Can anyone recommend a place to buy French or Italian honey in Paris? Thanks.

I think I noticed a store on the main street in Ile St. Louis that sold French honeys and preserves.

Try the food store at Galeries Lafayette. I think Fauchon has a selection also.

In Paris, try Le Maison du Miel at 24 rue Vignon in the 9th arr. The metro stop is Madeleine. I saw them in a travel guidebook described as a boutique that specializes in honey & honey products. I'm not sure what the 'nationality' is of their honey, though. Hope this helps.

Hi Terri, <BR> <BR>I bought some very good (and not so expensive) honey on Rue Cler in the 7th. The name of the store was Le Lutin Gourmand and also carried a variety of preserves and chocolates. I also bought some of the preserves as gifts and have received many compliments. Hope this helps.

We had an interesting experience returning from France last year. We bought some honey at a French market and were bringing it through US customs upon our return to the States. <BR> <BR>The customs official said if we had not "declared" that we were in possession of the honey, we could have been fined by customs. (I put declared in quotes because I don't remember how this was indicated -- if there was a special form for foodstuffs). She then ran the honey and the travel bag it was in through a big machine. <BR> <BR>So I don't know if we got a grouchy customs official or if this is par for the course, maybe more experienced travelers can shed some light. I just wanted to warn you to cross your i's and dot your t's when you return through customs. <BR>

Re the customs form: you MUST list food items, and be pretty specific, keeping in mind the regulations on bringing in foodstuffs. Examples: JAR of olives (granted, no one eats raw olives, but those would be verboten); DRIED lavender (a lavender plant would be ixnayed). <BR>If you remember the Med fly invasion, or what happened to our chestnut trees, you'll understand the intent of the regulations a lot better.

Thanks for the helpful suggestions and the warning. I've brought honey home before without a problem, and hope this time will be no different . . .

I confess. I'm a food smuggler. Especially cheese! When we are about to lose the option of buying it, I bring back all I can! <BR>Honey? I found some in the Opera Garnier! They had a 'bee' problem in the rafters, and couldn't get them to leave, so they made a business out of it!

To [email protected]: <BR> <BR>Please pardon the deviation from the main subject, but a few months ago you posted about the Budapest Kempinski hotel. My wife and I have a reservation for the same hotel for mid February, and I would appreciate your elaborating about it. <BR>What I am interested in are impressions about the general degree of comfort, <BR>pleasantness, swimming pool, even the type of breakfast etc, and everything else you feel that is worth mentioning. <BR>Thank you very much!

Hi Eli, <BR> <BR>The Kempinski Corvinus was quite nice and very well-located. It was very comfortable -- actually extremely comfortable -- but much more westernized than many of the hotels in Budapest. We checked out the Gellert baths and it was a completely different experience. Also saw the Hilton, but I preferred the side we stayed on for walking around. We had a park view from our room; I don't know what the other views are like. <BR> <BR>The breakfast at the Kempinski was buffet-style, in a lovely dining room, and it was excellent. There were a variety of hot and cold choices, some American, some European. <BR> <BR>We did an opera package through the hotel, which we enjoyed, but I would recommend purchasing the tickets yourself if you want to do this -- it's much cheaper and easier. The package included dinner at the hotel restaurant (very nice), but the timing was really strange -- the opera (Turandot) started around 8, and the restaurant didn't open early enough for us to eat before the show, so they expected us to eat an extremely heavy Hungarian dinner (3 kinds of goose liver!) at 10:30 or 11pm. I asked the concierge if we could instead just have another breakfast at the hotel and he refused, even though this would have cost the hotel much less. When we checked out I mentioned this to the manager, who was very gracious, and insisted we have breakfast before we leave. <BR> <BR>By the way, prices at the hotel are very high compared to real prices in Budapest. We had great lunches on our own for something like fifty cents, whereas hotel meals and room charges were equivalent to what we pay everyday in the SF Bay Area. <BR> <BR>The indoor pool was great, very modern and clean, with nice amenities. <BR> <BR>Before I forget -- even though it's beautiful, don't walk on or around the Chain Bridge after dark. We were immediately approached by a young woman who asked us to take her picture. As we did, two thuggy-guys pretending to be police came up to us and demanded our passports and American money. They pantomimed doing this first with the young woman with the camera (she was with them), then they demanded that we turn our pockets inside out. We never carry our passports around with us and we didn't have anything but Hungarian Forints, so nothing happened, but there was a definite threat to our well-being. Of course when we returned to the hotel, we read a safety pamphlet on Budapest, and one of the first things it said was, "Do not walk on the Chain Bridge at night. Men will approach you pretending to be police. They will ask for your passport and American money." Other than this, our stay was uneventful crime-wise. <BR> <BR>Have a great time in Budapest. If you want any more information, you can email me directly at [email protected] <BR> <BR>Terri <BR>