Visiting backstage in Paris - bakeries, artisan craftspeople

Randysea · Joined: 13 Oct 2006 Posts: 26 Location: Paris and Seattle

I just discovered a website that arranges visits to all sorts of small producers, sellers, and crafts people. As a result, I was at Girard Mulot last week watching them make macarrons and chocolate covered orange peel. On Dec. 6 I will visit the bakery of Arnaud Delmontel, who just won the "best baguette" award (Concours pour la Meilleure Baguette de Paris). You can visit jewelry designers, book binders, etc., not just food makers.

For a small fee, from 5-10 per person, you spend up to an hour meeting the artisan and watching behind the scenes. Tours are in English and French. It`s called Meeting the French They also arrange much longer visits and events, but I have no experience with those. The short visits are called "company visits" on the English version of the website.

This is a small agency partnered with the Paris tourist office. The owner and her chief guide are both delightful. I highly recommend this company and their mini-visits for a really different Paris experience.

I have no connection to them, by the way. I found them entirely by chance on the Internet a week ago.

Alisa · Joined: 29 Sep 2004 Posts: 97 Location: Paris, France

Thanks for this! I have many visitors looking for just this type of thing...and I might even take my kids to one of these.

Donna · Joined: 14 Oct 2005 Posts: 827 Location: Oakland, CA

Randysea, thanks for sharing this website! We are (Maybe, hopefully, fingers crossed) going to Paris in February. This sounds like a brilliant way to spend some time. We have friends fro Normandy who may be able to join us, but I would love to do something like this as well!
_________________
L'appetit vient en mangeant. -Rabelais

gingerpale · Joined: 23 Jan 2006 Posts: 1324

This is an interesting idea--I can see it working in many countries/cultures. But here in the USA--? I suppose the movie studio tours are already using the idea, but nowhere near "up close and personal" like the situations Randysea describes.

Judy · Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2007 9:38 pm Post subject:

Randysea, thank you so much for telling us about that website. The tours look fantastic, and so do some of the B&Bs. We're planning a trip to Paris next year, so I have definitely bookmarked that site.
_________________
Doing what you like is freedom
Liking what you do is happiness

www.cupcakerecipebook.com.au

David · Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2007 9:57 pm Post subject:

Randysea---this is brilliant! Between this and Clotilde's next book (due in April) I don't think anything more than a map will be necessary for my next visit!
_________________
Vivant Linguae Mortuae!!

woodstocker · Joined: 08 Dec 2005 Posts: 224 Location: kingston, ny

Oh if I wasn't going to Paris with a school group (I somehow have a feeling I'm going to be a nominal chaperone) I would do this in an instant! However, as school trips anywhere go, every minute of my day will be arranged by someone who doesn't know me. At least I did most of the really "touristy" things last time I was in Paris and Venice, so maybe this time I might be able to sneak away and do some real exploring. Wink

Good thing je t'aime the teacher I'm traveling with (my former HS french teacher, an amazing woman who is a Mexican immigrant herself).

truffle-lover · Joined: 02 Oct 2006 Posts: 7 Location: Louisville, KY

I'd love to hear about your experience on the 6th. I've read about this place too (they also have B&Bs in Paris) and am very interested. I wonder how many people are on the "tour" at once. I am amazed (and happy!) at how low the price is.
_________________
http://travelingmcmahans.wordpress.com

Rainey · Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 6:30 pm Post subject:

One of my most vibrant memories from living in France was stopping at a country bakery in the middle of the night. My husband (then boyfriend) was a musician who played in Paris clubs until 2 or 3 in the morning and on the way home we'd always stop.

We bought croissants and chocolate-filled pastry from the back door while the baker worked in a bright room filled with a cloud of white flour like bright fog. He had 2 of the most enormous cats I've ever seen. Theoretically, they were there to protect the huge burlap sacks of grain from the mice but it's hard, having seen them, to imagine them actually moving. They were, to be sure, well-fed tho.

I also remember when my oldest was young, signing up for a group of field trips into the commercial back shops of LA. We went to a bathing suit manufacturer, a tortilla maker, a sneaker manufacturer and inside the bowels of Dodger Stadium. It was great fun to see the inside of parts of the city you live in that remain quite invisible most of the time.
_________________
God writes a lot of comedy... the trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny. -- Garrison Keillor

Randysea · Joined: 13 Oct 2006 Posts: 26 Location: Paris and Seattle

Randysea · Joined: 13 Oct 2006 Posts: 26 Location: Paris and Seattle

David · Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 7:34 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the review Randysea---it sounds like a great way to spend the day! And thank you again for telling us about Meeting the French!
_________________
Vivant Linguae Mortuae!!

truffle-lover · Joined: 02 Oct 2006 Posts: 7 Location: Louisville, KY

Thanks so much for the review -- it sounds like a lot of fun! I will most definitely plan on a tour (or several!) when I'm there. There are so many it will be hard to choose.
_________________
http://travelingmcmahans.wordpress.com

georgia · Joined: 16 May 2006 Posts: 456 Location: california

I love this thread even though it makes me crazy that I have no plans to go to Paris soon! Been too long...But I will make a note of all of this and will definitely pursue these activities when I finally do make a trip.

What catches my eye right now is Rainey's post. "My husband (then boyfriend)" sent me reeling back in time. Paris (nay...nearly everywhere) was far outside our scope of the world, but we found our own adventures and the memory now--more than 40 years later--is as vivid as if it were yesterday. So are the kids' field trips but for less romantic reasons...

Add my thanks to the others, Randysea...

Rainey · Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 3:53 am Post subject:

georgia- Omigod, yes! This country is soooooo insular and it costs us dearly in our relationships and even our sense of ourselves and our ability to grow. We need a lot more people travelling ::said the girl with the empty wallet:: and inquiring!!!
_________________
God writes a lot of comedy... the trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny. -- Garrison Keillor