7 Sweet Treats of Paris

by Anne Supsic

Published on Viator Travel Blog on June 22, 2012

Paris has always been known as a city of romance, but the city of light is also the place for romancing your sweet tooth! The French seem dedicated to enjoying the best of everything, and food is no exception. We all need the occasional petit plaisir (small pleasure) and Parisians in particular are connoisseurs of the sweet treat. Here are seven scrumptious goodies that no visitor to Paris should miss out on:

1.  Pain au Chocolat

Pain au Chocolat

Pain au Chocolat. Photo credit: cowlet via Flickr.

The literal translation of pain au chocolat is chocolate bread, but this favorite Parisian breakfast treat goes way beyond that description. No one seems to know where pain au chocolat originated although it is made from the same dough as a croissant. Some think the addition of the chocolate was one of those happy accidents in some French kitchen.

This marvelous concoction of pastry and sweet chocolate is made by layering sheets of buttered dough to create flaky folds, and of course, the pièce de résistance is the skinny stick (or two) of special, slow-melting chocolate tucked in the middle! Pains aux chocolats are best eaten right out of the oven when the chocolate is warm and soft. They are available in every Parisian boulangerie so you can make it your mission to try as many as possible.

2.  Dark Chocolate

Dark chocolate

Dark chocolate. Photo courtesy of Frank Supsic and may not be used without permission.

Paris is considered the dark chocolate capital of the planet and her 300 chocolate shops are sure to satisfy the most gluttonous (I prefer discerning) chocoholic. Although you would never know it from the taste, French chocolate is the least sweetened chocolate in the world. Leave it to the French to create a fabulous, less fattening chocolate!

You can browse the chocolate stores on your own or take a fun Chocolate Walking Tour. Some of the best spots for sampling Paris’s finest chocolate include:

• Michael Cluizel who processes his own cacao beans.
• La Maison du Chocolat, an elegant establishment that feels as if you are walking into a fine jewelry store.
• Debauve & Gallais, the oldest choco-shop in Paris—Marie-Antoinette bought her wafer-thin chocolate pistoles here.
• Patrick Roger, Paris’s hottest chocolatier of the moment, who is considered a chocolate artist. For Mother’s Day, Monsieur Roget created a necklace any Mom would love—chocolate ‘pearls’ made with dark chocolate and a sprinkling of Sicilian pistachio nuts.

3.  Ice Cream

Ice Cream

Ice Cream. Photo credit: of Rinat Abdullin via Flickr.

For the best ice cream in Paris (some say in the world) head for Berthillon on Isle St Louis where you can join the almost constant queue. (Just don’t arrive on a Monday or Tuesday when the shop is closed.) The Berthillon family has been serving up their famous homemade ice cream since the 1950’s and the business is still family-owned, relying on word-of-mouth rather than expensive marketing. The ice cream is all natural and the fruity sorbets are created with real fruit. Favorite flavors include the incomparable Chocolat Noir and the Fraise des Bois (wild strawberry). Adults have been known to jump up and down after one lick of Berthillon’s creamy delights.

Other top spots for ice cream include Raimo, one of the oldest ice cream shops in Paris, and Deliziefollie for fantastico Italian-style gelato.

4.  Salted Caramels

Salted Caramels

Salted Caramel in chocolate. Photo credit: rvacapinta via Flickr.

Who would have thought that adding salt to caramels would cause such a taste sensation? Henri Le Roux dedicated himself to developing a candy no one had ever tasted before. As a native of the region of Brittany, Henri decided to make use of the salted Breton butter that many consider the best in the world—a crunchy butter that contains large, coarse grains of salt. In the early 1970’s after three months of experimentation, the salted caramel, Caramel-Beurre-Salé, was born. The candy has been such a huge success that Henri even registered the brand name CBS®.

The best place in Paris to buy these luscious indulgences is at the candy shop A l’Etoile d’Or. Owner Denise Acabo is passionate about her products and one of the friendliest shop owners you are likely to meet anywhere. Madame Acabo is quite a character and impossible to miss—just look for the plump, older woman in pigtails wearing a school girl’s uniform!

