EPIC PARIS Food Tour - 11 INCREDIBLE Stops - Best of LE MARAIS

Big World
169 followers
10 Video Views·May 21, 2023
Guys, you're heading to the city of light,
the city of love, the city of food and wine,
and you wanna know what to eat.
You don't wanna kinda get it all wrong.
I totally understand, and Paris can be
a really complicated city to eat and drink in.
So I'm gonna help you today.
I'm gonna help you figure out
how to eat and drink like a local.
But first, we need to talk about something, so huddle up.
So first of all, you're probably thinking,
what the hell, mon dieu, James, what are you doing?
You have a channel all about eating in Spain.
What are you doing making a video in Paris?
Well, I'm also the co-founder of Devour Tours,
as many of you know, and we've just started
offering tours in Paris.
So I thought that was a great opportunity
to break the rule of this channel
and go and make a video in Paris.
And, you know, what the hell.
Number two, you're probably thinking,
well, the other thing is, James,
you're an expert on Spanish food,
but you probably know nothing
or very little about French food.
So how are you gonna tell me where to eat?
Aha, that's my secret weapon.
Hi, guys, I'm Jess.
I'm the operations manager for Devour Tours here in Paris.
And I'm super excited to have you on board today
to show you some great places to eat.
Great, and Jess's super capable hands,
a wonderful palate, we're gonna eat
all around the Marais Quarter.
Should we go?
Allez!
Allez, on y va!
So, Jess, today you're taking us
into the Marais neighborhood.
It's the neighborhood that we have
our ultimate Paris food tour here in the city.
It's a wonderful, historic, delicious neighborhood.
Just tell us a little bit about it.
Give us its essence about why we're eating there today.
So, the Marais is kind of on everyone's must-do Paris list.
It has loads of historic buildings.
It's a really interesting neighborhood,
but there's also loads of tourist traps.
It's like all of Paris.
Totally, and Paris is a complicated city,
so we're gonna take you to some of the places
that we go to on the tour today, show you those.
We're gonna go to more places.
It's gonna be more than 10, I think.
We've got such a long list.
Are we ready?
Allez, on y va!
Let's go!
Okay, so stop number one coming up.
Jess, what are we having?
We're having jambon beurre.
Jambon beurre.
Now, I know enough French to know
that means ham and butter, and I guess within bread.
I love these.
I used to eat these a lot when I lived in Toulouse.
So, when do people eat these?
It's generally lunch, if you don't have a lot of time.
It's kind of the original Parisian fast food.
I love it.
So, just a really simple, delicious sandwich
that you have to eat while you're here in Paris.
We're going to an amazing place,
the most famous place for it.
Let's go inside.
Okay, so we're waiting in the queue.
There's a queue because, of course, this place is famous.
Jess, why is this place so good?
I'm assuming it's because I can see
so much cured meat around here,
different types of ham.
Yeah, and so, it's really about the choice.
So, they have a load of different hams,
what we call jambon cru, so that's cured ham,
jambon blanc, that's cooked ham,
and they have these amazing infused flavors.
So, we're going to get jambon a la bergamot,
bergamot-infused cooked ham.
Bergamot-infused cooked ham.
I feel like I'm in a ham wonderland.
I feel like I'm Alice,
and I just walked through the looking glass,
and I've fallen down this big tunnel,
and it's just like cured meats and ham,
and the smell in this place is phenomenal.
All right, we're waiting in line.
We've got the owner here about to serve us.
I'm excited.
Why are your jambon beurre so good?
My jambon beurre is so good because it's your taste.
Yeah.
If you like cooked, if you like cured,
if you like with chili, with truffle,
however you want, it's your money and your taste.
I like it.
Voila.
Le ticket.
Merci beaucoup.
A bientot.
Bonne journée.
Bon appétit.
Merci.
Crusty bread, all that yummy butter inside,
the bergamot inspired, infused.
Oh my God.
Yeah.
The ham is so tender, flavorful.
It's got that bergamot infused.
Obviously, there's more normal versions as well.
There's so much choice.
Jess has got butter on her cheek,
which just shows you how much wonderful butter
there is in there.
This is like the perfect lunch on the run,
and you've got to have in Paris,
and I would say you've got to have it here, right?
