Dear friends coming to the SIAL,
Remember two years ago, you stayed in a so-so hotel, had a bad croissant, a terrible coffee. Did the bartender even say “hello ?”. After 9 hours walking around in the hallway of the SIAL, you came back to your hotel and did not know where to grab a decent dinner. Was it the French experience you really expected? Why not do better this year?
Before giving you a few tips, please know that you’ll find 2 stands of Michel et Augustin at the SIAL : dairy products at 5B N 057 and grocery (sweet biscuits and savoury biscuits) at 5A C 136
All details on our products are available on www.MicheletAugustin.com
For a good start, taste one of the best croissants and baguettes in town : Go to Arnaud Delmontel 39 rue des Martyrs 75009 Paris (closed on Tuesdays), to Le Grenier à Pain 38, rue des Abbesses (closed on Wednesday) or chez Dominique Saibron 77 avenue du Général Leclerc 75014 Paris (closed on Monday). Chains like Eric Kayser’s are also good providers of tasty croissants. For other addresses, please refer to le Guide des Boulangeries published at Editions de l’If by Michel de Rovira et Augustin Paluel-Marmont aka Michel et Augustin ).
After such a great breakfast, you may find taking the RER to Villepintes for the SIAL less of a hassle.
If you manage one afternoon to get away from the tradeshow, you may want to grab a lunch at one of these eateries : Cojean www.cojean.fr/, Jour www.jour.fr (fine salads ready made for you), Bert’s (a French equivalent to Prêt à Manger) www.berts.fr or more recent chains such as Mezzo di Pasta www.mezzodipasta.fr You may also want to check out Paul or McDonald’s (French McDonald’s are so different from other countries not mentioning their logo in France is green : salad menus, McCafes, automatic tellers for orders, …)
Do you really want to head back to the SIAL for the end of the day? Why not go crazy and taste the best macarons in town ? Ladurée 16 rue Royale 75008 Paris, Laurent Duchene 2 rue Wurtz 75013 Paris or for chocolate addicts, the macarons by Jean-Paul Hévin 231 rue Saint Honoré 75001 Paris. Pierre Hermé and Gérard Mulot are definitely worth a stop as well.
After this long hard day (“and you’ve been working like a dog”) you need to find yourself a great dinner. Chateaubriant 129 Avenue Parmentier 75011 Paris - 01 43 57 45 95, l’Ami Jean (27 rue Malar 75007 Paris - 01 47 05 86 89 are among classics and you will need to make reservations. If you’re more into new things, you’ll want to check out Le Mama Shelter 109 rue de Bagnolet 75020 Paris 01 43 48 48 48.
Other great restaurants at www.lefooding.com
To make your boss happy and before you fly back home, you’ll need to visit :
- the classics of French food retailing : La Grande Epicerie – 38 rue de Sèvres 75007 Paris, les Galeries Lafayette/Lafayette Gourmet – 40 boulevard Haussmann 75009 Paris, les Galeries Gourmandes Porte Maillot in the Palais des Congrès
- the new small urban food retailers : Monop’ (6 bvd Sébastopol 75004 Paris and 40 other addresses), Carrefour city (144 rue Malakoff 75016 Paris and 20 other addresses in Paris), Chez Jean (7 rue de La Fayette 75009 Paris)
- Picard, apparently elected favorite chain by French people : a high-end frozen food specialist (18 avenue Trudaine 75009 Paris and so many more in Paris www.picard.fr)
- The amazing, charming bakery of Philippe Conticini: la pâtisserie des rêves, where tarts and cakes look (and taste) like nowhere else – 93 rue du Bac 75007 Paris or 111 rue de Longchamp 75016 Paris www.lapatisseriedesreves.com)
- Other food stores such as : Ethnic Angel a new supermarket importing products from over 80 countries in the world which opened in August 2010 – 16 rue du Faubourg Montmartre 75009 Paris, www.ethnic-angel.com , Lavinia one of the largest wine shop in France – 3 boulevard de la Madeleine 75001 Paris, l’Epicerie fine rive gauche, with the famous food connoisseur Pascal – 8 rue du Champ de Mars 75007 Paris, Bo et Bon – 82 rue Legendre 75017 Paris…
More time available ? you can probably do some non-food shopping and bring back a nice present to your family and friends. Buy the latest new gadget, new hype phenomenon at Colette – 213 rue Saint Honoré 75001 Paris. Buy clothes, flowers or home decoration at “Merci” a new shop created by the former Bonpoint owners, such a beautiful store : 111 boulevard Beaumarchais 75003 Paris. www.merci-merci.com
Lucky enough, with all these tips, you finished your job early and you still have time to go check out the French movie that hit an amazing and unexpected success: Des hommes et des Dieux with 2 million entries in the first 4 weeks and still ahead of Wall Street : Money Never Sleeps. Movie theaters and times for this film available at www.allocine.fr
Michel et Augustin