5.  Patisserie

Patisserie

Patisserie. Photo courtesy of Frank Supsic and may not be used without permission.

One of the greatest temptations of Paris lies behind the display windows of the ubiquitous patisseries. More like art galleries than mere bakery shops, these pastry palaces entice you with a showcase of their most mouthwatering tarts, éclairs, and multi-layered mille-feuille. The French expression for window shopping is faire du lèche-vitrine which literally means licking the windows, and nowhere is this phrase more apropos than when you are gazing through the glass at an alluring selection of Paris’s prettiest pastries.

With hundreds of Parisian patisseries, you will never be far from your next sinful pleasure. As the famous French Chef Alain Ducasse once said, “Desserts are like mistresses. They are bad for you, so if you have one, you might as well have two.” Pastries by impresarios like Gerard Mulot and Pierre Hermé(who is actually called the ‘Picasso of Pastry’) may make you weep.

6.  Hot Chocolate

Hot chocolate

Hot chocolate. Photo courtesy of renee_mcgurk via Flickr.

Chocolate is at its most decadent when served velvety hot. Trust me—Parisian hot chocolate is divine and light-years beyond Ovaltine! The most famous place to sip your chocolate is at Angelina, a Parisian institution. This elegant tea room with its charming Belle Époque interior has been in operation since 1903. You can even sit at the same table where Coco Chanel regularly splurged on a cup of the sweet, creamy hot chocolate called ‘L’africaine.’

Or you can try my favorite hot choco spot: the tea room above Jean Paul Hévin’s chocolate shop. The décor is somewhat austere, especially when compared with the opulent Angelina. But Jean Paul is one of Paris’s favorite chocolatiers, and eating lunch here offers the opportunity to drink delectable hot chocolate while devouring one of Jean Paul’s incredible desserts—like the Caracas, a mind-bending three layers of chocolate, biscuit, and mousse. To add to the fun, each afternoon Jean Paul dishes up a different version of his hot chocolate every hour. At noon, the daring can try a cup flavored with oysters. Or the more romantically inclined may want to hold off until 4:00 p.m. for the ‘hot chocolate aphrodisiac with ginger and spices.’

7.  Macarons

Macarons

Macarons. Photo courtesy of Frank Supsic and may not be used without permission.

Macarons, not to be confused with macaroons, are actually delicate sandwich cookies made with two almond wafers and a sweet, creamy filling. The magic of the macaron is the juxtaposition of a thin outer crust, a moist cookie, and a satiny center. They look like tiny, brightly-colored hamburger buns, but don’t let the size fool you—these little gems are packed with flavor!

The history of this unique treat is subject to dispute, but a simple macaron cookie was probably first introduced in Italy about 1533 by a chef of Catherine de Medici. In the early 1900’s, the folks at Café Laduree created the Parisian-style macaron by doubling up on the cookies and adding the sweet filling in the center. Café Laduree remains a favorite spot to sample macarons along with more recent contender Pierre Hermé who is known for his imaginative flavors like the ‘Mogador,’ a mixture of milk chocolate and passion fruit.

- Anne Supsic

Unforgettable Characters from Around the World

by Anne Supsic

Published on Bootsnall.com on June 20, 2012

It’s great to return from a long trip, your mind reeling from new experiences, anxious to share everything you saw and did with family and friends. I have a map of the world on my office wall, and one of the first things I do is add a couple of pushpins to mark my latest “travel conquests.”

But travel is so much more than bragging rights and pushpins on a map. The greatest gifts of travel are the people that you meet; the unforgettable characters who leave an indelible mark on your soul. My life is richer because of chance encounters with people who shared their lives with me and helped me to see the world a little differently.