Mm, totally.
Total agreement from Jess
with a mouthful of jambon beurre.
Stop one, nail.
Okay, we're walking to stop two,
walking through the Marais.
Le Marais.
My French is gone.
Yoli and I actually met in Toulouse in Southern France,
so next stop, chocolate.
So if we've come from jambon heaven,
we're now in chocolat heaven.
I mean, if you're gonna come to Paris and not eat chocolate
or eat a macaron, you're crazy.
This place is phenomenal,
and I feel like I've walked into this kind of cloud
of chocolate, the dark chocolate everywhere.
It looks delicious, and I'm super excited,
and Jess is gonna tell us a little bit
about why this place is famous.
Nicolas, enchanté.
Bonjour.
Two macarons, Jess?
Is that what we're having?
So we're gonna have two, yeah,
a little macaron each, please.
To prepare passion fruit and chocolate,
the extra-virgin chocolate,
because it won an award of the best chocolate macarons
in France in 2004.
Okay, stop number two, you're in France,
you must eat chocolate, of course.
I don't even have a sweet tooth,
but I'm excited about this stop.
So, Jess, where are we?
We're at Jean-Paul Eva,
who is a Meilleur Ouvrier de France.
He's got a title for his chocolate-making skills.
Wow, he's like, and that's hard to get that title, right?
Yeah, it's a really strenuous process.
He's had his title since 1986.
Wow.
He's a master chocolatier of incredible heights.
And what I love about Jess
is she is a chocolate and a macaron snob.
So she's like, oh, you don't wanna get the macarons there,
you don't wanna get the chocolate there,
you gotta get it here.
And we come here on our tour,
on our Ultimate Paris Food Tour.
Secret, I've tried these before,
and as I say, no sweet tooth,
but this stuff blew my mind.
So we're gonna start with the macaroons,
or the macarons.
Macarons.
Cheers.
Santé.
All right.
Mm, oh my God.
It's like biting into a pillow.
Oh, yes.
Chocolate and passion fruit.
And you can taste how natural the passion fruit is.
It actually tastes like passion fruit,
like biting into the fruit.
It's good, huh?
Yeah, it's really good.
What's your one?
Blackcurrant and violet.
And so if you're gonna eat a macaron in Paris,
you'd be a fool not to eat it here, right?
Absolutely.
Okay, don't be a fool.
Oh my God.
I mean, seriously.
Secret, I'd never had a macaron until this time in Paris.
No way.
Uh-huh.
Wow.
Okay, we've had the macaron, excuse my accent,
and now it's chocolate time,
and we have two different chocolates here.
So what do we got?
So we've got milk chocolate with coffee, cinnamon,
pepper, coriander, or cilantro,
star anise, and nutmeg.
And it's that small.
Let's see.
Oh my God.
Well, it's not too sweet.
No, exactly.
That's the beauty of it.
It's not too sweet for someone who doesn't have a sweet tooth.
There's just a depth of flavor.
There's so much going on in there.
All in perfect balance.
There is so much in that tiny little piece of chocolate
that is delicious.
Should we do the next one?
Yeah.
Dark chocolate from Peru.
I remember trying this on the tour.
It tastes floral, but it's just chocolate.
It's just great chocolate.
Wow.
So good.
Jean Paul Eva is the name of this place.
Come here, whether it's on the tour or off the tour,
whatever, you gotta come here and eat the macaron
and the chocolate.
It's phenomenal.
Next stop.
Merci beaucoup.
Bonne journée.
Ciao.
Bonne journée.
Merci beaucoup.
Salut.
Merci.
Bonne journée.
On y va, Jess.
On y va.
Ciao.
Bye.
Okay, I can't keep up with Jess.
She moves fast, man.
Next stop, we've had chocolate.
What are we having now, Jess?
We're gonna go have croissant.
Croissant.
It's warm in Paris today.
Next up, the croissant.
We have a place here that has won numerous awards
for their croissant.
I love this facade behind me.
Jess has gone in to get it and tell you all about
the tradition and the history of the croissant.
Okay, so we're gonna eat our croissant in a moment.
Jess, how many croissant do you have a week
living here in Paris?
Probably eat them twice a week.
Twice a week.
