The man who ate the Bastille.
YOUR OWN EXCLUSIVE TOUR
Deliciousness awaits all over the famous Bastille neighborhood, my home since 2007.
Once a slightly grungy haven of student bars and cheap take-out windows, the birthplace of the French Revolution has emerged during the last several years as one of the best places to eat and drink in Paris, thanks to an influx of young chefs, lively wine bar-boutiques, pioneering microbreweries, award-winning bakeries, ambitious chocolate and pastry operations, and a host of other flavorful additions.
Whether you love sprawling outdoor food markets with cornucopias of fresh regional produce and classic prepared dishes or whether you prefer to discover small food and wine shops niched in Paris’s picturesque streets, I will help you discover and devour the Bastille district through one of my small, private and exclusive tours.
Tour One: MARKET MANIA
Meets Sunday at 11 a.m.
The lively Bastille Market, with its long alleys of outdoor stands selling all manner of fresh produce and prepared foods, is the neighborhood’s gastronomic heart – and one of my favorite places to shop and take photos.
For this tour, we’ll meet on the steps of the iconic Bastille Opera for a bit of French and neighborhood history and then grab a coffee and croissant at a favorite neighborhood spot. Once properly fortified, we’ll dive into the market and fill my backpack with a mix of classic French regional specialties (including cheeses, charcuterie, foie gras, olives, sweets, wine and more). I’ll show you the best stands and indoctrinate you into market culture, Paris life, French dining and anything else that you might like to know about!
The outdoor tables of my favorite neighborhood gourmet épicerie will provide the ideal spot for enjoying our Bastille bounty together, complemented by a bottle of French wine.
→ book a spot for the market mania tour
Tour two: BEST OF BASTILLE
Meets Friday & Saturday at 11 a.m.
Award-winning baguettes. Fresh-made cheeses. Celebrated sausages. Pastry labs. Chocolate factories. Coffee temples. Beer pioneers.
From splashy celebrity-chef ventures to tiny cult shops that hide behind unassuming storefronts, the Bastille neighborhood packs all manner of exquisite flavor into its small streets—if you know where to look.
For this walking tour, I will take you to the regular stops on my neighborhood shopping circuit and reveal shops, producers and restaurants that should be on every epicurean’s list. These are places where I hang out or buy the makings for my meals almost every week, and at each stop I will snap up a sampling of the specialty item(s) to enjoy together. Along the way I’ll fill you in on French food, Paris life, neighborhood history and anything else that you might want to know about. Feel free to ask me anything!
To finish, we’ll enjoy the outdoor tables of a favorite neighborhood wine bar and sample our bounty with one of their recommended vintages.