Here are the stories of six of my unforgettable characters:

The grass is always greener

My husband and I attended a Thai cooking school in Chiang Mai taught by a young Thai woman named “Nice.” We were fortunate to be part of a lively group of food lovers, all Europeans with representation from the U.K., the Netherlands, and Spain. Nice taught us the secrets of spicy red curry paste and introduced us to the wonderful tanginess of the Kaffir lime, but she also gave us some insight into the Thai mindset. Just before we began to eat our delicious creations, one of our fellow students asked Nice for the Thai equivalent of “bon appetite.” In a classic case of Western pleasure seeker meets Eastern realist, she thought for a moment and said, “We don’t have one. We just eat when we are hungry.”

Later, Nice told us that she had recently visited Europe for the first time. Of course, we all wanted to hear her impressions. Surprisingly, one of her most astounding experiences was a visit to the Englischer Garten in Munich, a place famous for the German office workers who regularly sunbathe in the nude at lunchtime. Nice was no prude, so it wasn’t the nudity that had shocked her. What left her totally flabbergasted was that, as she put it, “The people wanted to get brown!”

She could not believe that Westerners laid out in the sun to soak up the rays, much less used “browning devices” like tanning beds and tanning creams. Watching our puzzled white faces, Nice explained that in Thailand, women routinely used whitening creams and did everything they could to protect themselves from the sun in order to be as white as possible. Young girls even aspired to work in offices when they grew up so they wouldn’t have to spend their days out in the sun! I guess it must be part of the human condition to always want what you don’t have.

Americans in Avallon

Our arrival in Avallon, France was perfectly timed to visit the weekly market. We stocked up on the usual supply of olives, cheese, bread, and jambon (ham). As we strolled around town, an English-speaking Frenchman approached us and asked how we were enjoying our trip to France. Of course, we responded enthusiastically, and then he asked if we were Americans.

This was 2003 when relations between the U.S. and France had hit an all-time low, when some American restaurants changed their menus to offer “freedom fries” instead of French fries, and all French products were frequently boycotted. In fact, some of our friends had admonished us for choosing France as our vacation destination. And even though France had always been one of our favorite countries, we had to admit we felt uneasy, wondering how the French would receive us.

I gulped and confirmed his hunch that we were indeed Americans. He told us that his parents had always taught him to be grateful to the Americans for liberating France during WWII. And he went on to say that most of the people in Avallon felt the same way he did. It was obvious that this stranger had purposely sought us out to share his feelings. He clearly wanted us to know that despite the heated rhetoric of our governments, we were very welcome here in Avallon. All the fears that I harbored about being accepted in France vanished like the croissants on our hotel’s breakfast buffet table. Then the Frenchman smiled and placed his hand across his chest as he said, “My heart is always with America.”

Dinner with Giorgio

In 2006, we traveled to Areopoli, a small town in the Mani region of the Greek Peloponnese where we stayed in a 300-year old Mani tower house, a tall stone structure built for defense rather than comfort. The Mani people have a reputation as ferocious fighters, and like a Greek version of the Hatfields and the McCoys, family feuds were common here for centuries. The combative families would retreat to their tower houses and blast each other with whatever ammunition they could find. These feuds could last for decades: the longest one lasted 40 years, and in 1870, the very last feud required intervention by 400 members of the Greek military.

Unfortunately, the bloodshed continued through the Balkan Wars, two World Wars, and various civil uprisings. Just in case we momentarily forgot this history of violence, the first floor of our Mani tower house held a small military museum with a personal collection that included a proud display of two German lugers. Nevertheless, the people of the Mani were very friendly. One evening, our hostess told us that her father, Giorgio, wanted to go to dinner with us (in our car) to a good restaurant. Sure, why not? How could we turn down an 85 year-old freeloader? So off we went with Giorgio nestled in the backseat. Giorgio spoke very little English, but he was good at barking out directions like: “Left,” “Right,” and “Stop!”

The restaurant was actually quite good, and the owners treated us like family (who knows, maybe that was because Giorgio was family!). It was amazing to see all the food the old guy ordered: extra plates of spinach, French fries, tzatiki (yogurt, cucumber, and garlic), and toasted bread. He invited us to share all of his goodies, but the three of us hardly made a dent.