Would that be typical?
Yeah, I think we don't eat them every day.
French people are skinny.
How can they eat them every day?
That's true, that's true.
But if you're not having them every day,
when would you have them?
Kind of, it's a nice comforting breakfast.
So when you've been out late the night before,
for example, you know you've got a big day ahead.
Like I had one this morning, actually.
Okay, before a big day of filming.
Okay, croissant time.
There's a word that I keep seeing, Jess,
all over Paris, and it's viennoiserie,
which is like Vienna oiserie, right?
Exactly.
And why that word?
Viennoiserie is a clue to the provenance of the croissant.
So the croissant was actually brought over
by a Viennese chef called Auguste Zang in the 1830s.
Okay.
And he had a little crescent-shaped bread
that they used to eat for breakfast in Vienna.
Wow, and so before the 1830s,
nobody was eating croissants in France?
No.
So it's practically modern food.
Yeah, it's brand new.
Exactly, there you go.
All right, let's try that.
How does one know a good croissant, Jess?
A good croissant is many, many layers.
So what you want is all these kind of ruffles on the inside.
You want them to be almost imperceptible.
And you want it to be a bit doughy, a bit chewy,
and a bit buttery, a bit delicious.
Oh yeah, you can taste the butter.
There's the crunch on the outside,
doughiness on the inside.
All right, we have another surprise as well.
We didn't just get a croissant, Jess bought something else.
Okay, so we've had our croissant,
and now we're having the other thing.
So a pain au chocolat, which is this,
which is croissant-like on the outside,
but chocolate in the middle.
Perfectly valid as a breakfast instead of a croissant?
Absolutely, absolutely.
And often you get to the counter,
and you realize you really need chocolate.
I know, oh my God.
When you're having breakfast here in Paris,
where can we get these?
Like if we're just any corner cafe, or?
You can get them in the corner cafe,
but usually they're overpriced.
So I would just get them straight from the boulangerie,
from the bakery.
And you can smell a good bakery.
You can smell it from streets away.
Follow your nose.
Follow your nose, yeah.
And a good little tip, if it says boulangerie on the outside,
it means they're baking on the premises.
And so a good idea is to get that,
then maybe have coffee back at your apartment,
if you're renting an apartment.
Yeah, grab a coffee somewhere,
and then grab a croissant somewhere.
And you're kind of on the go.
In France, breakfast isn't a big deal.
You kind of just grab it as you're on your way to work.
All right, I'm full, but stop number four coming up.
So coffee is a huge part of French culture.
How many cups of coffee do you have a day
in your life in Paris?
Well, you kind of have one in the morning,
one after lunch, and then maybe if you're hardcore,
one after dinner, too.
Okay, so two, maybe three.
And if you go into a cafe, you just pour un café, correct?
Oui, un café is an espresso.
If you want a long one?
Allongé.
Made longer.
Allongé.
Santé.
This place is incredible.
So tell us, where are we?
Cheers.
So we're at Maison Budi.
And Maison Budi are very famous for their soaps.
So they're kind of in every fancy restaurant you go to,
or if you have some very fancy friends,
they'll have Maison Budi soaps.
Okay.
And they do their own dispensers
with their name engraved on it,
the name of the person engraved on it,
and they make their own different scents, different flavors.
And then they also have,
the original coffee shop is in Saint-Germain,
and this is in the same style,
and they have a list of all their kind of
illustrious clients, former clients.
So they've got like Edouard Manet, the painter from France.
Manet, the painter.
And everything's made out of marble,
and everything is just totally beautiful.
And it's an incredible place.
I feel guilty being here for some reason.
Catholic guilt.
This is my everyday, Jess.
Yeah, exactly.
Life in Paris.
So bread is such an important part of the French diet,
right, Jess?
I mean, we're eating bread constantly here.
All day long.
So we're gonna go check out a place
that is famous for its bread,
and we actually visit on our tour
to learn about French bread.
But not French bread as you think of the word,
or words, all will be revealed.
So obviously, when you're in Paris,
bread is such a huge part of your experience here,
and this is the place we come to on our tour
to learn about bread, and it's fascinating.
So where are we, Jess?
