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Finding Those Special Gifts From Paris: Surefire Spots and Strategies Finding great gifts in Paris for friends and for our beloveds with just-about-any-interest on just-about-any-budget is breathtakingly simple. Getting it all packed and safely home is the challenge. I've come through US Customs more than once with a bent-baguette sticking out of an overstuffed extra bag that I've taken along expressly to fill with good things to bring home, eliciting amused comments like " My, haven't we been shopping" or "So we don't have bread here in America?" But bien sur, the gifts I usually bring home are small, easily packable, often edible, remembrances of Paris that genuinely delight my friends and family. I'm happy to share a few of my hot-spots for perennially rewarding finds. First, when I'm in a rush I always head to the Grand Épicerie of the Bon Marché. The selection here is vast and you can pay with a credit card. I buy specialty foods like dried Tarbais beans for making traditional cassoulets, spice mixtures for making tagines, very-French jams, unusual honeys, assortments of macarons or other reasonably pack-able patisserie, fine teas from firms like Kusmi, chocolates and top-quality nut or olive oils. My latest finds at the Grand Épicerie were the very clever little dark-chocolate pyramids from Peter Beier Chokolade (their chocolate shop otherwise located at 62 rue Monsieur le Prince) that are the perfect size for melting in a cup of hot milk to make ambrosial chocolat chaud. Not only are these very hip looking they are easy to carry and create delectable memories once safely home. My other favorite shop for many portable gifts from one place is the Maille Mustard boutique on the Place de la Madeleine. Maille makes superb mustards and the charming boutique features many more classic and innovative flavors than are generally exported to the US or Canada. The green peppercorn and hazelnut flavored mustards are great. In the spring of '05 I found a new mustard flavored with fig and coriander, and another with harissa. Both are delicious, easy to pack and enduringly enjoyable. When I'm not down to the last-minute-wire I find wonderful gifts in the marché volants. You can virtually always find lovely herb mixtures, unusual sea salts and pepper blends, delicious honeys and confitures in flavors that you simply aren't going to source in the US, plus quirkily interesting kitchenwares. In the top-quality markets there are generally sellers of excellent tinned patés and foie gras, confits and similar products that always delight friends who love to cook. In the non-edible department I stock up on colorful pashima scarves and on lovely soaps (including savon de Marseille, lavender, olive oil or honey-based savons). I often find a great pair of leather shoes, an attractive designer-knockoff wallet or pocketbook. The stalls of the Bookinistes along the Seine, particularly on the left bank, are my source for affordable prints--- certainly not all of astonishing antique provenance--- but some remarkably attractive pieces for reasonable prices. And I've been reasonably successful at negotiating une petite remise if I buy four or five items from one vendor. For yet another round of food gifts, I hit the supermarkets. Here I stock up on those addictive Cote D'Or chocolate bars (the dark chocolate with hazelnuts is the stuff that dreams are made of). I buy herbal teas (tisanes) and less healthy things like jars of goose fat for sauteing potatoes. I buy canned confit de canard and quirky things like confit of gesiers for friends who love those artery-plugging foods of the French southwest. I buy mixes to make buckwheat crepes and the dark, rich coffees I never can seem to find in the US that really do taste like French-roasts. I always sigh over the vast selection of crème fraiche, but alas, that is not to bring home. Tea is a perfect gift. Paris gathers the best teas from around the world in one luminous city and the unusual blends on offer make very Parisian, very special, presents for those who adore fine tea. If time is of the essence, head for Mariage Frères, 30 rue du Bourg-Tibourg in the Marais. While it may take a few minutes to study the listing of four-hundred plus fine teas from all over the world you will surely find endless, oft poetically described and named tea-temptations here, all in one sweetly colonial-styled tea shop. Mariage Frères has also opened a shop called Thé Francais across the street at 35 rue du Bourg-Tibourg which sells pre-packaged teas taken from the most popular blends. Thé Francais also sells delicious tea-flavored jams and other condiments for those good things to eat along with one's tea. Two other tea-stops, time permitting, are a must for connoisseurs of tea. La Maison des Trois Thés, 33 rue Gracieuse, in the Latin Quarter is a world-class destination for the very finest, often rarest, Chinese and Taiwanese teas. This beautiful, architect designed salon offers over one thousand of the finest oolongs, white, yellow, and aged-black teas. Packaging is exquisite and the teas are always beyond perfect. For fine Japanese green teas, head to Chajin, 24 rue Pasquier, just off the Place de la Madeleine. This small specialty boutique features carefully chosen, first harvest green teas as well as a selection of beautiful tea bowls, cups and other related accessories. Finally, if I had to pick one productive street to shop for varied gifts, it would be the rue de Bac in St. Germain (beginning at the rue du Bac metro and walking towards the Bon Marché). Lovely little shops like Sourire have charming and affordable small gifts for the home. There are terrific homewares shops with boutis bedspreads and nice tapestry pillows, exquisite tablewares shops like Diners En Ville, indeed, a uniquely Parisian blend of shops selling just about anything you'd need for modest or much more ambitious gifting. And in an hour or so you can cover multiple irresistible venues-ending up at the Bon Marché to hit the Grand Épicerie or to shop the famed department store itself. As I said, it's breathtakingly simple! Happy gifting. |
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sally@yourgreatdaysinparis.com |