Dinner conversation was a bit sketchy because of the language problem, but Giorgio did let us know (via broken English and gestures) that he loved America and Americans. However, he also made it very clear that he thought George “Boooosh” was crazy for invading Iraq. (Perhaps Giorgio had seen enough violence for one lifetime.) With so little shared language, I could only reply as I often do when placed in this situation. I shrugged and sighed as I said, “Politics!” This response seemed to satisfy Giorgio, and he chuckled as he reached for his enormous doggie bag of leftovers. Apparently, he had accomplished his mission, and our meal was over. We made our farewells, loaded Giorgio into the backseat, and headed for home.

The story of Nak

We hired Nak, a 39-year-old Cambodian tour guide, to take us to the outlying temples of Angkor Wat. He looked younger than his years, and when I asked him a question about the Pol Pot era, I never expected to hear that he had actually lived through those times. Nak explained that when the Khmer Rouge came to power, he was a young boy attending school in the city of Siem Reap with 850 other pupils. By the end of the Khmer Rouge regime, Nak was the only student to survive.

As we bumped along pot-holed roads, passing half-naked village children who stared at us from the roadside, Nak proceeded to share unthinkable stories of hardship and horrors including this one. Nak and his parents were living in a countryside commune working in the rice fields. Conditions were terrible with little food or medical attention. One day, the Khmer Rouge rounded up everyone to issue a new proclamation. An old man took this opportunity to ask the soldiers if the children could have more food. The answer given was to “follow Khmer Rouge.” The old man replied that he did follow Khmer Rouge, but he was worried because so many children (about 1 in 7) were dying. A soldier responded, “I am your boss; you are not my boss.” The old man tried again, “I know you are my boss, but the children are our future. Can’t we help them?” The soldier answered, “I am going to make an example of you.”

The soldier bound the old man’s arms and legs and cut him lightly across the throat just enough to produce a rush of blood but not deep enough to kill him. Whenever the old man lost consciousness, the Khmer Rouge soldier poured salt water on the wound to wake him up. Then, the soldier would cut him again and repeat the process. When the old man finally remained unconscious in spite of the salt water, the soldiers buried the poor man even though he may still have been alive.

At the end of our day together, I thanked Nak for telling us the story of his life, and told him how much I appreciated his willingness to talk about a time that was obviously so painful for him. Nak smiled and said, “I was a lucky boy. I am one out of 850.”

Jorge’s shoes

Easter Island is one of the most isolated places on earth — 2,000 miles from the coast of Chile and over 1,000 miles from Pitcairn Island, its closest neighbor. It’s hard to imagine living so far removed from the rest of the world. After spending some relaxing days admiring the enigmatic stone statues, we were doing some last minute souvenir shopping on the main drag in Hanga Roa — Easter Island’s only town — when a tall, English-speaking islander with a friendly (if somewhat toothless) smile approached us. He asked the usual questions: where we were from and how we liked the island. Eventually, he introduced himself as Jorge and then asked if he could give us $60 to buy him a pair of his favorite shoes from Payless Shoe Stores in the US!

We were startled and more than a bit suspicious of his request. But Jorge explained that while Payless would charge a fortune to ship the shoes to him, we could mail them to him for much less. He had obviously done his homework explaining that the $60 would cover the cost of the shoes ($39.99) and the shipping. He was so trusting and so willing to give us his $60 that we figured why not help the guy out? Jorge gave us his address (which simply consisted of his name and ‘Easter Island, Chile’) plus all the specifics on his shoe size (11 wide), and his preferred shoe style (Hunter Bay). He was wearing a bedraggled pair of the very shoes he wanted to replace (and he wasn’t kidding when he said he needed new ones). We were taking our shoe-buying assignment seriously, so we took a picture of his shoe just to be sure we knew what to buy.

Back home, we found the shoes exactly as he had described, packaged them up, and shipped them off to Easter Island. A few weeks later, a very happy Jorge sent us an email telling us how thrilled he was with his new Payless shoes.

