on the sunday of our paris trip, we were in the marais. having grabbed fabulously rich and flakey pains au chocolat from ble sucre, we headed to marche beauvau. the covered market was full of exciting stalls and at michel brunon we stocked up on rosette (a salami-type sausage) and both plain and smoked ham d’auvergne. i also spent much of my time looking longingly at the vegetables, fish and fowl that were on display, wishing we were staying longer so i could indulge in some cooking - although i wasn’t too keen on trying the frogs legs that were on offer!

to console myself we headed to chocolaterie galler, a lovely shop that has an abundance of pralines including a delicious curry-flavoured one. we also picked up some of their langue de chats (woody allen is said to eat one of these every day!) to share with friends and colleagues when we got home.

les philosophes was our lunch destination and, on rosa’s advice, i ordered the tomato tarte tartin which was delicious with an abundance of slow-cooked, intensely flavoured tomatoes.

we finished our sunday with a walk around ile st-louis, the island where paris was originally founded, and stopped off at the eccentric witch-themed la charlotte en l’ile. i had a pot of impossibly rich thick hot chocolate and david washed down his pistachio tart with some jasmine tea. a quick stop at la ferme saint-aubin, a little fromagerie, provided us with some tiny herb and ash coated goats cheeses. we headed home that evening with baguette, wine, ham and cheese in hand, ready for an evening of low-key indulgence.

these are just some of the highlights of the trip and only a fraction of the number of places that rosa flagged up in her itinerary, which is particularly lovely as i already have an incentive to plan a return trip.

marché beauvau - place d’aligre, open 8am-1pm

chocolaterie galler - 13 rue d’aligre, open 9am-2pm

blé sucré - square trousseau, 7 rue antoie vollon, open 7am-1.30pm

les philosophes – 28 rue vieille-du-temple

la charlotte en l’ile - 24 rue saint-louis-en-l'ile, open noon-8pm/closed mon-wed