Favorite buys at food markets to bring home from Paris
 

We are leaving for Paris in a few weeks and looking for suggestions as to what to bring home from the food markets such as coffee, candy, spices, etc. that you cannot easily buy here in the USA. What are your favorites? Where are your favorite places to shop for these items? Thanks!

Herbes de Provence
Fleur de Sel

Stu Dudley

Cheese. They can package it for you so it does not need refrigeration.

My understanding is that you can only import cheeses made from pasturized milk - not from unpasturized. Do check before you buy. Those sniffer beagles at the airport will track down any food you are carrying.

WE don;t usually bring any food back from France - but then I don;t cook.

We do bring back chocolate - from Stzz - and even more from Belgium - which IMHO is incredible.

Mustard and essential oils, especially lavender from Provence.

Both Fleur de Sel and Herbes de Provence are widely available now in the USA. Even Costco sells large containers of Herbes de Provence at very reasonable prices. Fines herbes, Quatre épices, or Le cinq parfums might be more exclusive choices and much more difficult to otherwise obtain.

The only restriction on bringing cheese into the US is that you may not carry more than 6 lbs. I recently asked this very question at customs. There is a difference between what you can carry for personal consumption and that which you plan on selling.

The dogs at customs are not looking for cheese, they are there to find illegal drugs.

Some items I have found available only in France and have carried home:

Baking molds for making madeleines, macarons, or cannelées.
Galette pans - 35cm in diameter. (Crêpes pans at 25cm are much easier to find in the USA)
Râteau a crêpe - small wooden rake for spreading batter around the crêpe pan.
Metric measuring cups - easier to use than those Pyrex combo types.
Packaged soups - easy to carry and simple to fix and serve.
Packages of instant aligot - admittedly not as good as freshly made but not many restaurants serve aligot in the US.

I do not like carrying bottles of anything in my luggage but I might occasionally slip in a bottle of Pulco - the original lemon concentrate drink to which water is added: no artificial coloring, no preservatives, no sugars, just pure juice (not many drinks like that available anywhere in the USA).

I always like to bring back some of the special boullion cubes,, not just the plain beef or chicken ones like we have at home,, but the ones with chicken, parsely and garlic, or the seafood ones etc. They take up no room and last forever ( I keep them in the fridge but you don't have to)
i also pick up some sauce mixes, ,some sea salt and some mustards.

Not from a food market, but very highly recommended - chocolate from <<A la Petite Fabrique>> located at 12, rue Saint-Sabin in the 11th, not far from Place de la Bastille. Closed Sunday and Monday, other days 1030-1930. On entering you feel as though you have traveled back in time.

Amazing suggestions, everyone! Please keep them coming!

Hate to differ with you but the dogs are NOT just looking for drugs.They are there to insure that hoof and mouth,various insects,etc. don't make their way back into the USA.
There are very large confiscations of meat,cheese,veggies,fruit,flowers,etc. at the airport courtesy of the agriculture agents.
As a crew member with a major US airline that flies to various continents,the above things are constantly being taken from passengers and crew members by the "ag" people.
Customs and agriculture are concerned that your cheese is HARD so any soft cheese can be grabbed by them.
Generally you will be fine but if you are ever taken aside by agriculture be sure to tell them ANYTHING that you have brought in that might not be on your declaration sheet.If you don't and it goes through the agriculture screener and they find something you will be heavenly fined.$500 for an apple is an example.

On a personal note, Monoprix especially over by the Charles Michael metro station is fabulous with all sorts of interesting food and a huge grocery store which yields great wines,herbs,mustards,etc.
All Monoprix stores carry the neatest foldable nylon shopping bags that are about 1 euro each. They come in different prints and colors depending on the season and are fabulous!The same ones sell for around $$10 US here at home!

I love BHV department store over by Les Halles. It is a real local department store with about 8/9 floors and you can get some fabulous cooking things upstairs and their hardware section in the basement has lots of goodies!Have fun-

French wines and French mustards that you can't get in the U.S.

<i>Customs and agriculture are concerned that your cheese is HARD so any soft cheese can be grabbed by them.</i>

US Customs is not going to take anyone's soft cheese destined for personal consumption (unless its cottage or ricotta cheese):

https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/det...NmYzc1bA%3D%3D

The smoked salmon from Prunier is excellent. I know, not from the market but this salmon is amazing. If I could, I would fly to Paris or London just to eat this incredible salmon.

>>Both Fleur de Sel and Herbes de Provence are widely available now in the USA<<

At what price in the US??? - especially Fleur de Sel???

Both are lightweight & don't take up much room in the luggage.

Stu Dudley

Carrefour is also a good place to shop. I've been to Carrefours in Turkey and Singapore also.

If you live in California, foie gras. It's now illegal here, but I'm pretty sure customs doesn't care about local 'laws'.

Yes Fleur de Sel. US Prices run to 7.00 a ounce I buy laarge bage of 8 and 16 ounces for 4 Euro for the salt man at Richard Lenoir marketAnd Quarte Epice and Persillade at super marlKet>also tinned squid for salads

"The dogs at customs are not looking for cheese, they are there to find illegal drugs."

This is totally wrong. They are looking for _certain_ food products. The beagles are adorable, accurate, and persistent. At Logan Airport, Boston, they are famous for finding little old Mediterranean ladies bringing treats to their families. I have seen with my own eyes, Department of Agriculture and Customs personnel searching their bags and confiscating items from them. I have had an apple confiscated from me!

Once that dig smells products such as cheese and it stops and sits by your luggage you are marched back to customs. Happened to me. My cheese was not confiscated but I missed my bus .

The fleur de sel I purchase comes in a pretty blue box with scenes of the Camargue and has a cork top. Le Saunier de Camargue. Makes nice gifts.

Dogs are not just looking for drugs, I've seen someone busted at Dulles due to some agricultural product he was trying to smuggle in. It was some kind of dried plant of some kind (not a drug, either) but was a food product or spice, I can't remember the details but I was right next to him so saw it. He knew perfectly well what he was doing, it was in customs and he thought he'd get away with it, but didn't. He hadn't declared it, of course, it wasn't just that he didn't know you couldn't bring it in.