We're at Chez Poilane,
and they are famous for making bread,
but they're famous for making these big, round loaves,
so they didn't change
when baguettes became a little bit more everywhere.
Everywhere.
They stuck to their guns, stuck to their traditions
of making these big, round loaves of bread.
Because that's not something I realized,
and we see them behind us,
these big, round, where's my hand, there,
above Jess' head,
because the baguette is a pretty recent, well, recent.
Yeah, only kind of since the 1920s,
and people have been eating baguettes
kind of every day.
And when we talk about baguettes,
we talk about those long, like, French loaves.
So before the 1920s,
nobody was eating long sticks of bread.
They were eating the round loaves.
And these guys have kept the tradition alive.
Exactly.
So what's really interesting is how the baguette,
you know, the French loaf, as we know it,
came in in the 1920s or 30s.
And I have read one reason for that,
which Jess has told me is not true,
so it's a total urban legend,
was because the big, round loaves,
you have to cut with a knife,
but with a baguette, you can just rip it off,
so it's much easier.
But we don't think that's true, right?
There's no evidence to support that claim.
A true professional,
there's no evidence to support that claim.
But before then, everyone was eating this.
Let's try this bread.
This would be great with some delicious French butter.
We don't have any of this now.
Okay, we've had our bread.
We've learned about such a critical part of French cuisine.
Jess, time to move on?
Yeah.
Time to move on.
More things that you have to eat in Paris.
Let's go.
Okay, next, we're gonna have something
that's such a typical food from the north of France,
right, galette?
Yes, from Brittany.
From Brittany.
You can have crêpes, which are sweet.
Galettes are the savory ones.
And we're going to this place.
And myam-myam means yum-yum in French.
I love it.
So it's, Cher is like Alan's house.
Myam-myam, yum-yum.
This is a place we go to on our tour
and we have this most incredible, very simple,
but most unbelievable galette that just I dream about.
And this place is super rustic, super simple,
and these guys are pros and famous.
Let's go inside.
Salut, Jules.
Salut, ça va?
Ça va bien, merci, et toi?
Très bien, merci.
Très bien.
All right, look at this guy.
This is just a big hunk of buckwheat,
which is what it's made with, and butter, right?
And this is from Normandy, correct?
It's from the North?
Brittany.
Brittany, sorry.
Oh, sorry, Normans and Bretons, Bretons.
Yeah, exactly.
Sorry about that.
It's from Brittany.
Oh my God.
The buckwheat has this really kind of dense,
it's almost like a dark flour kind of flavor.
Yeah, it does have those black flours in it.
Oh, really?
The black wheat.
Okay, and then the saltiness of the butter.
Jess told me that if you see
how much butter they put on this,
it's criminal how much butter they put on this.
And it becomes like crispy on the outside,
and the butter melts,
and there's sweetness from the butter as well.
Yeah, and I'm gonna have some more.
We must move on now.
We must go.
On y va?
On y va.
Allez, on y va.
Merci, Jules.
Nice to meet you.
Enchanté, nice to meet you.
A la prochaine.
Au revoir.
Salut.
Et bien, bien, hein?
Miam, miam.
So, Jess, pastis.
Now, I know this is something from Marseille, right?
From the south,
and so it's not necessarily classically Paris,
but I love it.
What is it, and when do we drink it?
So, it's an anise, or licorice-flavored aperitif.
We mix it with water,
we mix it with ice and a little bit of water,
and we generally drink it for aperitifs.
Pastis, oh my God, I love it.
It reminds me of the salad days of life in France.
Santé.
You know, we're in this really classic bar
whose name I can't quite pronounce.
What is it?
But, like, pastis, you can get it kind of anywhere?
Yeah, you can get it in any bar or any tabac.
You wouldn't really get it in restaurants.
Oh, okay.
But you'd get it in bars.
Okay.
Chin-chin.
Santé.
Okay, so there's two things that are so important
in French cuisine that you've gotta try in Paris,
and that's cheese and cured meats, right, Jess?
And that's where we're going next.
Absolutely.
This was one of my favorite stops on our tour here.
I love cheese.
Actually, Yoly is a huge cheese fiend.
She's not here, but we'll be eating it in her honor.
And cured meats, saucisson, right?
Yeah, exactly.
Saucisson from the Auvergne.
