hippolyte Courty, founder of L’Arbre a Café, a gourmet coffee bar in Paris.

Together they sampled many coffees, of all origins, until Hermé decided to use mild but robust Iapar Rouge du Brésil and the very rare and delicate Bourbon Pointu du Piton des Neiges de la Réunion for his recipes. Hermé then sought to bring the intense and unique qualities of these beans to his collection of macarons, pastries, chocolates, nougat and cake.

Though I wasn’t crazy about the dense and plain pound cake or the wafer thin chocolates, the coffee macarons are sublime, true testament to the quality of the coffee and the skill of Pierre Hermé. Light, balanced and aromatic with a crisp outer shell and an indulgently creamy thick centre, his bitesize French fancies have never tasted so good.

The Fetish Infiniment Café collection is on sale until 20th October, get your caffeine kick quick before they sell out.

More information here.

www.pierreherme.com

Le Camion Qui Fume, Paris

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We searched far and wide for Le Camion Qui Fume, for one reason; many call them the best burgers in Paris, a statement I don’t take lightly. And so at lunchtime on a freezing February lunchtime in France we got on the train to Port Maillot, an area of Paris I’ve never ventured to before.

Le Camion Qui Fume is a clear sign that the French are beginning to take the hamburger seriously… not just a novelty on the menu anymore but an important part of the dishes on offer. Many sneered when I set out to discover the best burger on my last trip to Paris, but this time it seemed to be a more acceptable challenge.

And it is all thanks to Kristin Frederick, a Californian who studied at the French culinary school Ferrandi, and now takes her food truck, Le Camion Qui Fume, around the Paris curbs. Flicking through her lovely burger-orientated cookbook whilst in line, it is clear she is an authority on the topic. Her recipes are innovative and exciting, great flavour combinations and interesting ingredient choices. I’d seen the mouth-watering pictures but waited for the proof in the tasting.

I have queued for my fair share of burgers in London and New York so I wasn’t surprised to see a line of about 40 people already waiting for their piece of the action. Initially I had to convince my companion that it would be worth it, but after sticking it out for 40 minutes of waiting we finally reached the front of the queue… several dozen hopefuls behind us had been turned away, and so I felt very lucky to be privileged and relieved when it was finally my turn to be awarded with a Camion burger.

The crew on board the van seemed to be having a great time, tossing handmade chips and exchanging witty remarks. Bitterly cold and hungry we could do nothing but stare up at them, our fate completely in their control. I opted for the standard Classique burger. Clutching our brown paper bag we ran ready to gorge in the first place warm place we could find. This happened to be the photomaton machine in the nearby metro station… but nothing could ruin this event. It was incredible. Excellent meat – tender inside and crispy on the outside, subtly seasoned – melting cheese, fresh lettuce, tomato and crunchy white onion give extra flavour and the lightly toasted bun encases the ingredients whilst being deliciously soft and slightly sweet itself, a lick of mayo keeps the lot together. Chips are moreish and salty with the potato skin still on some of them giving a more earthy taste.

… not only the best burger I’ve tasted in Paris, but one of the best I have ever tried.

Le Camion Qui Fume
www.lecamionquifume.com
Opening times and location: @LeCamionQuiFume
Burger: 8 €; 10 € for a burger and fries

Thanks to the Paris Tourist Board, more information here.