{"id":2068,"date":"2019-04-12T10:24:33","date_gmt":"2019-04-12T10:24:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/devourparisfoodtours.com\/?p=2068"},"modified":"2023-08-03T16:37:53","modified_gmt":"2023-08-03T16:37:53","slug":"love-letter-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/blog\/love-letter-paris\/","title":{"rendered":"A Love Letter to Paris"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p>This post is part of our <a href=\"\/blog\/tag\/love-letter\/\">Love Letter series<\/a>: first-person accounts of what we love about Paris.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><em>An introduction from Lauren, the founder of Devour Tours:<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><em>On my first visit to Paris, I was enthralled with the architecture, the food culture, the Parisians themselves&#8230; I fell head over heels and wanted to learn more. And it was through this desperate craving for contact with local culture that I realized we needed to bring Devour Tours abroad. <\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><em>I wanted to share the gems of Paris in the same way we&#8217;ve shared Spain\u2019s local culture, people and stories with thousands of guests over the past seven years. And what better place to begin than in one of the world&#8217;s most important food cities? Paris is a place where passion for great food and wine is part of the identity. <\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><em>There was never any doubt that Paris was worth devouring, but our biggest challenge in making Devour Paris as great as our other cities was finding the right person to steer the ship. We wanted someone who loves Paris with their heart, soul, and stomach, who knows the local food community inside out, and who would connect to our responsible tourism philosophy and mission to help local culture thrive. <\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><em>I present to you our newest member of the Devour team, entrusted with feeding our bellies and our minds in Paris\u2019 delicious hidden corners, Jessica Timmins. <\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><em>\u2014 Lauren Aloise, Founder of Devour Tours<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\r\n<figure class=\"img-responsive\" class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"img-responsive\" class=\"wp-image-2072\" src=\"https:\/\/wordpress-assets-devourtours.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/love-letter-paris-Jess-1.jpg\" alt=\"In her beautifully written love letter to Paris, Jess shows us how her feelings about the French capital went from ambivalent to enamored (hint: it involved a lot of French food). \" \/>\r\n<figcaption>Devour Paris Operations Manager Jess in her natural habitat: in front of a cheese counter.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Paris didn\u2019t capture my heart right away.<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The people seemed distant, the language impenetrable, the streets littered with tourist traps and \u20ac9 coffees. It took me a while to see the beauty, to learn the customs and understand the sweet and sour of the French people. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The glossy, crispy, chewy, buttery <a href=\"\/blog\/pastry-in-paris\/\">pastries<\/a> were easier to get to know. The market cheese counter, teeming with unknown textures and flavors, drew me in. The marriage of bitter green salad leaves, astringently salted blue cheese, rich nuts and sweet figs helped me on my way. The tender ham, called the \u201cPrince of Paris,\u201d made in a forgotten corner of the capital, aromatic and salty combined with creamy butter and eye-watering mustard helped, too. My first taste of French natural wine, crisp and tender and alive, woke me up, spoke to my palate in a language I couldn\u2019t speak, but I could absolutely understand. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>My first friends in France were foods. Is that weird? <\/p>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"img-responsive\" class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"img-responsive\" class=\"wp-image-2073\" src=\"https:\/\/wordpress-assets-devourtours.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/paris-love-letter-2.png\" alt=\"This Paris love letter will make you want to book your ticket to the French capital right now.\" data-pin-description=\"Most people come to France's sophisticated capital for the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, but those beautiful places are not the end-all-be-all of Paris. The true local aesthetic lies in the side most tourists don't see: the cafes serving local food where Parisians stop for coffee ever day; the tiny apartments with a view you'll have to see to believe. In this Paris love letter, you'll see why going beneath the surface and discovering these destinations can make your experience even more worthwhile. #Paris #localtravel\" \/><\/figure>\r\n\r\n<p>But once I had a few of these good friends with me, I could go out and make more. I worked in restaurants and bars, making cocktails and serving the most amazing quality of produce to rich and poor Parisians alike. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>In my two years at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.septime-charonne.fr\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Septime<\/a> I learned an enormous amount about food and wine, but also about people, dining, the French approach to food and the importance of gastronomical heritage in France. It was everyday for our Parisian guests; amazing food and drink is a way of life, something totally normal and expected. I had so much to learn\u2014but I was here for that. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>And learn I did. Getting to know your <em>quartier <\/em>means getting to know the quality places to eat and drink, and what to ask for depending on the season. You know the places to avoid; you know the places made for foreigners and the places for the French. You know the market traders, the wine sellers, and their schedules: you know the places where you can quell that rumble in your stomach on a quiet Monday afternoon at 4 p.m. (an unexpectedly challenging feat in a capital city).