I mean, it just sounds amazing.
So, meat and cheese time in this almost 100-year-old shop.
Okay, so here we are in the Epicerie Fine.
What's this place called?
It's like a deli, right, Jess?
Yeah, exactly.
It's called A la Ville de Rodez.
And Rodez is a town in the Aveyron region of France.
Okay.
And these guys stock everything
from the Auvergne and from Aveyron.
Okay, and this place has been here for almost 100 years.
Deli, in a sense, that 100 years ago,
yeah, as you say, was there to serve the locals.
And what are we gonna try here?
You say charcuterie, which is like cured meats, and yeah?
We're gonna have two types of saucisson,
and Dominique is gonna prepare us some cheese as well.
All right, I'm ready.
I'm not hungry, but I am hungry.
That is the paradox of my life.
We have here, Jess has ordered what we get on the tour,
which is the spread of cheeses and cured meats.
Jess, do you mind if I start eating?
Go for it.
And you can tell me about it.
Each one, this is a goat's cheese, I believe.
Yeah, so that's a Cotin de Chef,
so it's a fresh goat's cheese, aged for about 12 days.
I mean, goat's cheese is just one of those
beautiful things in life that is so kind of creamy.
It's got a strong kind of almost gamey flavor to it.
Goat's cheese, I love that.
Oh my God, that is really, really good.
Okay, I'm gonna try this cheese.
That is a Comte.
If you've never had Comte, it is just a wonderful cheese.
It's got bite to it, yeah?
Yeah.
And it's long.
The flavor just keeps on going in that cheese.
Okay, I'm working my way up to the meats.
What have I got here?
So that is another goat's cheese,
actually just in a different format.
So it's a pressed goat's cheese.
Oh, I like that one, though.
That is, it's almost buttery, that one.
And this last one?
That one is a Roby.
Roby?
Yeah, it's sheep's milk cheese from the Basque country.
Okay, we're on to the Saucisson,
which Saucisson is effectively like cured sausage.
Exactly, so it's cured sausage.
It's normally 75% meat, 25% fat.
That can vary a little bit to be a bit more fatty.
And I would start with this one, James.
Okay.
That one reminds me of Catalan Phuet a little bit.
I think there's a little bit of crossover
because I think the main spice is pepper.
Is that it?
Yeah, correct.
You know, simple cured meats
that have a good amount of fat in them
and that have pork, obviously,
and have pepper is delicious.
Okay, so this last cured meat.
And what is this one, Jess?
It's a little bit strong flavor
from an area just slightly to the south of the Auvergne
called the Aveyron region.
Okay, Aveyron.
Man, I wish I was better at French.
Look at these big peppercorns in there.
I don't know if you can see that.
Mm.
There's almost a bit of heat there
from the quantity of the peppercorns.
That is really, really good.
That's delicious.
So would we eat the cured meats like in bread
or just on their own?
Like how do people eat them here in France?
You can eat them in a sandwich,
but it's a bit rarer to do so.
We normally eat them as aperitifs.
So aperitif is this period just before dinner
where you have a little glass of wine
and you have some cured meats, maybe a bit of cheese.
So we know French food is known for being really rich,
and Jess just found something
that I think is like the richest thing I've ever seen.
Why don't you show it to us?
Quail stuffed with foie gras.
That is insane.
Would you just heat that up in a pot or something?
Yeah.
I think I'm gonna faint.
We need to get to the next stop.
We need to keep eating.
Otherwise, I'm gonna fall over.
Let's go.
Merci, Dominique.
Merci.
Au revoir.
Okay, and this place is called?
Les Philosophes.
We come here on the tour, and I love this.
It's got the waiters in their black waistcoats.
It's got all the people sitting outside.
It's just a wonderful place
with a wonderful story behind it.
Yeah.
Ready?
Let's go in.
Okay, Jess, so tell us where we are.
Les Philosophes, right?
So Les Philosophes is a bistro.
It's a bistro du coin.
It's somewhere that you can kind of get a quick lunch,
and they have a formule.
Okay, and formule, I've seen that word.
It looks like formula.
And is that like a fixed-price menu?
Exactly.
So it's entre-plat, so appetizer and entree,
or plat dessert, which is entree and dessert,
or all three for a fixed price.
