Written by Until last week, my most recent trip from Paris to Berlin on a direct daytime train was way back in early 2015 with RZD Russian Railways. The train had a Polish restaurant car with a quirky menu featuring caviar, kangaroo steak and South African wines. The journey between the two capital cities was scheduled to […]
Artisan chocolatier There are multiple locations of much-loved chocolatier À la Mère de Famille around the city, but head to the 9th arrondissement for the original shop with its historic facade, tile floor and wooden cashier booth. Founded in 1761 and family-owned to this day, À la Mère de Famille is the oldest chocolaterie in […]
A chocolatier to cherish Of all the chocolatiers’ windows in Paris, Au Chat Bleu at 85 Boulevard Haussmann never fails to lure me in. It reminds me of an old-fashioned sweet shop I thought only existed in England – but it’s also very, very French. It brims with seasonal specialities and delicacies you never knew […]
Street lights strobed through the window, sending shadows sweeping across our faces as our train followed the River Seine through Choisy-le-Roi. Ten minutes earlier, we had pulled out of Paris’s Gare d’Austerlitz. Departing at 9.40pm, the Intercité de Nuit was due on the Spanish border just after 10am, where we would connect to a Barcelona train. It’s […]