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\r\n<figure class=\"img-responsive\" class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"img-responsive\" class=\"wp-image-2074\" src=\"https:\/\/wordpress-assets-devourtours.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/paris-love-letter-cheese-shop-1.jpg\" alt=\"This love letter to Paris perfectly expresses how we feel about Paris and its food (French cheese, though!)\" \/>\r\n<figcaption>A cheese shop is the perfect place to start your French gastronomic journey.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>If you have a bit of food knowledge, a French person will accept you: your knowledge will earn you hours of conversation, shared lists of the best restaurants and best market traders in Paris, at the best times of year. My years of research and countless euros spent at the cheese counter were validated in the quiet acceptance by others that I, a foreigner, had managed to grasp the intricacies of French cuisine: the complexities of <em>terroir<\/em>, of regionality, of the pleasures of artisanal food craftspeople working within thousands of years of tradition. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Devour Tours recognizes that this knowledge is unique, it\u2019s local. The Parisian way of life can only be championed by those living here. Traditions are not something you can learn overnight. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\r\n<figure class=\"img-responsive\" class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"img-responsive\" class=\"wp-image-2075\" src=\"https:\/\/wordpress-assets-devourtours.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/responsible-travel-in-Barcelona-tour-group-bakery.jpg\" alt=\"In this love letter to Paris, you'll start to understand what it means to go beneath the sparkling surface of the city and truly get a feel for local culture.\" \/>\r\n<figcaption>Fostering connections between visitors and the Parisians who live, work, and eat in this city every day is one of the most important things we do.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>You can\u2019t magic this kind of knowledge on a three-day, whistle-stop tour of the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, but you can start to appreciate a bit more about traditions, culture and food, and about the people behind them. That\u2019s why I chose to work with Devour: a company that knows that the traditional, the real is behind the scenes of the tourist trail. They realize you need a local in order to better understand the culture. And in order to understand French people, you have to understand their food! <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>For me, it\u2019s never ending. I\u2019ll never know every wine producer in a country of thousands of vineyards, I\u2019ll never know every cheese when there are over 500 and counting (although I absolutely give it a go). France, for me, is a place I will never stop learning\u2014it\u2019s a complicated web of etiquette, traditions and local pride that, even after seven years, continues to inspire and excite me every day.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><strong>Join us on our <a href=\"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/tours\/paris-ultimate-food-tour\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Paris Ultimate Food Tour<\/a> to get to know the historic establishments that are the heart and soul of this popular area of Paris that many visit but few understand.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post is part of our Love Letter series: first-person accounts of what we love about Paris. An introduction from Lauren, the founder of Devour Tours: On my first visit to Paris, I was enthralled with the architecture, the food culture, the Parisians themselves&#8230; I fell head over heels and wanted to learn more. And [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":15323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1329,1330],"tags":[1348,1340,281,104],"ppma_author":[2357],"class_list":["post-2068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food-and-drink-in-paris","category-paris-blog","tag-cheese","tag-french-food","tag-love-letter","tag-wine"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Devour Tours<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This beautifully written Paris love letter shows how discovering the cuisine and culture of the French capital can make your experience unforgettable.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/blog\/love-letter-paris\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Love Letter to Paris: When You Know French Food, You Know France\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This beautifully written Paris love letter shows how discovering the cuisine and culture of the French capital can make your experience unforgettable.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"devourtours.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2068\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Devour Tours\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DevourToursCo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-04-12T10:24:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-08-03T16:37:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wordpress-assets-devourtours.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/barcelonaon-new-years-eve-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"533\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jess Timmins\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@devourtours\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@devourtours\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jess Timmins\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/blog\/love-letter-paris\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/blog\/love-letter-paris\/\",\"name\":\"Why You'll Fall in Love with Paris (If You Haven't Already) - 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