And the bistro are great places
to get classic French dishes,
like we're gonna try French onion soup,
we're gonna try steak tartare,
and those will always,
are they the staples that they'll have?
Yeah, they'll have that on the menu,
and then they'll also have a dish of the day,
a plat du jour.
Okay, that you can just get on its own.
Yeah.
And so, Les Philosophes, why have you brought me here
to this particular bistro?
Why have you included this on our tour
that we have here in Paris?
So, I love the owner, he's amazing.
He sources all his own produce
from a 100-mile radius from his hometown
in the south of France,
and everything is made from scratch.
And so they sell a lot of French onion soup here, right?
Yeah, they go through 200 kilos of onions a week.
Wow, okay.
Well, we're about to eat a small portion of that.
Okay, so we're gonna try the steak tartare first.
Now, tell us a little bit about it, Jess.
So yeah, you'd eat it more in the summer, normally,
and it's about the quality of the meat.
So if your meat is good quality,
then you can eat it raw.
Yeah, right.
So, and it shows that this place has great quality meat.
If it's summer and you're feeling like some raw meat,
then Paris is your place.
Steak tartare, let's get in there.
That's quite a big bit.
That's fine.
All right, my turn, I'm going in.
Ooh, yeah.
Guys, Les Philosophes, or steak tartare.
Yeah, I need some of that.
Mm, really, really, really good.
And when steak tartare is good, it's light.
It's not a heavy dish that you would think like raw meat,
but no, it's light.
It doesn't leave you loaded down.
It's perfect for summer.
Yeah.
Okay, so next dish, French onion soup.
I mean, this looks phenomenal,
this one we've got in front of us.
And it's all the things you want.
I mean, it's cheesy, it's bready.
The bread kind of soaks up the broth like a sponge.
It's not too heavy on meat.
We use a beef broth.
And so, Jess, this is a hard dish to eat,
so when you're eating it,
how do you deal with all this cheese?
Well, you cannot be elegant
when you eat French onion soup, but we can try.
And so, you would wrap the cheese
around your spoon with your fork.
Okay, and then kind of like wrap it up
and put it in your mouth.
Exactly.
Okay, so I'm gonna try and eat it how Jess explained.
It looks complicated.
As you say, there's no way to do this elegantly.
Here we go.
And then wrap it around.
There you go with your fork.
You're getting it.
Oh my God, I've got cheese, I've got soup,
I've got onion, I've got bread.
Yeah.
It's like the taste of home, I guess, if you were French.
It's just so umami, it's so rich.
Compte.
Oh my God, that cheese we had.
Here we go.
It is hard to eat.
I feel like I'm...
There you go, you're getting it.
I think I just stained you.
I hope you can do better than me, people.
You can do better than me, James.
All right.
I'm sweating French food right now,
which is good.
I'm happy.
Let's keep eating.
Okay, so we're in the Jewish Quarter
and we're having a dish here or a food
that you wouldn't think of as a typical thing
to eat in Paris or even in France.
What is it, Jess?
It's falafel.
And why are we having falafel?
Well, because this is the Jewish Quarter
and these guys are making the most amazing falafel
with an Israeli recipe.
Okay, and I mean, I remember when I was in Paris
about 10, 15 years ago with a friend.
He was like, we've got to go to this famous falafel place
that is just out of this world.
It just shows that the influences in Parisian food
are not just like steak tartare and French onion soup.
It's a lot broader than that.
So what's in this thing, Jess?
So it's chickpea, sesame, parsley,
a little bit of cumin seed, coriander or cilantro,
and there's a little bit of bread in this recipe as well.
It's creamy.
It's just perfectly in balance.
I've had a lot of falafel in my life,
usually really late at night after a few beers,
and it's usually fine.
But this has got complexity to it.
This is yummy.
I know there's other places around here.
Like, why is this the best falafel?
Well, it's kind of the crustiness of the outside.
It's the kind of stickiness, the texture,
the kind of softness of the interior.
And also, recommended by Lenny Kravitz.
So when would somebody come and eat this?
Like, is this lunch?
Is this like?
Yeah, so it's lunch.
It's a cheap lunch.
You can get huge kind of falafel-filled pita bread.
