Le Bon Marche

Mon Dieu! Its part department store, part food store, and probably the most amazing place on earth: Le Bon Marche. The new Whole Foods back in US definitely was inspired by the French. The department store part, like all department stores in Paris (Printemps and Galaries Lafayette) make Neiman Marcus look like K-Mart. They have everything to decorate yourself, your home, and your lover--Parisian style which is, of course, dripping with elegance. But honestly, La Grande Epicerie is the reason to go to Le Bon Marche. The food store, connected to the department store, has everything...from everywhere. The outer circle of the layout is cases of prepared food-- prepared by Master Chefs, naturally. They are so beautiful that they could pass as display cases.

Next, there is a gateway of specialty aisles surrounding the store. Everything is organized under headings such as; olive oil, pasta, crackers, sauce, etc. Additionally, they have aisles for each country, carrying authentic products from each region. The American aisle was well represented with peanut butter, peanut butter cups, marshmallows, popcorn, croutons and salad dressing. I didn't know that salad dressing was an American thing, but they had my favorite poppyseed dressing! The America aisle is in between Canada (maple syrup, pancakes) and Tex-Mex (they don't have Mexican food here, so they consider Tex-Mex its own region).

The wine cave is enormous! It was practically 4 rooms of wine; white, red, aperitif, and champagne. Then, at the center of the store is the butcher, bakery, and candle stick maker--actually the produce man.

Oh, yes—there is a chocolate aisle. It quite beautiful and luscious, but I was a little disappointing to see Crunch bars again. I've become quite a chocolate boutique snob, so I passed on the chocolates here.

*Figured out the salad dressing connection: Parisians make their own salad dressing. Fresh ingredients, a dash of mustard, olive oil, and some vinegar so they have no need to buy bottled dressing. Oh France.