Our lady of the alley

We had just visited the Resistance and Deportation Museum in Besançon, France, and our minds were reeling from powerful images of Nazi atrocities as we walked back into the city. Up ahead, we noticed an older woman taking lots of pictures of a side alley. Not ones to miss a photo op, we hurried toward her, curious to see what was so picture-worthy. The woman spoke to us in a combination of French and broken English, allowing us to piece together her story: when she was a little girl, she had escaped the Nazis by running down this very alleyway. (Unfortunately, her father was not so lucky – he was captured and died in a concentration camp.)

The whole conversation was surreal, especially after having just spent several hours pondering the stories of resistance fighters, collaborators, and concentration camp victims in the twenty-room Resistance Museum. I honestly felt as if we had stepped through a time portal into the past. This woman, who had survived ordeals we could only imagine, passionately wished peace for tout la monde (for all the world). She kissed my hand and rubbed my husband’s cheek. Then she threw her hands up into the air and said, “The sky belongs to all of us.”

All photos are courtesy of Frank Supsic and may not be used without permission.

By Anne Supsic

Published on Viator Travel Blog on June 6, 2012

Highlights of Malta

June 6, 2012 by Anne Supsic

Malta may be just an ink spot of an island sitting in the middle of the Mediterranean between Sicily and North Africa, but this tiny nation has a big story to tell. Life on Malta stretches back 7,000 years, and Malta’s megalithic temples are the oldest surviving free-standing structures in the world (half a century older than the oldest Pyramid).

With its strategic, mid-Med location, the island of Malta became a target for every bully on the block—including the Romans, Normans, Spaniards, Turks, French, and British. In 1530, the island was given to the Knights of Malta (aka the Knights of St John) by King Charles V of Spain who asked only that the Knights give him one Maltese falcon each year in return. The Knights ruled Malta for 200 years transforming the island into a powerful bastion and turning back the Turks which led to the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

The fortress city of Valletta

In WWII, the Maltese people faced their greatest hardship enduring 154 days of continuous bombing by the Axis powers (almost triple London’s longest bombing raid during the Blitz). As a result of their bravery, the people of Malta were awarded Great Britain’s highest civilian honor: the George Cross.

Here are seven highlights of this special island, each one offering a different insight into the magic that is Malta:

1. Valletta

Valletta's unique architecture

Valletta is a city of stone surrounded by fortifications originally designed to repel invaders. For the best view, head for the Upper Barrakka Gardens overlooking the spectacular Grand Harbor lined with medieval ramparts.

Within the town, the narrow streets are crisscrossed with steep stairs, since the city was built on a ridge for defensive purposes. The towering buildings adorned with unique, brightly painted wooden balconies create a delightful hodgepodge of colors and angles.

Valletta is Malta’s capital and the caretaker of her long history. The Museum of Archaeology houses an exceptional collection of prehistoric artifacts and should be required viewing before visiting the many prehistoric sites on the island. The War Museum commemorates the events of WWII with mementos from the war and displays a replica of the George Cross medal. Valletta is also the country’s transportation hub with an extensive network of buses that will take you virtually anywhere on the island.

2. St John’s Co-Cathedral

Baroque splendors of St. John's Co-Cathedral

The Knights of Malta began as a community of monks, volunteer Christian crusaders from the wealthiest aristocratic families of Europe, who were charged with protecting pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem. The original Knights may have taken a vow of poverty, but their cathedral must have been exempt! The interior of St John’s Co-Cathedral is a stunner: a kaleidoscope of rich colors with an ornate Bernini-like altar. The marble floors are beautifully tiled often portraying pictures of skeletons—not surprising when you realize that the Knights are buried beneath your feet.

The cathedral also holds Malta’s most cherished painting: Caravaggio’s Beheading of St John—his largest work and the only one he ever signed. Caravaggio was actually ordained as a knight, but this bad boy of the art world could never stay out of trouble for long. He was soon cast out of the order when he got into a fight and wounded another knight. Two years later, Caravaggio died under mysterious circumstances; an intriguing new theory suggests that his death was a revenge killing orchestrated by the Knights.

