Too much food, too much walking, and too much wine. That's what's going on here. But it's Paris, what else would you expect!

We arrived on Thursday morning after about 16 hours of travel that seemed to not take as long as you'd expect. I slept a good portion of the way here so that when we arrived I was able to minimize the effects of jet-lag. I was still tired, but not too badly.

Paris is amazing. There is so much great food here, of all different levels, I have suspended my dietary control and am eating everything in sight. It's definitely annoying everyone, because I'm already on second breakfast before anyone else has had first! I'm keeping a detailed log of my eating, though, which maybe I'll post later.

The high point of the trip so far (other than seeing Angie and Eric for the fisrt time in six months!) has been the private tours with French professionals. I would highly recommend this to anyone spending more than two days in Paris. The two people we met were definitely at the top of their game culinarily; in fact one of them had just won a major award for his baguette. The program is called Meeting the French, which offers small tours, of about an hour, to meet with French professionals and learn all about what they do. I signed up for a chocolate-maker and a bread-maker.

The chocolate maker's name was Jean-Charles Rochoux. His specialty is molded chocolates, which initially didn't sound that interesting, but he was the only chocolatier available. When we met with him, though, I'm very glad I did. This chef is incredibly passionate about what he does and it's very clear in the work he turns out. His little shop would have been right at home in Manhattan along side another high-end place like Tiffany's. The shop was very small and extremely elegant, the kind of place that just screams "pricey", but after hacing tasted his work, it's worth every penny.

Chef Rochoux recently landed a contract with Maker's Mark to make their exclusive truffle, and he came up with the brillant idea to make a version of their seal in chocolate right on the candy. So you've got this little rectanlge of dark chocolate with this bright red "seal". It's incredibly attractive and it tastes like you wouldn't believe. The rest of his products are of similar caliber: perfectly flavored and seasoned, no matter what the additional flavors. One chocolate bar was seasoned with spices (cinnamon, ginger, cloves) and I could taste each individual spice as it progressed across my palate.

Later in the tour, after seeing his operation, I asked about the cream he uses in the truffles. He had some available and he let me try some. This stuff was pure fat: Creamy, silky, slow-pastuerized; it's clear to me that the smoothness of his truffles comes from the chocolate he uses as well as this high-end European cream. I wish this cream were something I could afford at Starry Nights!

The next tour was at a boulanger-patissier named Arnaud Delmontel. Chef Delmontel recently won a major award for his baguette, best in Paris (and recently met with the new Prime Minister about his bread), I think it was. He was just as lively and personable as Chef Rochoux. At this visit, I had even more questions and was thrilled to get to see his operation. Just like Parisian Star, only smaller. He had one of his sous chefs making a croquembouche while we were there. He was almost done with it, and was adding the final details: A hand-made sugar rose which was quite impressive and detailed.

Chef Delmontel had spent time in the States, too, working at Whole Foods in Minnesota a number of years ago. He'd wanted to stay in the US, but couldn't because of work permits. So he came back to Paris and started this bakery. His desserts are all made in-house, as well as all of his breads, and it's clear that he loves what he does. I would have loved to work for him for a day or so!

Tomorrow we leave for Barcelona. We've seen just about all the sites here (from the outside in most cases) and we're getting Euro-fatigue. OUr first meal was very expensive, and we keep getting cheaper each meal. Tonights dinner was about 1/3 as expensive as our firt dinner!

My favorite part of Paris this time around is just how available great food and ingredients are. Seems like just about no matter where you are, walk two blocks and then you'll see a great brasserie or boulangerie. I love this city!