And be aware that the Jewish Quarter
is closed on Friday night and Saturday.
The Shabbat, right?
Yeah, exactly.
So you would really come to this area on Sunday morning.
Okay, Sunday morning, come here.
And if you're gonna get falafel,
las du falafel, woo!
The sun is beating down on us.
How are you feeling?
I'm thirsty.
Thirsty.
I'm thirsty, too.
Last taste.
And we're crossing the river.
We're crossing liquid.
So a glaring omission so far as liquid.
Wine.
French wine.
We have to try French wine in Paris.
So we're gonna go to this great, amazing little place.
What's the name of the guy who runs it?
Hervé.
Hervé is a genius.
He knows all about wine.
He's on the other side of the river.
He's a bit of a character.
All right, you ready?
Thirsty?
I'm ready.
Let's drink wine.
Hervé, nice to meet you.
Me too.
So Hervé runs this shop, this wine shop, L'Etiquette.
And how long have you been here
in this beautiful location?
Seven years.
Seven years and something, and a month.
Seven years and a month.
Yeah, yeah.
Three days.
Yep.
And seven hours.
And seven hours, and the minutes are counting.
And what is your philosophy of French wine?
We do small producers, trying to find,
not the superstars, young kids.
We do organic, biodynamic, and sulfate-free wines.
So less headaches.
Less, yeah, less violence.
Yeah.
For your body, for your head, for, yeah.
And how do you choose the wine that's here?
I go to wine fairs.
Now, most of the time, people call me.
Okay.
You know, they go on internet,
they check, you know, who's the,
can I find a lunatic doing natural wines?
Are you the lunatic doing natural wines?
This is what people say.
It's okay, it's okay, I deal with it.
So, if you want to drink natural wine,
if you want to learn about wonderful wine in France,
I mean, L'Etiquette, Hervé is here.
Obviously, Hervé speaks English,
can help explain to you his philosophy.
We come here on our tour and we drink wine downstairs,
and I don't know, Jess, like, should we drink some wine?
Should we get some tips about wine?
Sure.
Let's do it.
All right, time to drink a little glass of wine.
I feel like we should give everybody a few tips
for how to enjoy wine in Paris.
Yeah, so, I think my main tips for drinking wine in Paris,
get out of your comfort zone.
Don't go for the Bordeaux,
don't go for the Burgundy ones
that you maybe know or have heard of before,
but try some grape varieties,
try some regions outside of your comfort zone.
So, the Beaujolais is an amazing region,
doing some amazing things.
Alsace, equally, one of the regions
that has the most production of natural wine,
which doesn't export that much,
so get out of your comfort zone and try something different.
Amazing, it tastes natural, it's not heady, it's lighter.
Mm, oh, I could drink that all day.
You don't even get drunk on this stuff.
No, you get happy.
Exactly.
Okay, so, tip number two, I don't know,
what would you say, Jess?
So, when you're ordering a glass of wine
in a bar, in a restaurant, in a wine bar,
ask for flavors, go with your palate.
Don't go with grape varieties or regions
because they can surprise you.
So, talk about, I want something fresh,
I want something light, I want something fruity,
I want something heavy, I want something full of tannin,
and the waiter, the server, will be able to direct you towards.
And you might discover a region that you didn't know.
Totally.
Yeah, and I feel like, Hervé, do you have a tip for us?
Tip number three?
Don't go to the supermarket,
don't go to the grocery store unless it's written organic,
and don't go to the big chains
that you find in every corner of Paris.
So, Hervé has told us, avoid the supermarkets.
Find those little shops, like L'Etiquette here,
that are serving from small producers
that will be happy to have a conversation
with you about their wine.
And, you know, Hervé speaks English,
so you can come, you can talk about small producers,
and you can discover.
And I think that's what it's about.
Wine is about discovery and not being afraid.
Yeah, exactly.
And I like your tips there.
The more you learn about wine,
the more you know you don't know.
So, if you come to a small shop like this,
then you know there's a million things to learn.
Guys, come to Paris.
We'd love to have you on our ultimate Paris food tour.
And until then, santé.
Santé!
Santé, Jess.
Thank you for showing me around.
Pleasure.
Time to drink more wine.
Santé.