3. The Hypogeum

"The Sleeping Lady"

This mysterious underground burial site, believed to hold 7,000 bodies, is Malta’s most unique site. Researchers believe that the Hypogeum, known locally as Hal Saflieni, was originally designed as a sanctuary but became a cemetery during the prehistoric era.

To protect the site, only 60 people are permitted to descend into the elaborate subterranean chambers each day. The builders of the Hypogeum replicated their aboveground temples by carving pillars and portals out of the solid rock beneath the surface. The most special room of all is the “Holy of Holies,” so beautifully carved that you would swear you were looking at a Greek masterwork (even though the Hypogeum was built several thousand years earlier).

Artifacts discovered here include the famous “fat ladies” who may have been fertility goddesses. The sinuous “Sleeping Lady,” on display at Valletta’s Archaeology Museum, looks more like a Picasso sculpture than a prehistoric relic.

A visit to the Hypogeum leaves you with more questions than answers. What tools did these people use? Since no traces of soot were found, how did they carve the underground rooms in almost total darkness? And most importantly, who were these ancient people and why did they abruptly stop building temples and disappear?

4. Marsaxlokk

Colorful fishing boats of Marsaxlokk

The small village of Marsaxlokk sits on Malta’s second largest harbor and is home to about 70% of the fishermen on Malta. The sheltered harbor provided an attractive landing spot for everyone from pirates to the Turks and has had many famous visitors. Napoleon made his first appearance on Malta here, and George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev chose Marsaxlokk Bay for their 1989 Summit.

The colorful harbor is a showcase for the distinctive Maltese boats, called luzzus, with their painted stripes of red, blue, and yellow. The local fishermen are a superstitious lot—look for the “Eye of Osiris” on the bow of each boat, talismans for warding off evil spirits.

Marsaxlokk offers a fine selection of harbor side restaurants serving the fresh catch of the day. A souvenir market sets up daily, but the shopping is even better on Sundays when Malta’s largest fish market lines the wharf.

5. Hagar Qim and Mnajdra

Dimpled portals at Hagar Qim

Located in the south of Malta with a lovely view of the sea, the 5,000-year-old temples of Hagar Qim and Mnajdra are among the most ancient religious structures on earth. The Hagar Qim entranceway is flanked by 20-ton standing stones and no one knows how the ancient people managed to move such massive rocks.

Inside, you can wander through interconnecting chambers, and marvel at the skilled craftsmanship of the unusual portal doorways. Be sure to look for the artistic carvings, especially the marvelous swirling spiral designs and the manmade pitted decorations that create dimples in the stone.
The impressive Mnajdra temple complex is a short walk away. These temples are aligned with the sun, and during the equinox, sunlight shines directly through the main doorway.

6. Mdina

Ancient streets of Mdina

Mdina, the former capital of Malta, is an ancient walled city with an imposing location perched on a plateau. Like the rest of Malta, the city was conquered numerous times. During an uprising against the French, the people of Mdina threw the French governor off a balcony, proving that you don’t want to mess with a Mdinan!

Today, this is a lovely town of narrow, winding streets lined with graceful buildings where the nobility once lived. Mdina is often called “the silent city,” but unfortunately, it can also be filled with noisy tourists. Evenings are the most evocative time to visit—after the day trippers leave, the darkened old streets seem just as they were 1,000 years ago.

7. Gozo

Laidback, rural Gozo

Gozo is a tiny Maltese island (8.5 miles long and 4.5 miles wide) only a 25-minute ferry ride from the northwestern tip of Malta. This laidback island with just one traffic light feels like a small town, and everybody seems to know each other. Despite its small size, Gozo offers lots of diversions like a medieval citadel, a Miracle Church, and even some Gozo wine. For an intriguing glimpse of Gozo’s past, stop by the Folklore Museum in Gharb to see private collector Sylvio Felice’s 28-room labyrinth of Gozo treasures.

Gozo also has a number of secluded beaches and offers a variety of water sports including snorkeling and scuba diving. But the best reasons to come here are for the beautiful scenery and the feel-good ambiance.

- Anne Supsic

Photos are courtesy of Frank Supsic and may not be used without permission.